Restoration of biodiversity on the pleistocene sandy deposits in the Netherlands
Informations
- Funding country
Netherlands- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 2/1/2000
- End date
- 6/3/2005
- Budget
- -
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other funding | Grant | 2/1/2000 | 6/3/2005 | - |
Abstract
Plant and animal diversity of the Dutch landscape is most I y restricted to (semi-)natural ecosystems and at this moment seriously threatened by environmental stresses as air pollution, eutrophication, lowering of the water table, and habitat fragmentation. The negative impacts of environmental stresses are especially observed in weakly buffered, nutrient-poor nature reserves in the areas with sandy Pleistocene deposits in the Netherlands. Ecological restoration has to play a vital role in reducing the negative effects and to reinstate the damaged communities. It is crucial to repair and maintain these affected environments before the last populations are lost, as a future (genetic) source of dispersal of endangered species to newly created nature reserves and restored habitats. The aim of this programme is to clarify key factors, both abiotic and biotic, which prevents adequate restoration of degraded, former hot spots of diversity under dry and wet conditions in the Dutch heathland landscape. The scientific objectives of this programme are: a) to improve the abiotic environment just after sod cutting with respect to the nitrogen household (ammonium pulse) in the soil. This is very important because many endangered species of the dry communities have a short-living seed bank and are sensitive to high ammonium concentrations; b) to quantify the effectiveness of reloading of the depleted cation exchange complex in acidified wet habitats with different quality and quantities of seepage water; together with its fine tuning with respect to the growth requirements of characteristic endangered species; c) to adapt and calibrate air pollutants models for the dispersal of seeds by wind and by animals, including wind tunnel testing to obtain realistic model parameters. Furthermore, a spatially explicit model will be developed to simulate the dispersal likelihood of characteristic species. Once developed, the tools will give more insight in the potential dispersal of endangered species and the sustainability of the restored sites.