Assessing long-term outcomes of stream and riparian restoration projects in urban and suburban areas
department or school: Forestry, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Clement, Sarah Elizabeth
issued: 2024-05-02T17:46:11Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: In the era of global climate change and increasing urbanization, anthropogenic disturbances and habitat degradation are ubiquitous environmental problems. One tool to combat these issues is ecological restoration. Restoration of aquatic ecosystems is a key area of study, as streams face a multitude of concurrent sources of degradation, such as urbanization, invasive species, pollutants, and increasing temperatures. The cumulative effects of these stressors are having a major impact on these ecosystems. There is currently limited knowledge on long-term impacts of restoration on stream functions. Therefore, it is important to assess impacts of previous projects to ensure the success of future projects. This study used a space-for-time substitution to analyze long-term impacts of riparian and stream restoration on stream ecosystems. The primary research question of this study was: Do structural and functional indicators become more similar to reference ecosystems as years since restoration increases? Twelve restored sites of various ages (2-25 years since restoration) were compared to 2 highly degraded sites and 3 reference sites. All sites are located in Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada. The structural indicators I measured include water temperature, canopy cover, tree diversity and density, water nutrient concentrations, and in-stream flow characteristics. Ecosystem functions included estimates of leaf decomposition and periphyton production. Tree species richness and basal area (cm²/hectare) showed significant responses to restoration. Tree species richness was 3x higher at restored sites compared to degraded sites, and basal area increased with age since restoration in restored sites. For leaf decomposition, there was a significant difference in the decay rates between treatments. Decay rate (g/g/degree day) was highest in the reference sites (mean = 0.0036), and lowest in the degraded sites (mean = 0.0014). For periphyton production, the difference between treatments w…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/88165
note: ASSESSING LONG-TERM OUTCOMES OF STREAM AND RIPARIAN RESTORATION PROJECTS IN URBAN AND SUBURBAN AREAS by Sarah Elizabeth Clement B.S., University of Georgia, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Forestry) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2024 © Sarah Elizabeth Clement, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Assessing long-term outcomes of stream and riparian restoration projects in urban and suburban areas Submitted by Sarah Elizabeth Clement in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Forestry Examining Committee: John Richardson, Professor Emeritus, Forestry, UBC Supervisor Jennifer Williams, Associate Professor, Geography, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Marwan Hassan, Professor, Geography, UBC Additional Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Brett Eaton, Professor, Geography, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract In the era of global climate change and increasing urbanization, anthropogenic disturbances and habitat degradation are ubiquitous environmental problems. One tool to combat these issues is ecological restoration. Restoration of aquatic ecosystems is a key area of study, as streams face a multitude of concurrent sources of degradation, such as urbanization, invasive species, pollutants, and increasing temperatures. The cumulative effects of these stressors are having a major impact on these ecosystems. There is currently limited knowledge on long-term impacts of restoration on stream functions. Therefore, it is important to assess impacts of previous projects to ensure the success of future projects. This study used a space-for-time substitution to analyze long-term impacts of riparian and stream restoration on stream ecosystems. The p…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0442097
language: eng
degree discipline: Forestry
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Richardson, John Stuart
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88165