A landscape-scale experiment in restoring Ozark glades (VIDEO)
A giant experiment is under way at the Tyson Research Center, Washington
University in St. Louis’ 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem
studies. The experiment, led by Tiffany Knight, PhD, associate
professor of biology, will test three different
variables in 32 glades with the goal of establishing best practices for
restoring not just degraded glade habitats but degraded ecosystems in
general. The experiment is expected to draw collaborating scientists locally and around the world.
Restoration as science: case of the collared lizard
Biologist Alan R. Templeton fell in love with the eastern collared lizard that lives in the hot, dry Ozark glades when he was 13. By the time he returned from postgraduate work, 75 percent of the lizard populations had vanished. Over the next 30 years, he reintroduced lizards to a few glades and then sought to establish the disturbance regime that had once sustained them by advocating for the highly controversial process of landscape-scale burning. The cover article in the September issue of Ecology celebrates the success of this prolonged effort.