By: Josue Benavides
Studies to restore the environment are always
finding new ways to improve our ecosystem. Manipulating an environment in order
to help restore it is a trending study being conducted. A recent study used grassland’s
in California to test how seeds that were strategically planted were likely to
thrive in their areas; native forbs and grasslands were used. During the first
couple of years, manipulated seeds showed positive results. However, after an
extended period of time, the results began to be mixed or varied. The overall
long term benefits of giving priority to either the grassland or forbs only
lasted less than 8 years, but it didn’t necessarily mean that all of them were
going to have the same results (Werner et al., 2016). This experiment on
manipulation helped show that manipulation can have potential in restoring
grasslands around California. A dilemma that may occur is that if this method
is used, it would be messing with nature, because instead of nature deciding
what goes in its environment, man would be controlling it.
Reference
Werner, M. C.,
Vaughn, J.K., Stuble, L.K., Wolf, K., Young, and P. Young. 2016. Persistent
asymmetrical priority effects in a California grassland restoration experiment.
Ecology Applications. 26 (6) :1624-1632
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