Ecosynthesis is the use of

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

to fill niches in a disrupted environment, with the aim of increasing the speed of ecological restoration. This decreases the amount of physical damage done in a disrupted landscape. An example is using willow in a stream corridor for sediment and phosphorus capture. It aims to aid ecological restoration, the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action. Humans use ecosynthesis to make environments more suitable for life, through restoration ecology (introduced species, vegetation mapping, habitat enhancement, remediation and mitigation.)

Restoration ecology

Ecological restoration aims to recreate, initiate, or accelerate the recovery of an ecosystem that has been disturbed.K. J. Vaughn Restoration Ecology, (2010)
/ref> Revegetation: the establishment of vegetation on sites where it has been previously lost, often with erosion control as the primary goal. Habitat enhancement: the process of increasing the suitability of a site as habitat for some desired species. Remediation: improving an existing ecosystem or creating a new one with the aim of replacing another that has deteriorated or been destroyed. Mitigation: legally mandated remediation for loss of protected species or an

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

. Through restoration ecology, humans can help ecosystems that we have either caused harm to or disturbed be brought back to functional state.

Trophic cascade

A clear example of humans ecosynthesiszing would be through the introduction of a species to cause a

trophic cascade Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed. For example, a top-down cascade will occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce t ...

, which is the result of indirect effects between nonadjacent trophic levels in a food chain or food web, such as the top predator in a food chain and a plant. The most famous example of a trophic cascade is that of the introduction of wolves to

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

, which had extradionary effects to the ecosystem. Yellowstone had a massive population of elk because they had no predators, which caused the local

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

population and other vegetation to significantly decrease in population size. However, the introduction of wolves controlled the elk population and indirectly affected the aspen and other vegetation, bringing the ecosystem back to sustainability.C. A. White, .. C. Feller, S. Bayley Forest Ecology and Management,(2003) Predation risk and the functional response of elk–aspen herbivory

References

{{Permaculture Permaculture Ecological processes Permaculture concepts

Restoration ecology

Trophic cascade

See also

References