Ecological restoration within eLTER community: the results of a questionnaire presented at Encontro Scientia in Portugal

On March 16, 2023, Bruna Paolinelli Reis, a researcher at the cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes and CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, presented the results of a questionnaire on ecosystem restoration directed to eLTER restoration experts at the Encontro Scientia in Portugal. The Econtro Scientia is a weekly meeting organized by cE3c and provides an excellent opportunity for researchers to share their work and insights on ecology, evolution and environmental changes.

Bruna's work was developed during her ERASMUS training at cE3c in Portugal and involved partners from the Society of Ecological Restoration Europe (SERE), the Restoration Ecology Group – Hungary, and also eLTER site managers. 

During her talk, she demonstrated how a long-term ecosystem perspective of eLTER provides key insights about ecosystem restoration and how this long-term knowledge can be crucial to meet the challenges of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the EU Green Deal, and the Biodiversity Strategy 2030.

Bruna explained how she gathered information about 42 restoration projects covering all major terrestrial habitats from 18 countries in Europe and Northern Africa. She concluded that ecological restoration takes time and requires long-term research and standardisation, and the eLTER network could help to tackle these issues through its infrastructure, its wealth of long-term data sets, and the diversity of expertise and strategies within eLTER. eLTER can, therefore, play a valuable role in the large-scale restoration of European ecosystems.