About the Project

This project seeks to understand the role of natural systems in sustaining humankind. Significant attention is often given to the degradation and exploitation of natural resources by society, but human activities also seek to improve natural systems through restoration. Despite the prevalence of restoration projects, there is a critical knowledge gap in understanding what constitutes ‘success’ and whether traditionally accepted metrics of success (e.g., survival rate of plantings or number of volunteers) are indeed indicative of measurable impacts (e.g., improvements to ecological function or enhanced stakeholder buy-in). The objective of the proposed research is to quantify the relationship between restoration success and impact, both within and between human and natural systems. The PIs will leverage an extensive monitoring dataset for 80+ oyster reef and living shoreline restoration projects on Florida’s Indian River Lagoon (IRL) that have spanned nearly a decade and involved over 51,000 volunteers. New experimental data related to site- and lagoon-scale ecosystem responses to restoration will be integrated into a comprehensive assessment of stakeholder perceptions, attitudes, and sense of place within the natural system using participatory GIS and focus groups. Research products will adapt the existing vulnerability and adaptive capacity frameworks to address human-natural system dynamics, creating highly transferable knowledge regarding the critical attributes of communities that cascade into beneficial feedbacks between humans and restored ecosystems.