This innovative volume is the first to address the
conservation of contemporary art incorporating biological materials
such as plants, foods, bodily fluids, or genetically engineered
organisms. ...Eggshells, flowers, onion peels, sponge cake,
dried bread, breast milk, bacteria, living organisms-these are just
a few of the biological materials that contemporary artists are
using to make art. But how can works made from such perishable
ingredients be preserved? And what logistical, ethical, and
conceptual dilemmas might be posed by doing so? Because they are
prone to rapid decay, even complete disappearance, biological
materials used in art pose a range of unique conservation
challenges. This groundbreaking book probes the issues associated
with displaying, collecting, and preserving these unique works of
art. The twenty-four papers from the conference present a range of
case studies, prominently featuring artists' perspectives, as well
as conceptual discussions, thereby affording a comprehensive and
richly detailed overview of current thinking and practices on this
topic. Living Matter is the first publication to explore
broadly the role of biological materials in the creative process
and present a variety of possible approaches to their preservation.
The free online edition of this open-access publication is
available at www.getty.edu/publications/living-matter/ and includes
videos and zoomable illustrations. Also available are free PDF,
EPUB, and Kindle/MOBI downloads of the book.
1. Ecological restoration is a global priority that holds great potential for benefiting natural ecosystems, but restoration outcomes are notoriously unpredictable. Resolving this unpredictability ...represents a major, but critical challenge to the science of restoration ecology. 2. In an effort to move restoration ecology toward a more predictive science, we consider the key issue of variability. Typically, restoration outcomes vary relative to goals (i.e. reference or desired future conditions) and with respect to the outcomes of other restoration efforts. The field of restoration ecology has largely considered only this first type of variation, often focusing on an oversimplified success vs. failure dichotomy. The causes of variation, particularly among restoration efforts, remain poorly understood for most systems. 3. Variation associated with restoration outcomes is a consequence of how, where and when restoration is conducted; variation is also influenced by how the outcome of restoration is measured. We propose that variation should decrease with the number of factors constraining restoration and increase with the specificity of the goal. When factors (e.g. harsh environmental conditions, limited species reintroductions) preclude most species, little variation will exist among restorations, particularly when goals are associated with metrics such as physical structure, where species may be broadly interchangeable. Conversely, when few constraints to species membership exist, substantial variation may result and this will be most pronounced when restoration is assessed by metrics such as taxonomic composition. 4. Synthesis and applications. The variability we observe during restoration results from both restoration context (how, where and when restoration is conducted) and how we evaluate restoration outcomes. To advance the predictive capacity of restoration, we outline a research agenda that considers metrics of restoration outcomes, the drivers of variation among existing restoration efforts, experiments to quantify and understand variation in restoration outcomes, and the development of models to organise, interpret and forecast restoration outcomes.
Modern distribution systems are becoming more resilient against power outages thanks to the flexible generation capacity provided by the increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DERs). ...Compared to utility-scale DERs, which can be directly controlled by system operators, small-scale, behind-the-meter DERs are much more difficult to coordinate despite being the vast majority. Two major obstacles to the implementation of DERs for service restoration are the coordination of behind-the-meter DERs and the management of uncertainty. In this paper, a novel distribution system restoration strategy is proposed to overcome these two obstacles. The flexibility of behind-the-meter DERs is quantified and integrated into the restoration planning models within a hierarchical structure. The model predictive control technique is employed to enable adaptive restoration planning solution adjustments to accommodate fault scenarios and forecast errors. Besides, real-time power dispatch models are proposed to maintain power balance using available DER capability. Comprehensive integration of adaptive restoration planning schemes and real-time dispatch results are achieved through a collaborative restoration framework. The effectiveness of the proposed restoration strategy is verified through a modified IEEE 123-bus system and a real-world utility system.
The hydrological restoration of coastal wetlands is an emerging approach for mitigating and adapting to climate change and enhancing ecosystem services such as improved water quality and ...biodiversity. This paper synthesises current knowledge on selecting appropriate modelling approaches for hydrological restoration projects. The selection of a modelling approach is based on project-specific factors, such as costs, risks, and uncertainties, and aligns with the overall project objectives. We provide guidance on model selection, emphasising the use of simpler and less expensive modelling approaches when appropriate, and identifying situations when models may not be required for project managers to make informed decisions. This paper recognises and supports the widespread use of hydrological restoration in coastal wetlands by bridging the gap between hydrological science and restoration practices. It underscores the significance of project objectives, budget, and available data and offers decision-making frameworks, such as decision trees, to aid in matching modelling methods with specific project outcomes.
Display omitted
•Hydrological restoration of coastal wetlands is emerging as a key tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation.•Hydrological restoration has risks and uncertainties that can limit uptake and profitability while increasing planning costs.•Data and models can help describe risks and reduce uncertainty.•Developing low-cost data sources and easy-to-implement models may enhance the potential for hydrological restoration.
