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Applied Quiz: Ecological Restoration

A second set of questions on this chapter, weighted toward using the ideas rather than recalling them. Each one puts you in a situation and asks what the chapter's framework says to do.

1. A grant application states the project goal as "restore the prairie." A reviewer sends it back. Using this chapter, how would you rewrite it?

  1. "Restore the prairie to its natural state"
  2. "Establish a diverse mesic prairie with at least 40 native plant species and fewer than 10% invasive cover within 5 years" — specific, measurable, time-bound
  3. "Plant native prairie species across the whole site"
  4. "Remove all invasive species from the site permanently"
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter contrasts exactly these two phrasings. Option D fails on a point the chapter makes directly: zero invasive cover is rarely realistic, so a goal built on it is a goal you cannot meet or measure against.

Concept Tested: Writing Restoration Goals

See: Chapter 12

2. A wetland restoration plants hundreds of sedges and bulrushes on a former farm field, but the drain tile is left in place. What does this chapter predict?

  1. Success — the plants will hold water once established
  2. Failure — hydrology comes first; without plugging the drainage, the site never holds water and wetland plants cannot establish
  3. Partial success in wet years only
  4. The tile will clog naturally within a season
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. "Hydrology first" is the chapter's rule, and plugging ditches and drain tile is named as often the single most effective restoration action. Planting before fixing the water is spending the budget on the wrong step.

Concept Tested: Wetland Restoration Sequence

See: Chapter 12

3. A landowner adds compost and fertilizer to a former cornfield before seeding prairie, reasoning that richer soil grows better plants. What does this chapter say?

  1. Good practice — all plantings benefit from added fertility
  2. Counterproductive — many native prairie plants prefer low-fertility soil, and rich soil favors weeds
  3. It makes no difference either way
  4. Compost helps but fertilizer does not
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Bree's insight in this chapter states it plainly. Prairie species evolved to compete on lean ground; raising fertility hands the advantage to fast-growing weeds that would otherwise lose.

Concept Tested: Soil Fertility in Restoration

See: Chapter 12

4. Someone plans to seed all 60 species of a target prairie community in year one. What does the chapter's succession approach suggest instead?

  1. Seeding everything at once is the most efficient method
  2. Phase it — pioneers like Canada Wild Rye and Black-Eyed Susan in year 1, slower forbs interseeded in years 2 to 3, and conservative species like Prairie Gentian and lady's slipper after year 5 once a community exists to support them
  3. Plant only the conservative species, since they are hardest to establish
  4. Seed nothing and let the site colonize naturally
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Conservative species often need nurse plants, established mycorrhizal networks, or particular microhabitats — none of which exist on bare ground in year one. Bree's analogy is a house: pioneers are the foundation, and the details come after.

Concept Tested: Successional Planting

See: Chapter 12

5. What does this chapter identify as the difference between a garden and a restoration?

  1. Restorations are larger
  2. A garden is designed for human enjoyment; a restoration aims to re-establish ecological processes — nutrient cycling, pollination, disturbance, seed dispersal — so the community sustains itself
  3. Restorations use only seed, gardens only plants
  4. There is no meaningful difference
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. This distinction drives the chapter's first principle, function over appearance. A restoration can look untidy and be succeeding, and it can look attractive and be failing.

Concept Tested: Restoration vs. Gardening

See: Chapter 12

6. You need a target for a mesic prairie restoration in Rice County. Where does the chapter tell you to look, and how should you use what you find?

  1. Photographs of prairies in other states
  2. A nearby reference ecosystem — a Scientific and Natural Area, DNR Native Plant Community maps, county biological survey, or pre-settlement vegetation map — used as a target to work toward, not a blueprint to copy exactly
  3. A commercial seed catalog's standard mix
  4. Whatever currently grows on the site
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter names all four reference sources and is careful about how to use them: the climate is shifting, some species are locally gone, and the surrounding landscape has changed, so exact replication is not the goal.

Concept Tested: Reference Ecosystems

See: Chapter 12

7. A restoration site was a construction staging area. What does its land-use history tell you to expect?

  1. Intact soil biology needing only replanting
  2. Severely compacted subsoil with topsoil likely removed — a very different starting point from former cropland or recently cleared woodland
  3. Elevated pH from lime application
  4. A rich native seed bank ready to germinate
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter distinguishes three histories with three signatures. Option C describes former agricultural land and option A recently cleared woodland — reading the history correctly is what tells you whether your first job is decompaction, weed control, or simply planting.

Concept Tested: Land Use History in Site Assessment

See: Chapter 12

8. In a wetland restoration you are choosing plants for an area that holds 6 inches of standing water. Which group fits?

  1. Bulrushes and water lilies, which need 12+ inches
  2. Blue Flag Iris, Marsh Marigold and Arrowhead — the shallow water group at 0 to 12 inches
  3. Big Bluestem and Prairie Blazing Star
  4. Blue Joint Grass and Tussock Sedge, which want saturated soil rather than standing water
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter breaks wetland planting into four depth bands, and 6 inches of standing water sits squarely in the shallow-water zone. Option D names the wet-meadow group, which is the next band up and would struggle under persistent standing water.

Concept Tested: Matching Wetland Species to Water Depth

See: Chapter 12

9. A woodland restoration removes all the buckthorn in one winter, leaving a large open canopy gap. What does this chapter flag as the next risk?

  1. There is no further risk once the buckthorn is gone
  2. The sudden light and disturbance favor rapid recolonization — by buckthorn from the seed bank and by other invaders — so canopy conditions and follow-up have to be planned along with the removal
  3. Native trees will immediately fill the gap
  4. The soil will erode away completely
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter treats canopy considerations as part of the buckthorn problem rather than an afterthought. Removal is a disturbance, and disturbance is the condition invasives are best at exploiting — which links straight back to Chapter 9's seed-bank warning.

Concept Tested: Woodland Restoration and Canopy

See: Chapter 12

10. Why does this chapter list "disturbance is natural" as a core principle when so much of restoration is about undoing damage?

  1. It is a contradiction the chapter does not resolve
  2. Fire, flooding and grazing shaped Minnesota's ecosystems for millennia and remain necessary management tools — the goal is restoring the right disturbance regime, not eliminating disturbance
  3. It means restorations should be regularly damaged
  4. It applies only to prairie, not to wetland or woodland
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The distinction is between the disturbances a community evolved with and the ones it did not. Removing fire from a fire-dependent prairie is itself a form of damage, which is why a reference ecosystem tells you the disturbance regime as well as the species list.

Concept Tested: Disturbance in Restoration Ecology

See: Chapter 12