Articles · Open Access Policy
Abstract
The objective of this study is to assess restoration strategies that can be employed in reviving degraded aquatic ecosystems in order to increase ecosystem resilience. In this study, efforts were made to improve habitat structures, water and sediment quality, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and resilience of the ecosystems. This study employed the "before and after restoration" approach to assess the degraded aquatic ecosystems by comparing the ecosystem against an undisturbed reference site. Measures adopted in restoration include establishing native aquatic vegetation, sediment manipulation, habitat restoration, hydrologic connection enhancement, establishment of riparian vegetation, and nutrient load reduction. Indicators of physico-chemical, habitat, vegetation, macroinvertebrate, microbial, ecosystem functioning, and resilience were analyzed before and after restoration. The ecological condition index was raised from 42.6 ± 6.8 to 71.8 ± 7.4, whereas the resilience index was raised from 0.43 ± 0.08 to 0.72 ± 0.07. The amount of dissolved oxygen was raised from 4.2 ± 0.8 to 6.8 ± 0.9 mg/L, while the amount of turbidity was reduced from 28.6 ± 7.4 to 13.2 ± 4.1 NTU. The percentage of vegetation cover was raised from 21.4 ± 6.3% to 56.8 ± 8.1%, while the richness of macroinvertebrates was raised from 24.3 ± 4.6 to 38.7 ± 5.2 taxa. Ecological recovery was achieved at 76.2%, including the recovery of 82.9% for habitat complexity and 82.4% for dissolved oxygen. The application of the integrated restoration led to significant improvements in terms of ecological state, biodiversity, ecological functioning, and resilience.