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Accounting for the values placed on nature by the public is key to successful policies in reversing ongoing biodiversity declines. However, biodiversity values are rarely included in policy decisions, resulting in poorer outcomes for people and nature.Our paper addresses an important evidence gap related to the non‐availability of values for appraising large‐scale policies and investment programmes for species recovery and habitat improvement at the national level.We use a stated preference choice modelling approach to estimate household preferences and Willingness to Pay for species recovery and habitat improvement over a wide range of habitats in England.The framing of our stated preference study is crucial to the evidence we develop. Within the study, we define species recovery as incremental improvements to habitat quality and present respondents with choices between conservation policy options that improve different habitat types. We then use the response data to estimate values for habitat quality improvements, and the associated improvements to species presence and abundance. We are thus able to estimate economic benefits for 'wild species recovery' simultaneously across a wide range of habitat types.Willingness to pay values for habitat improvement was found to be highest for improvements from 'moderate' to 'full' species recovery by 2042; and for habitat types which have relatively low current extents in England, such as lowland fens.Policy Implications: biodiversity policy designers can make use of stated preference methods to guide decisions over which aspects of biodiversity targets to focus more resources on, since this enables policy to reflect public preferences, and thus engages higher public support for conservation. In our specific data and context, this implies prioritising the restoration of species recovery to high levels and focussing resources on scarcer rather than more abundant habitat types. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewilding is an emerging paradigm in restoration science and is increasingly gaining popularity as a cost‐effective ecosystem restoration option. A rewilding framework was recently proposed that contains three integral components: restoring trophic complexity, allowing for stochastic disturbances and enhancing species' potential to disperse. However, as of yet, there has been limited quantitative analysis looking at public preference for rewilding and each of its elements.We used a discrete choice experiment approach to determine public preference for rewilding in the Oder Delta. The unique geographical context of the Oder Delta, spreading evenly across two countries, allowed us to analyse differences between the German (n = 1005) and Polish (n = 1066) samples.In both countries, we found that respondents were willing to pay for rewilding interventions when compared against a status quo option. Notably, preferences were strongest for restoring trophic complexity through promoting the comeback of large mammals.In addition, we found respondents living locally to the study region had significantly different preferences than the nationwide samples, exhibiting negative willingness to pay for the restoration of natural flooding regimes and the presence of large predator species. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current geologic era—the Anthropocene—is defined by human-driven transformation of landscapes and seascapes that has profoundly altered Earth's climate and other life-support systems. This letter advocates for a landscape-scale regenerative tourism management strategy aimed at transforming coastal destinations into carbon sinks (meaning they sequester more carbon than they release). Specifically, coastal destinations can transform product offerings into a network of restoration projects that collectively seek the landscape-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems such as marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. Restoration of blue-carbon ecosystems is a cost-effective way to mitigate the effects of climate change. Tourism has potential to overcome obstacles in large-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems and can play a foundational role by providing a long-term presence at restoration sites, logistical and human resources, and a business model dependent on restored ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective and efficient monitoring of revegetation outcomes is a key component of ecosystem restoration. Monitoring often involves labor‐intensive manual methods, which are difficult to deploy when sites are inaccessible or involve large areas of revegetation. This study aimed to identify plant species and quantify α‐diversity index on a sub‐meter scale at Manlailiang Mine Site in Northwestern China using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a means to semiautomate large‐scale vegetation monitoring. UAVs equipped with multispectral sensors were combined with three industry‐standard supervised classification algorithms (support vector machine [SVM], maximum likelihood, and artificial neural network) to classify plant species. Spectral vegetation indices (normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI], difference vegetation index [DVI], visible‐band difference vegetation index, soil‐adjusted vegetation index, modified soil‐adjusted vegetation index, and excess green–excess red) were used to assess vegetation diversity obtained from on‐ground survey plot data (the Margalef, Pielou, Simpson, and Shannon–Wiener