UCI Sites	Restoration Ecology Virtual Library
Plan a Restoration Site		Dr. Peter Bowler
Sensitive Species	Restoration 175
UCI Ecological Preserve	UCI Papers and Posters	Restoration Ecology Bibliography

Welcome to UC Irvine's Restoration Ecology Web Server

The Restoration Ecology Web Server at UCI is designed for professionals, students and all people interested in restoring natural areas. The server is designed to explain restoration at UC Irvine, provide a resource for planning a restoration project and help lead you to other sites which provide information on topics concerning restoration. We hope you will find this an informative and helpful resource

What is Restoration Ecology?

Ecological restoration is a science and a discipline based on altering an area of land to emulate or copy a current or former local ecosystem.  The motivations for this endeavor range across ideas such as stemming the tide of biodiversity loss to both plants and the animals for which they provide habitat, research into the functioning of ecosystems, compliance with public mandates and personal fulfillment. The concept of restoration is simple-choose an ecosystem to emulate and try to recreate it in a chosen area.  The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) defines it as, “the process of repairing damage caused by humans to the diversity and dynamics of indigenous ecosystems (Jackson 1995).”  The first step is to pick an example.  The current paradigm in ecology is that ecosystems are dynamic entities  which vary not only in space but also in time. The choice is not only where, but when. In most cases the optimally  timeframe would be soon prior to the influences of modern man. In many areas, such as most of Europe, most of the land has been altered for thousands of years and therefore little data is available, nor plant and animal stock, to emulate those ecosystems. In areas such as California, USA, there are at least remnants of almost all pre-agricutural ecosystems that can be documented and used as models.

For more information, e-mail us at urlic@uci.edu.

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