Dolly Jørgensen

Damned If You Do, Dammed If You Don't: Debates on Dam Removal in the Swedish Media

Dam removal is an increasingly common practice. Dams are removed for various reasons with safety, economics, and ecosystem restoration being the most common. However, dam removals often cause contr ...

Time for recovery of riparian plants in restored northern Swedish streams: a chronosequence study

A lack of ecological responses in stream restoration projects has been prevalent throughout recent literature with many studies reporting insufficient time for recovery. We assessed the relative importance of time, site variables, and landscape setting for understanding how plant species richness and understory productivity recover over time in riparian zones of northern Swedish streams. We used a space-for-time substitution consisting of 13 stream reaches restored 5-25 years ago, as well as five unrestored channelized reference reaches. We inventoried the riparian zone for all vascular plant species along 60-m study reaches and quantified cover and biomass in plots. We found that while species richness increased with time, understory biomass decreased. Forbs made up the majority of the species added, while the biomass of graminoids decreased the most over time, suggesting that the reduced dominance of graminoids favored less productive forbs. Species richness and density patterns could be attributed to dispersal limitation, with anemochorous species being more associated with time after restoration than hydrochorous, zoochorous, or vegetatively reproducing species. Using multiple linear regression, we found that time along with riparian slope and riparian buffer width (e.g., distance to logging activities) explained the most variability in species richness, but that variability in total understory biomass was explained primarily by time. The plant community composition of restored reaches differed from that of channelized references, but the difference did not increase over time. Rather, different time categories had different successional trajectories that seemed to converge on a unique climax community for that time period. Given our results, timelines for achieving species richness objectives should be extended to 25 years or longer if recovery is defined as a saturation of the accumulation of species over time. Other recommendations include making riparian slopes as gentle as possible given the landscape context and expanding riparian buffer width for restoration to have as much impact as possible.

“All Good Rule of the Citee”: Sanitation and Civic Government in England, 1400—1600

This article examines how providing one basic city service—sanitation—influenced civic governmental structures from 1400 to 1600 in two of England’s largest provincial cities, Norwich and Coventry, and how those changes meshed with concepts of good rule. Although sanitation services were neither the most costly nor the highest profile activity of city councils, they can be a window into the evolution of governmental structures during the early phase of city rule. The period witnessed an increasing reliance on a myriad of officials to provide services, but this transition was not straightforward. City councils grappled with how to allocate responsibility for sanitation duties among civic officials, and the assignment of responsibility shifted often over the period. In general, the trend was to allocate responsibility closer and closer to the physical problem— that is, movement from the mayor as overseer to local inspectors.

Conservation implications of parasite co-reintroduction

In popular culture, the word parasite evokes mental images of bloodsuckers, leeches, and infestation. Within conservation biology, parasites are often eradicated to reduce morbidity and mortality of host species targeted for translocation (Ewen et al. 2012). Negative effects of parasites tend to overshadow their ecological importance, including controlling host population numbers (O’Brien 2000) and contributing to host behavior, community composition, and food webs (Gómez & Nichols 2013). Parasites are generally an overlooked aspect of biodiversity (Windsor 1995). Parasites may face co-extinction (Dunn et al. 2009), depending on population sizes, host-parasite ecology, and natural history, among other factors (Gómez et al. 2012). Host-specific parasites may have extinction rates even higher than their hosts (Stork & Lyal 1993; Colwell et al. 2012). There have been attempts to list parasitic insects as endangered or threatened based on their host’s status (e.g., Durden & Keirans 1996; Mihalca et al. 2011), yet only one such ectoparasite, the pygmy hog sucking louse (Haematopinus oliveri), is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2013 Red List. Animal translocation efforts should consider the integral host-parasite relationship (Moir et al. 2012). Although historically little thought was given to whether or not a parasite is native in a host reintroduction release area (Armstrong & Seddon 2008), recent reintroduction management offers a more nuanced approach, allowing for parasite co-reintroduction given reasonable risks to the host population and the wider ecosystem (e.g., Ewen et al. 2012, Sainsbury & Vaughan-Higgins 2012). The IUCN Species Survival Commission Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations calls for consideration of parasite co-reintroduction:

Ecological restoration in the Convention on Biological Diversity targets

Ecological restoration has been incorporated into several Multilateral Environmental Agreements, including the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Target 15 of the Aichi Targets for 2020 sets a numerical goal of restoration of 15 percent of degraded ecosystems; however, the CBD has not established a clear statement defining restoration within this context. Without such a definition, the CBD will be unable to measure progress against the goal. The adopted definition of ecological restoration would have to allow for measurement against the numerical target, or the target should be modified to match the chosen definition.

An oasis in a watery desert? Discourses on an industrial ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico Rigs‐to‐Reefs program

This article explores how in the years after 1980 a spectrum of historical actors came to see petroleum platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as a necessary part of the Gulf ecosystem and how such views affected platform removal policies. Through a discourse analysis of the Rigs‐to‐Reefs program, in which old offshore petroleum facilities were converted into artificial reefs, this article examines how actors presented to the public their notions of the relationship of the Gulf ecosystem with technological offshore structures. Through this case we see how ideas of technology and nature were mutually constructed via discourses and what affect that had on policies.

Forest restoration to attract a putative umbrella species, the white-backed woodpecker, benefited saproxylic beetles

Umbrella species are often spatially demanding and have limited ability to adapt to environmental changes induced by human land-use. This makes them vulnerable to human encroachment. In Sweden, bro ...

Not by human hands : five technological tenets for environmental history in the Anthropocene

Technologies in the hands of humans have turned humans into a force of nature. Environmental historians have increasingly recognised the value of history of technology to explain many environmental ...

Animals as instruments of Norwegian imperial authority in the interwar Arctic

During the first half of the twentieth century a number of individuals in Norway participated in the transfer of animals from both the Arctic to the Antarctic regions and vice versa. These projects ...

Ecological restoration as objective, target, and tool in international biodiversity policy

Ecological restoration has been mainstreamed in international biodiversity policies in the last five years. I analyze statements about restoration in three international policies: the Convention for Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the Convention for Biodiversity Decision XI/16 on ecosystem restoration, and the European Unions Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. I argue that restoration functions at three different levels in these policies: as an objective, as a target, and as a tool. Because restoration appears at all three levels, the policies encourage counting all restoration activity as meeting the objectives of the policy regardless of the activitys actual effect on ecosystem services or biodiversity more broadly. Reaching a numerical target for a restored area may not necessarily support the overarching policy goals of maintaining Earths biodiversity and supporting ecosystem services.