indices). Our results showed that SVM outperformed other algorithms in species identification accuracy (overall accuracy of 84%). Significant relationships were observed between vegetation indices and diversity indices, with the DVI performing significantly better than many more commonly used indices such as the NDVI. The findings highlight the potential of combining UAV multispectral data, spectral vegetation indices and ground surveys for effective and efficient fine‐scale monitoring of vegetation diversity in the ecological restoration of mining areas. This has significant practical benefits for improving adaptive management of restoration through improved monitoring tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to characterise the historical bricks used in the construction of the fortress of Ghar El Melh "El Borj El Loutani", dating back to the 17th century, with the focus on identifying the raw materials used in their manufacture. Understanding these materials is not only of historical significance but also critical for future restoration efforts, ensuring compatibility with the original bricks. Petrographic, mineralogical, chemical, and petrophysical analyses were conducted on three historical brick varieties. Additionally, granulometric, mineralogical, and chemical analyses were also performed on seven clays sourced from local outcrops. Results show that bricks share a similar mineralogical composition characterized by the presence of quartz and neoformed minerals (gehlenite, diopside, and anorthite), indicating the presence of a significant amount of carbonate in the initial mixture and leading to deduce that the firing temperature ranges from 800 up to 900°C. Analysis confirm that the raw material used for manufacturing the studied bricks originates from Raf-Raf formation. Notably, quartz grains are not included as a degreasing agent but are integral to the raw material itself. In summary, this research underscores the significance of geological techniques in identifying the raw materials and elucidating the brick manufacturing technology employed during the 17th century in Tunisia. These findings offer valuable insights for preservation and restoration projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review emphasizes the impact of ethyl acetate organic solvent as surface treatment agent for 3-dimentional (3D) printed polymethyl methacrylate denture base and silicone soft liner on enhancing the strength of bonding of these materials. Over time, Denture soft liner materials have appeared as important components in prosthodontics, offering enhanced comfort, tissue adaptation for denture wearers and restore the inflamed and distorted mucosa. It is commonly agreed that the main drawback is debonding of the lining material from the 3D printed denture base. Therefore, there is a need for enhancing the strength of bonding of these materials [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although we are in an era of enormous global commitments to ecological restoration (the UN Decade on ER; the Bonn Challenge), little attention has been paid to the importance of sustained commitment to individual restoration initiatives and few resources have been dedicated to monitoring, especially the long-term and broad-scale evaluations that would allow us to understand how basin-scale restoration can result in complex spatiotemporal patterns. Remote sensing offers a powerful tool for evaluating restoration initiatives focused on water management in arid regions, where changes in vegetation growth can be tracked visually with measures like the generalized difference vegetation index (GDVI). In this paper, we evaluate the Comprehensive Treatment Program of the Shiyang River Basin (CTSRB), a landscape restoration initiative in China's northwest, using a widely available remote sensing tool, showing how it can reveal the causes of fluctuating changes in restoration success. We focus on spatiotemporal variation, studying a time series from 2001 to 2020 using regression, trend, and stability analyses for six different divisions of the study region (the study area as a whole, the irrigated areas, the periphery of the irrigated regions, and the districts of Ba, Quanshan, and Hu) to evaluate the effects of the restoration initiative. The study period was divided into four equal-length phases based on the implementation timeline of the CTSRB, which includes one pre- and post-intervention interval and two stages of the CTSRB. We found that the CTSRB has played a positive role in the restoration of vegetation in the Minqin Basin, especially desert vegetation. However, the positive effects were not obvious in the first CTSRB period, which was characterized by a decline in vegetation growth likely caused by the strategy of "close the pumping-wells, transform the land", which reversed a greening trend caused by the unsustainable irrigation of wasteland prior to the project's initiation. During the second phase of the CTSRB, vegetation in the regions of "transform the land" gradually improved, and the growth of desert vegetation gradually improved and expanded as a result of more water flowing out of agricultural zones. The rate of vegetation recovery slowed down during the final phase of the CTSRB, and some areas even experienced a decline in the GDVI. Overall, our findings show that the CTSRB, by integrating water management and allowing for uninterrupted ecological restoration, drove complex regional changes in the GDVI, including successful restoration of desert vegetation. The spatiotemporal variable we observed