Study: Polluted ecosystems can recover

NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 1 (UPI) -- A Yale University study suggests most polluted or damaged ecosystems can recover within a lifetime if there's a public commitment to the restoration.

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies researchers looked at 240 independent studies and found forest ecosystems recovered in 42 years on average, while ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years.

Researchers said ecosystems undergoing multiple, interacting disturbances recovered in 56 years, while those affected by invasive species, mining, oil spills or trawling recovered in as little as five years.

The scientists said most ecosystems took longer to recover from human-induced disturbances than from natural events, such as hurricanes.

"The damages to these ecosystems are pretty serious," said Professor Oswald Schmitz, co-author of the meta-analysis with postdoctoral student Holly Jones. "But the message is that if societies choose to become sustainable, ecosystems will recover. It isn't hopeless."

The researchers focused on seven ecosystem types, including marine, forest, terrestrial, freshwater and brackish, addressing recovery from major anthropogenic disturbances.

The Yale analysis found 83 studies demonstrated recovery for all variables, 90 reported a mixture of recovered and non-recovered variables and 67 reported no recovery for any variable.

The research appears in the online journal PLoS One.