Assessing the Potential to Restore Historic Grazing Ecosystems with Tortoise Ecological Replacements

Griffiths, Christine; Zuël, Nicolas; Jones, Carl G.; Ahamud, Zairabee

doi:10.1111/cobi.12087

Cited by 40 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…These constitute functional megaherbivore reintroductions, as tortoises were the largest native vertebrates on many islands (69). Several studies have documented their successful establishment (70) and found them to improve dispersal and recruitment in endemic trees (71) and suppress invasive plants (72).…”

Section: Current Scientific Basis For Trophic Rewildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Science for a wilder Anthropocene: Synthesis and future directions for trophic rewilding research

Svenning

Pedersen

Donlan

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

472

506

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Trophic rewilding is an ecological restoration strategy that uses species introductions to restore top-down trophic interactions and associated trophic cascades to promote self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems. Given the importance of large animals in trophic cascades and their widespread losses and resulting trophic downgrading, it often focuses on restoring functional megafaunas. Trophic rewilding is increasingly being implemented for conservation, but remains controversial. Here, we provide a synthesis of its current scientific basis, highlighting trophic cascades as the key conceptual framework, discussing the main lessons learned from ongoing rewilding projects, systematically reviewing the current literature, and highlighting unintentional rewilding and spontaneous wildlife comebacks as underused sources of information. Together, these lines of evidence show that trophic cascades may be restored via species reintroductions and ecological replacements. It is clear, however, that megafauna effects may be affected by poorly understood trophic complexity effects and interactions with landscape settings, human activities, and other factors. Unfortunately, empirical research on trophic rewilding is still rare, fragmented, and geographically biased, with the literature dominated by essays and opinion pieces. We highlight the need for applied programs to include hypothesis testing and science-based monitoring, and outline priorities for future research, notably assessing the role of trophic complexity, interplay with landscape settings, land use, and climate change, as well as developing the global scope for rewilding and tools to optimize benefits and reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Finally, we recommend developing a decision framework for species selection, building on functional and phylogenetic information and with attention to the potential contribution from synthetic biology.conservation | megafauna | reintroduction | restoration | trophic cascades

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Section: Current Scientific Basis For Trophic Rewildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…25,[70][71][72], and giant tortoise (Chelonoidis spp.) translocations within the Galapagos Islands (e.g., ref.…”

Section: Current Scientific Basis For Trophic Rewildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science for a wilder Anthropocene: Synthesis and future directions for trophic rewilding research

Svenning

Pedersen

Donlan

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

472

506

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent debates discuss the extent to which species might be substitutable, and hence functions performed by recently extinct species could be reinstated by the translocations of closely related extant species (e.g., Griffiths et al 2013, Hunter et al 2013). An extreme form of this approach is what has been dubbed ''rewilding'' (e.g., Donlan et al 2005), in which functional equivalents of long-extinct but presumably keystone species are introduced to ecosystems.…”

Section: Moving From Compositional To Functional Goals In a Changing mentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Simultaneous environmental changes challenge biodiversity persistence and human wellbeing. The science and practice of restoration ecology, in collaboration with other disciplines, can contribute to overcoming these challenges. This endeavor requires a solid conceptual foundation based in empirical research which confronts, tests and influences theoretical developments. We review conceptual developments in restoration ecology over the last 30 years. We frame our review in the context of changing restoration goals which reflect increased societal awareness of the scale of environmental degradation and the recognition that inter-disciplinary approaches are needed to tackle environmental problems. Restoration ecology now encompasses facilitative interactions and network dynamics, trophic cascades, and above-and belowground linkages. It operates in a non-equilibrium, alternative states framework, at the landscape scale, and in response to changing environmental, economic and social conditions. Progress has been marked by conceptual advances in the fields of trait-environment relationships, community assembly, and understanding the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Conceptual and practical advances have been enhanced by applying evolving technologies, including treatments to increase seed germination and overcome recruitment bottlenecks, high throughput DNA sequencing to elucidate soil community structure and function, and advances in satellite technology and GPS tracking to monitor habitat use. The synthesis of these technologies with systematic reviews of context dependencies in restoration success, model based analyses and consideration of complex socioecological systems will allow generalizations to inform evidence based interventions. Ongoing challenges include setting realistic, socially acceptable goals for restoration under changing environmental conditions, and prioritizing actions in an increasingly space-competitive world. Ethical questions also surround the use of genetically modified material, translocations, taxon substitutions, and de-extinction, in restoration ecology. Addressing these issues, as the Ecological Society of America looks to its next century, will require current and future generations of researchers and practitioners, including economists, engineers, philosophers, landscape architects, social scientists and restoration ecologists, to work together with communities and governments to rise to the environmental challenges of the coming decades.

