Abstract
Active restoration is becoming an increasingly important conservation intervention to counteract the degradation of marine coastal ecosystems. Understanding what has motivated the scientific community to research the restoration of marine coastal ecosystems and how restoration research projects are funded is essential if we want to scale-up restoration interventions to meaningful extents. Here, we systematically review and synthesize data to understand the motivations for research on the restoration of coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves, saltmarsh, and oyster reefs. We base this analysis off a published database of marine restoration studies, originally designed to estimate the cost and feasibility of marine coastal restoration, derived from mostly scientific studies published in peer-reviewed and some gray literature. For the present study, the database was updated with fields aimed at assessing the motivations, outcomes, and funding sources for each project. We classify restoration motivations into five categories: biotic, experimental, idealistic, legislative, and pragmatic. Moreover, we evaluate the variables measured and outcomes reported by the researchers and evaluate whether projects adhered to the Society for Ecological Restoration's (SER) standards for the practice of ecological restoration. The most common motivation of the scientific community to study restoration in marine coastal ecosystems was experimental i.e., to seek experimental data to answer ecological research questions or improve restoration approach, as expected since mostly peer-reviewed literature was evaluated here. There were differences in motivations among the five coastal ecosystems. For instance, biodiversity enhancement was the most common case for a biotic motivation in mangrove restoration projects. The most common metrics evaluated were growth/productivity, survivorship, habitat function, physical attributes, and reproduction. For most ecosystems, ecological outcomes were frequently reported, with socio-economic implications of the restoration rarely mentioned, except for mangroves. Projects were largely funded by governmental grants with some investment from private donations, non-governmental organizations, and the involvement of volunteers. Our findings and database provide critical data to align future research of the scientific community with the real social, economic and policy needs required to scale-up marine coastal restoration projects.
Highlights
Despite the goods and services that marine coastal ecosystems provide to humans (UNEP, 2006), ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves, saltmarsh, and oyster reefs are being lost at alarming rates worldwide mainly due to unsustainable land use, coastal development and climate change (Orth et al, 2000; Valiela et al, 2001; Pandolfi et al, 2003; Duke et al, 2007)
Six mangrove studies were motivated by enhancing coastal protection through restoration, while three studies on coral reefs, one oyster reef restoration study and one mangrove study aimed to increase fisheries production from restoration
Primary motivations varied among ecosystems, with the most common motivations in mangrove projects being biotic while in oyster, coral, saltmarsh and seagrass studies, projects were most often motivated by the experimental rationale (Figure 2)
Summary
Despite the goods and services that marine coastal ecosystems provide to humans (UNEP, 2006), ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves, saltmarsh, and oyster reefs are being lost at alarming rates worldwide mainly due to unsustainable land use, coastal development and climate change (Orth et al, 2000; Valiela et al, 2001; Pandolfi et al, 2003; Duke et al, 2007). Marine coastal restoration plays a paramount role in the current focus on nature-based solutions to address global societal challenges (e.g., climate change adaptation and mitigation, supporting fisheries) (Cohen-Shacham et al, 2016) that are presently being advocated across government and industry and will feature as a key topic at upcoming global forums (e.g., UN Oceans Conference, Lisbon in 2020; Post-2020 global biodiversity framework for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity). Despite these high-level goals, a synthetic picture on what motivates people on the ground to undertake restoration in marine coastal ecosystems is lacking
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