Ecological theory and restoration

Ecological theory provides powerful tools to improve our ability to restore wetlands. Disturbance, its size, intensity, and duration, is important to predict how quickly the system is restored once the (anthropogenic) stressors are removed. Life history traits such as generation time, propagule production, and modes of dispersal are needed to understand which species will colonize a site and which will need assistance. Succession, how plant and animal communities change over time, offers concepts such as facilitation, mutualistic interactions, beneficial mycorrhizae, and bioaugmentation with microbes that can accelerate restoration. Concepts describing the individualistic nature of succession include assembly rules and the environmental sieve whereby physical constraints, flooding, salinity, and other factors can predict which species will colonize and then persist. Life history traits and succession theory are also formidable tools to identify potential invaders as well as a community's susceptibility to invasion. An understanding of ecosystem development, energy flow and nutrient cycling, especially N, is needed to set realistic expectations for rates at which wetland-dependent functions are restored.