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“…Rewilding or assisted migration are potentially promising lines of conservation management strategies that may help restore vanished or threatened ecosystems to islands or continental regions that no longer harbor the tortoises that previously existed there, but were driven into extinction by human exploitation (Truett and Phillips 2009;Griffiths et al 2010Griffiths et al , 2011Griffiths et al , 2013aPedrono et al 2013). These strategies are particularly pertinent in the Mascarene Islands and on Madagascar, as well as in the Galápagos.…”

Section: Island Refugiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians.

Rhodin¹,

Thomson²,

Georgalis³

et al. 2015

Chelonian Research Monographs

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ABsTrAcT. -We provide a first checklist and review of all recognized taxa of the world's extinct Pleistocene and Holocene (Quaternary) turtles and tortoises that existed during the early rise and global expansion of humanity, and most likely went extinct through a combination of earlier hominin (e.g., Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensis) and later human (H. sapiens) exploitation, as well as being affected by concurrent global or regional climatic and habitat changes. This checklist complements the broader listing of all modern and extant turtles and tortoises by the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (2014). We provide a comprehensive listing of taxonomy, names, synonymies, and stratigraphic distribution of all chelonian taxa that have gone extinct from approximately the boundary between the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, ca. 2.6 million years ago, up through 1500 AD, at the beginning of modern times. We also provide details on modern turtle and tortoise taxa that have gone extinct since 1500 AD. This checklist currently includes 100 fossil turtle and tortoise taxa, including 84 named and apparently distinct species, and 16 additional taxa that appear to represent additional valid species, but are only identified to genus or family. Modern extinct turtles and tortoises include 8 species, 3 subspecies, and 1 unnamed taxon, for 12 taxa. Of the extinct fossil taxa, terrestrial tortoises of the family Testudinidae (including many large-bodied island forms) are the most numerous, with 60 taxa. When the numbers for fossil tortoises are combined with the 61 modern (living and extinct) species of tortoises, of the 121 tortoise species that have existed at some point since the beginning of the Pleistocene, 69 (57.0%) have gone extinct. This likely reflects the high vulnerability of these large and slow terrestrial (often insular) species primarily to human exploitation. The other large-bodied terrestrial turtles, the 000e.2 Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises • Chelonian Research Monographs, No. 5As an addition to the annual checklist of extant modern turtle taxa (Turtle Taxonomy Working Group [TTWG] 2014), we here present an annotated checklist of extinct Pleistocene and Holocene turtle and tortoise species that existed in relatively recent times, prior to 1500 AD, during the history of the rise and global spread of humanity and concurrent global climatic and habitat changes. These species, recorded from archaeological and paleontological sites from the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs (Quaternary period), approximately the last 2.6 million years, are currently considered to be valid, and not synonymous with modern (post-1500 AD) taxa.These fossil species, including some unnamed taxa of indeterminate or undescribed generic or specific allocation, represent the majority of the chelonian diversity that has gone extinct relatively recently. Many of these taxa were likely extirpated by anthropogenic exploitation over the relatively long prehistory of earlier hominin (e.g., Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensi...

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Assessing the Potential to Restore Historic Grazing Ecosystems with Tortoise Ecological Replacements

Cited by 40 publications

References 40 publications

Science for a wilder Anthropocene: Synthesis and future directions for trophic rewilding research

Science for a wilder Anthropocene: Synthesis and future directions for trophic rewilding research

Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades

Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians.

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