underscores the importance of long-term commitment to arid land restoration initiatives and the importance of even longer-term monitoring using tools like remote sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unveiling the variation mechanism of vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) and elucidating the underlying drivers of these changes is highly necessitated for terrestrial carbon cycle research and global carbon emission control. Taking Henan Province, renowned as the anciently central China and current China's foremost grain producer, as an example, this study employed the Theil–Sen Median Trend Analysis to evaluate the spatiotemporal characteristics and trends of NPP. Correlation Analysis and Residual Analysis were used to explain the drivers of NPP dynamics. To deepen the inquiry, the Geodetector method was employed to scrutinize the multifaceted effects and interplay among diverse variables influencing NPP. The result showed demonstrated that approximately 85.72% of the area showed an increase in NPP, covering a broad geographical distribution. Notably, 89.31% of the province has witnessed a positive human-driven NPP change. It means human activities emerged as a driving force with a positive effect on vegetation NPP, consequently fostering an increasing trend of NPP. Among climatic factors, the correlation between NPP and precipitation was stronger than that between the temperature and NPP, the determined power of factors in Henan Province was population density, (0.341) > GDP (0.326) > precipitation (0.255) > elevation (0.167) > slope (0.136) > temperature (0.109), and a single factor had a lesser interaction effect than two factors. The implications of these findings extend beyond the realms of research, potentially offering valuable insights into the formulation of targeted ecosystem restoration measures tailored to the distinct context of Henan Province, and also expect to provide crucial references for carbon emission control in China and across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventive conservation of archaeological buildings is one of the most important procedures that helps to preserve the sustainability of these buildings and transfers them to future generations with all their characteristics and values. The importance of this procedure increases with the increase in the building's value and uniqueness especially its archaeological value and historical depth. Therefore, the study came up with a proposal for the preventive conservation of the Valley Temple of King Khafre that is located in the Giza plateau. The temple receives visitors daily, but it suffers from a set of structural and architectural problems which threaten its sustainability and negatively affect its presentation. Therefore, the study aims to monitor risks and develop a proposal for preventive conservation through: a. a proposal for interventional conservation to get rid of the main problems b. developing a proposal to avoid future problems and c. suggesting ways to better present the temple. The study suggested a preventive conservation proposal for the temple, which includes urgent restoration work to keep the temple from collapsing or losing some granite blocks, roofing the temple as a preventive measure that contributes to reducing the effect of deterioration factors in its environment, as well as a way to better present it by simulating its original architecture where the temple had a roof. In addition to a proposal to use some modern techniques to display models of the King Khafre's statues inside the temple, with the possibility of employing these techniques to clarify some of the ancient Egyptian rituals that were performed in the temple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land degradation is one of the most pressing environmental problems of the 21st century particularly due to its impact on global food security and environmental quality through the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Land degradation happens at an accelerated rate and affects regions inhabited by more than one‐third population of the world. This phenomenon resulted in a dramatic reduction in the productivity of cropland and rangeland of world thus threatening the environmental quality and food security. It manifests in various forms such as desertification, soil erosion, sodicity, salinity, heavy metal contamination, pesticide contamination, declining soil fertility, and fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The world now has a real chance for the next generation to grow sustainably and eliminate acute food scarcity. Microbes, as vital elements of soil, play an important role in maintaining soil biological properties and fertility. Due to their multifarious biological functions and metabolic uniqueness, microorganisms can fix or solubilize nutrients, add organic matters to the soil to improve its quality. Many of the microorganisms can produce biological compounds or enzymes, which can degrade or scavenge toxic substances from the soils. In this review, we have discussed in detail how diverse microorganisms can help to restore different types of degraded lands. The limitations in application of microorganisms in restoration of soil health and possible scopes to improve the applicability have also been discussed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aimed to assess the impact of vegetation restoration measures on the soil microbial community in degraded land via assessing the structural changes and diversity of soil bacterial communities and their response to