TY - JOUR

T1 - Mapping and assessing the knowledge base of ecological restoration

AU - Heger, Tina

AU - Jeschke, Jonathan

AU - Febria, Catherine

AU - Kollmann, Johannes

AU - Murphy, Stephen D.

AU - Rochefort, Line

AU - Shackelford, Nancy

AU - Temperton, Vicky

AU - Higgs, Eric

N1 - Funding Information: The ideas presented in this manuscript were triggered by a research visit of T.H. with E.H., funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, HE 5893/7‐1). T.H. and J.M.J. additionally received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Collaborative Project “Bridging in Biodiversity Science (BIBS)” (funding number 01LC1501) and from the Volkswagen Foundation (funding number 97 863). DFG also funds TH's current position (HE 5893/8‐1). C.F. is funded by Canada Research Chairs Program, NSERC Canada, V.M.T. by the State of Lower Saxony, and L.R. by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery grant, no. 138097‐2012). The authors thank four anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Restoration Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Ecological Restoration.

PY - 2022/3/12

Y1 - 2022/3/12

N2 - Information on restoration science and practice is dispersed across large numbers of scientific papers, reports, books, and other resources, and there is a lack of synthetic approaches and of linkages between ecological theory and practice. With recent calls for scaling up ecological restoration, there is an urgent need for improving the effectiveness of restoration ecology by presenting existing knowledge in an organized and accessible form. Practitioners benefit from knowing which theories explain patterns and processes in a specific ecosystem, and scientists need an overview of empirical evidence supporting current theories. Strengthening links between restoration practice and science benefits both areas. Based on a new approach used for organizing and assessing hypotheses in invasion biology, we suggest the development of an interactive online platform that promotes the integration of restoration science and practice by (1) presenting an overview of restoration ecology; (2) mapping theoretical work relevant for ecological restoration; (3) displaying direct links to relevant publications; and (4) providing summaries of empirical evidence for ecological theories in specific settings. This online knowledge base should be developed in an open process, bringing together the restoration community with experts in semantic web and natural language processing, library scientists, web designers, and other specialists. The platform should become an evolving, searchable, openly accessible, and intuitively organized tool for future ecological restoration.

AB - Information on restoration science and practice is dispersed across large numbers of scientific papers, reports, books, and other resources, and there is a lack of synthetic approaches and of linkages between ecological theory and practice. With recent calls for scaling up ecological restoration, there is an urgent need for improving the effectiveness of restoration ecology by presenting existing knowledge in an organized and accessible form. Practitioners benefit from knowing which theories explain patterns and processes in a specific ecosystem, and scientists need an overview of empirical evidence supporting current theories. Strengthening links between restoration practice and science benefits both areas. Based on a new approach used for organizing and assessing hypotheses in invasion biology, we suggest the development of an interactive online platform that promotes the integration of restoration science and practice by (1) presenting an overview of restoration ecology; (2) mapping theoretical work relevant for ecological restoration; (3) displaying direct links to relevant publications; and (4) providing summaries of empirical evidence for ecological theories in specific settings. This online knowledge base should be developed in an open process, bringing together the restoration community with experts in semantic web and natural language processing, library scientists, web designers, and other specialists. The platform should become an evolving, searchable, openly accessible, and intuitively organized tool for future ecological restoration.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - conceptual overview

KW - evidence-based restoration

KW - interactive online platform

KW - knowledge mapping

KW - research synthesis

KW - science-practice links

KW - conceptual overview

KW - evidence-based restoration

KW - interactive online platform

KW - knowledge mapping

KW - research synthesis

KW - science-practice links

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127386375&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/4039e9dc-91bb-34ee-b596-1376b6972310/

U2 - 10.1111/rec.13676

DO - 10.1111/rec.13676

M3 - Journal articles

JO - Restoration Ecology

JF - Restoration Ecology

SN - 1061-2971

M1 - e13676

ER -