PARENT SESSION
Tuesday, August 8, 1:30-5:00 pm
Symposium 7 - Upstart perspectives on restoration icons
Ballroom B, Ballroom Level, Cook Convention Center
Organized by: DJ Larkin (djlarkin@wisc.edu), JB Zedler, JB Zedler, and D Falk
Ten ecologists will evaluate theories used in restoration and lead the discipline in new directions with upstart perspectives that challenge and update iconic views.
From warm fuzzy theory to cold hard reality: what can theoreticians do for restoration practitioners.
Lockwood, Julie1, Hoopes, Martha*,2, 1 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ2 Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
ABSTRACT- There have been several calls for ecological theory and restoration practice to become better acquainted. Most often these calls have been directed toward the practitioner and not the theoretician. Some restoration ecologists have made considerable strides in melding the hard cold realities of restoration practice to the warm fuzzy theories of basic ecology. There is still much to do, however, in part because theory has not always progressed down a pathway that readily lends itself to the realities of restorations. I detail three gaps in theory that, if filled, should provide some much needed guidance to restoration practitioners. These are; (1) explicitly incorporating uncertainty into defining the range of outcomes within succession or assembly models, (2) developing methods for measuring community change through time including identifying outliers among co-assembling community complexes and (3) more focus on community dis-assembly and how this relates to the number of alternative stable states that are attainable.
Key words: Restoration ecology, Assembly theory, Community Dynamics