environmental variables in the rhizocompartments (i.e., intershrub bulk soil, rhizosphere soil, and roots) of two legumes (Hedysarum scoparium and Hedysarum mongolicum) in Mu Us Desert, China. The bacterial diversity and soil physicochemical characteristics were studied using high‐throughput 16S rRNA genome sequencing and traditional soil physicochemical indices, respectively. The rhizocompartment types and plant species jointly affected the alpha and beta diversities of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere and non‐rhizosphere soil; however, rhizocompartments played a dominant role (P < 0.05). Compared with the network of root endophytes, the bacterial network in the rhizosphere soil exhibited increased total nodes, total links, harmonic geodesic distance, and modularity indices, and the structure was more complex. The root endophytic community was primarily impacted by soil nutrients (particularly nitrogen and soil organic carbon), whereas bacterial communities of bacteria in the nonrhizosphere and rhizosphere soil were significantly impacted by ammonium nitrogen and soil pH because of the response of the core bacterial taxa to soil physicochemical properties. These findings revealed that plant restoration techniques drive desertification reversal via altering the composition and diversity of soil bacterial communities. This study provided new insights regarding the ecological restoration of degraded lands in deserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written from the perspective of practice-led research, this reflective case study rationalises and charts the production of 'Clean-Up Workers (Deluxe Series)'—mixed media sculptures that embody notions of waste aesthetic, value and abjection. Integrating discourses surrounding waste theory and using the sink and plug as a metaphor to discuss Lacan's theory of the objet petit a, the paper is presented as an autobiographical waste narrative. Production of a series of anatomical vacuum cleaners made from re-appropriated artwork found waste materials in the form of 'pre-owned objects or materials' and 'by-products' of a creative practice', sit alongside crafted luxurious glass objects and speak of corporeal ageing, dysfunction and the domestic realm. Discarded objects take the form of car parts found in the non-places of the gutter. Through assemblage, these unique items' 'use-time' is recontextualised and elevated as art objects viewed within a gallery arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this essay, I treat intellectual property claims as "impossible realities," as these have recently been defined by Susan Coutin and Barbara Yngvesson. Drawing from their joint legal ethnography of migration, deportation, and transnational adoption, I extend their observations about the routine mismatch between personal history, physical location, and legal description in order to understand the shifting value of design objects under various regimes of law and heritage. I trace how legal claims, aesthetic judgments, and historical understandings combine and conflict to create the contemporary value of furniture produced in the 1950s and 60s for the Indian modernist city of Chandigarh, and explore further shifts of value as the furniture circulates in a global market for what might be called "modernist antiquities," and is potentially subject (in Europe) to copyright and trademark claims by the descendants of the designer Pierre Jeanneret. Further, a recent film by the artist Amie Siegel (American, b. 1974) explores the provenance and value of this furniture and provides a novel means of analyzing these shifts. Siegel has put her film up for sale at the same kind of auction where this furniture is sold, offering a reflexive critique of the paradoxes and (legal) impossibilities created by the relocation, restoration, and revaluation of this furniture. The history of the Chandigarh furniture and Siegel's film together provide an avenue of commentary on the categories of IP, emerging subjects of regulation (like design copyrights), and the fraught relation of IP claims to both capitalist and postcolonial histories that make objects (and persons) bear different values in different locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land rehabilitation through exclosures has been recognized as a promising practice in the restoration of degraded drylands. This study evaluated woody species density, diversity, cover, and biomass production from three regeneration approaches (EMTs): (1) Naturally Regenerated (ENR) exclosures, (2) exclosures with Soil and Water Conservation Structures (ECNR), and (3) those enriched with exotic and local plant species in addition to SWC structures (ECP) among which empirical evidence of comparisons are lacking for appropriate decision making of which restoration strategy to promote. Primary data were collected from a total of 72 study plots located across transects laid within exclosures and in adjacent grazing areas with similar ecological condition. Interview with 331 households and focus groups was used to further understand the effects. Regression analysis revealed that the mean difference in herbaceous and canopy cover, herbaceous and woody biomass, and woody species density and diversity of the three EMTs was statistically significantly higher than in the adjacent open grazing areas. Moreover, herbaceous biomass in ECP differed significantly from that of ECNR. The results indicated that ENR and ECP equally enhanced the selected vegetation parameters. This is predominantly attributed to the comparable responsiveness