Emerging perspectives in the restoration of biodiversity-based ecosystem services

Abstract

Given the large-scale anthropogenic alteration of natural habitats, ecological restoration is emerging as one of the most important disciplines in environmental science. Once habitats are physically restored, an important goal of restoration is to recover the ecosystem services provided by the diversity of species and their interactions (e.g., seed dispersal, pollination, pest control, and invasion resistance). However, current understanding of the ecological processes underlying this recovery is often incomplete and poorly integrated across different ecosystems. Here, we highlight recent conceptual findings in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, food-web theory, and metacommunity theory that are relevant to restoration. We also identify knowledge gaps that will contribute to moving restoration from a site- and situation-specific discipline to a more globally applicable science.