ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the recovery of ecosystem services (ES) in ecosystems that have been transformed or destroyed, and where active restoration interventions or natural regeneration processes are taking place. It reviews few case studies that demonstrate how ecological restoration in different types of ecosystems and using different approaches can impact recovery of a wide range of ES. Meta-analysis is a statistical tool that is increasingly used in ecology to quantitatively compare results of large numbers of individual studies and to explore general trends in the variation of target response variables such as those related to delivery of ES. The chapter describes few global meta-analyses to assess ecological restoration effectiveness in a wide range of ecosystem types. Global meta-analyses highlight the importance of comprehensive, multi-factorial assessment to determine the ecological status of degraded, restored and natural ecosystems and thereby evaluate the effectiveness of ecological restorations.