of many degraded areas to natural regeneration as they do to active regeneration approaches. Implementation of natural regeneration is suitable for immediate recruitment of strategy in terms of resources, time, and meeting objectives before decisions are made for assisted models of exclosure that require massive campaigns to construct soil and water conservation structures and huge seedling production in the dryland areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instream barriers remain ubiquitous threats to freshwater species and their habitats. Decisions regarding barrier removal are often aimed at maximizing habitat area and connectivity for freshwater fish; yet can be challenging due to the sheer number of barriers, uncertainty in species presence, abundance, and habitat quality, as well as limited budgets alongside high costs of restoration. Here, we apply systematic conservation planning to prioritize in‐stream barrier removal aimed at restoring habitat connectivity for 14 populations of wild Pacific salmon in the lower Fraser River, Canada's most productive salmon‐bearing river. To understand how priorities change when stream quality is considered, we contrast scenarios that maximize habitat extent with scenarios that include four indicators of habitat quality. Region‐wide, approximately 64% of naturally accessible stream length is currently blocked by barriers. We estimate approximately 75% of this alienated habitat (over 1600 km of stream), could have full access restored with an investment of $200 million CAD, whereas 60% could be restored for half this amount. When stream quality was considered within the optimization, priorities for barriers removal shifted away from urbanized floodplain valleys towards less developed areas. The spatial shift in priorities meant that species like chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) would see less restored habitat. To inform barrier removal strategies using these model scenarios, an iterative and adaptive approach will be required that includes the values and priorities of rights and titleholders. Continuous improvement in data quality, accuracy, and feedback from monitoring as barriers are restored is also crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a major role in maintaining long‐term ecological stability. This paper focuses on how land use conversion affects the stability of SOC (e.g., carbon [C] molecular structure) and how soil C cycle‐related enzyme activities are involved in the process. Four land use types around the southern margin of Qinghai Lake were researched: lakeside wetland, natural grassland, cropland, and restored grassland. Soil C was dominated by O‐alkyl carbon (O‐alkyl C, 40.6%–49.3% of total intensity) and alkyl carbon (alkyl C 25.9%–36.7%) in all land use types. Alkyl C and aliphaticity were more abundant in lakeside wetlands than in the other land use types; these values decreased by 29.5% and 36.0%, respectively, after lakeside wetland reclamation. Compared with cropland, restored grassland had higher dissolved organic carbon and β‐glucosidase activity, mainly attributed to the higher plant residues left in the topsoil that provided the polysaccharides required for the higher β‐glucosidase activity. The SOC, labile carbon, alkyl C, and aliphaticity together explained more than 50% of the total variability of soil enzyme activities (p < 0.05) by redundancy analysis, and β‐glucosidase played a regulatory role in soil carbon conversion by path analysis. The lakeside wetland had a more stable SOC than the other land use types around Qinghai Lake at the molecular level due to its higher aliphaticity and aromaticity, which are mainly related to oxygen limitations in lakeside wetlands. To some extent, the accumulation of recalcitrant molecules is limited in restored grassland soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spatiotemporal shifts in vegetation and their climatic and anthropogenic regulatory factors can offer a crucial theoretical basis for environmental conservation and restoration. In this article, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of the Miaoling area from 2000 to 2020 is studied using a trend analysis and the Mann–Kendall mutation test (MK test) to review the vegetation's dynamic changes. Our study uses the Hurst index, a partial correlation analysis, and a geographic detector to investigate the contributions of climate change and human activities to regional vegetation changes and their drivers. We found that Miaoling's annual average NDVI was between 0.66 and 0.83 in 2000–2020, with a mean of 0.766. The overall trend was slow upward (0.0009/year), and 53.82% of the region continued to grow and gradually increased from west to east in the spatial domain, among which the karst regional NDVI distribution area and its growth rate were higher than those of non-karst sites. Based on correlations between climatic factors and NDVI, precipitation seasonality (coefficient of variation, CV) had the strongest correlation (positive correlation) with NDVI, while vapor pressure deficit (VPD) had a negative correlation with NDVI. In the interaction, human activities played a dominant role in the influence of NDVI on the vegetation of Miaoling. The night light index had the most explanatory power on the NDVI (q = 0.422), and the interaction between anthropogenic factors and other factors dominated its explanatory power. This study has academic and practical importance for the management, protection, and sustainable development of karst basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]