Prof. Dr. Helmut Hillebrand and Charlotte Kunze (ICBM/HIFMB) analysed in a meta-study 508 publications on ecosystem recovery. Disturbances in the ecological sense, such as draughts, torrential rains, epidemics of pests, occur in different ecosystems all the time. Generally, affected ecosystems recover, at least to a certain degree, if one looks at functions such as production of oxygen or biomass. Nonetheless, they appear considerably altered in many cases – regarding species composition, for instance.

University of Oldenburg, Press release (German only)