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Improving sampling designs for measuring restoration in aquatic habitats

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Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Stress and Recovery

Abstract

Restoration of degraded habitat is an increasingly important toll for management. Unfortunately, much of the emphasis has been on restoring large structural elements of habitat (e.g. planting vegetation,removing weeds), with little consideration about how well these activities restore ecologically functioning habitat. There has been considerable research in recent years into improving sampling designs and analytical techniques to measure the effects of environmental impacts taking into account the large spatial and temporal variability that occurs naturally in undisturbed habitats. In a similar manner to detection of impacts, restoration needs to be measured as an interaction between spatial and temporal components of variation against a variable background. Very few studies of restoration have explicitly addressed how best to do this. Neither have they attempted to assess the usefulness of some of these new techniques for measuring restoration. This review discusses some of the problems that need to be considered when measuring restoration and the potential value of some of these new methodologies.

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  1. Centre for Research on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities, Marine Ecological Laboratories A11, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

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Chapman, M. Improving sampling designs for measuring restoration in aquatic habitats. Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Stress and Recovery 6, 235–251 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009987403481

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