NEW PAPER ALERT: Editorial: Mainstreaming paleoecology into ecosystem restoration

2021 marked the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, aiming to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. Honouring this important initiative, this issue of PAGES Magazine highlights the immense, and largely untapped, potential for synergy between palaeoecology and restoration ecology. Examples illustrate the importance of paleoecology in establishing restoration “baselines” or reference conditions, determining the degree of anthropogenic impact, maintaining cultural landscapes, managing fire, and restoring missing ecosystem processes such as herbivory and pollination. This issue highlights opportunities to seamlessly integrate paleoecology and neo-ecology alongside other disciplines and knowledge streams, thereby contributing to the mainstreaming of long-term data into restoration ecology and biodiversity conservation.

The magazine was edited by Lindsey Gillson and Sabine Prader of the Plant Conservation Unit, with Cathy Whitlock (Montana State University, USA) Peter Gell (Federation University Australia), Willy Tinner (University of Bern, Switzerland) and Sarah Eggleston (PAGES).

Read the editorial article here.