The long-term stressful utilization of forests and grasslands has led to ecosystem degradation and C loss. Since the late 1970s China has launched six key national ecological restoration projects to ...protect its environment and restore degraded ecosystems. Here, we conducted a large-scale field investigation and a literature survey of biomass and soil C in China’s forest, shrubland, and grassland ecosystems across the regions where the six projects were implemented (∼16% of the country’s land area). We investigated the changes in the C stocks of these ecosystems to evaluate the contributions of the projects to the country’s C sink between 2001 and 2010. Over this decade, we estimated that the total annual C sink in the project region was 132 Tg C per y (1 Tg = 1012 g), over half of which (74 Tg C per y, 56%) was attributed to the implementation of the projects. Our results demonstrate that these restoration projects have substantially contributed to CO₂ mitigation in China.
The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is a flagship species in nature conservation. Habitat degradation and fragmentation threaten the sustainable survival of giant pandas, and thus degraded ...habitats need to be restored and fragmented habitats require connection. In the past ten years, some new studies have emerged on the habitat restoration of giant pandas, yet no specialized reviews of this topic have been published. This paper reviews the habitat restoration of giant pandas based on related articles published between 2012 and 2021. Three principal research topics are identified and summarized: restoration effect, restoration requirements, and restoration considerations. The review demonstrates that some measures, such as protection projects and policies, controlling human disturbances and impacts, and natural recovery, contribute to the habitat restoration of giant pandas. Many issues related to artificial forests need to be addressed to clarify their role in habitat restoration. Many habitats with clear locations and types need restoration, especially those that are disturbed or threatened by human activities and some that are disturbed by natural disturbances such as earthquakes. To integrate consideration factors, a reference habitat should be established and well described. In addition, social and economic factors should not be ignored. More targeted studies of the habitat restoration of giant pandas are urgently needed, including theoretical, cross-scale, interdisciplinary, multi-factor, and long-term monitoring studies. This review provides a reference for future research work and a source of information for future restoration of giant panda habitat.
Display omitted
•Habitat restoration of giant pandas from 2012 to 2021 is reviewed.•Three topics of restoration effect, requirements, and considerations are summarized.•Some restoration measures and habitats that need restoration are identified.•Reference habitat and social and economic factors should be considered.•Theoretical, cross-scale, and interdisciplinary studies are urgently needed.
Growing populations and agricultural intensification have led to raised riverine nitrogen (N) loads, widespread oxygen depletion in coastal zones (coastal hypoxia)
and increases in the incidence of ...algal blooms.Although recent work has suggested that individual wetlands have the potential to improve water quality
, little is known about the current magnitude of wetland N removal at the landscape scale. Here we use National Wetland Inventory data and 5-kilometre grid-scale estimates of N inputs and outputs to demonstrate that current N removal by US wetlands (about 860 ± 160 kilotonnes of nitrogen per year) is limited by a spatial disconnect between high-density wetland areas and N hotspots. Our model simulations suggest that a spatially targeted increase in US wetland area by 10 per cent (5.1 million hectares) would double wetland N removal. This increase would provide an estimated 54 per cent decrease in N loading in nitrate-affected watersheds such as the Mississippi River Basin. The costs of this increase in area would be approximately 3.3 billion US dollars annually across the USA-nearly twice the cost of wetland restoration on non-agricultural, undeveloped land-but would provide approximately 40 times more N removal. These results suggest that water quality improvements, as well as other types of ecosystem services such as flood control and fish and wildlife habitat, should be considered when creating policy regarding wetland restoration and protection.
Our current planetary crisis, including multiple jointly acting factors of global change, moves the need for effective ecosystem restoration center stage and compels us to explore unusual options. We ...here propose exploring combinatorial approaches to restoration practices: management practices are drawn at random and combined from a locally relevant pool of possible management interventions, thus creating an experimental gradient in the number of interventions. This will move the current degree of interventions to higher dimensionality, opening new opportunities for unlocking unknown synergistic effects. Thus, the high dimensionality of global change (multiple jointly acting factors) would be more effectively countered by similar high‐dimensionality in solutions. In this concept, regional restoration hubs play an important role as guardians of locally relevant information and sites of experimental exploration. Data collected from such studies could feed into a global database, which could be used to learn about general principles of combined restoration practices, helping to refine future experiments. Such combinatorial approaches to exploring restoration intervention options may be our best hope yet to achieve decisive progress in ecological restoration at the timescale needed to mitigate and reverse the most severe losses caused by global environmental change.
Our current planetary crises compel us to try out new approaches to restoring ecosystems that have been damaged by various factors of global change. We here propose a new way to move restoration forward by using random combinations of management practices to explore if a greater number of such practices can achieve greater restoration success. If widely adopted, this framework could uncover new combinations of interventions that can be broadly used in restoration practice.
PDF
