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Immediately Relevant Questions
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| (1) What features of ecosystem boundaries promote or prevent transfers between adjacent systems? |
| (2) Is restoration promoted by relatively "open" or "closed" boundaries? |
| (3) Is there a critical (i.e., minimum) area for particular types of ecosystem below which self-sustaining units
cannot be described? |
| (4) How are descriptors of ecosystem function such as NPP and nutrient cycling rates related to the openness of
boundaries (for example, does productivity within a given ecosystem increase as the rate of exchange with adjoining
ecosystems increase?)? |
| (5) How does the scale of the restoration affect the importance of disturbance operating a both smaller and greater
scales? |
| (6) How can the concept of "functional
groups" be used in restoration? For example, can restoration
be enhanced by identifying important functional groups in
a target system, and then ensuring the presence of representatives
of each system? |
| (7) Are there ecosystem-level indicators of the likelihood that a system will be susceptible to invasive species?
Which of the ecosystem descriptors, or what set of descriptors, can best be used to estimate invasibility? |
| (8) How do the input, quality, and dynamics of detrius change over successional time, and how do they react to
restoration efforts? |
| (9) How do above-ground successional changes
affect below-ground food webs and process rates, and vice-versa?
More broadly, can below-ground food webs be manipulated by
changing above-ground vegetation? |
|
General Ecosystem Questions Relevant to Restoration
|
| (1) Do changes in the fluxes of energy and materials across boundaries over time drive temporal changes in other
ecosystem descriptors? |
| (2) How do internal dynamics- material cycling, production, respiration- change with successional time? |
| (3) How do individual species affect ecosystem properties? Conversely, how sensitive are different ecosystem
properties to changes in species diversity? |
| (4) Are there general principles that can be developed to recognize "keystone" species? |
| (5) How do differences in net primary productivity affect food web architecture and species diversity? |
| (6) What is the range of ecosystem values over which individual ecosystem descriptors vary for particular ecosystems?
Are some ecosystem descriptors intrinsically more or less variable? Are some types of ecosystems intrinsically
more or less variable than are other types for many descriptors? |
