Rewilding with Ecosystem Engineers for Accelerating Wetland Restoration Processes

Abstract

Wetland ecosystems are very important in sustaining biodiversity, water quality, and climate resilience, but with the increasing anthropogenic pressures like pollution, land-use change, and climate variability, wetlands have become endangered. Traditional restoration methods are usually not effective in helping to restore at a rapid pace and in a sustainable way. This paper assesses the success of rewilding by examining its role in hastening the restoration of wetlands in the degraded areas of the Sundarbans region in India by the reintroduction of ecosystem engineers. The experimental design was a controlled experiment whereby a comparison was made between the treatment (rewilded) and control sites over a 24-month period. The loss of ecosystem engineers such as burrowing crabs, grazing herbivores, and important invertebrates was also reintroduced to improve ecological processes. The performance on restoration was measured with the help of biodiversity indices, vegetation cover, and parameters of soil quality and water quality, like turbidity, nutrient concentration, and dissolved oxygen. Findings proved the growth of species richness by 28 %, the growth of vegetation cover by 35-40 %, and the growth of soil organic matter and nutrient cycling by 25 % in sites of treatments as compared to control sites. There was a great improvement in water quality, and turbidity was minimized by an average of 30-40 % age of nutrient levels was minimized by 30-40 % age, and the level of dissolved oxygen increased by about 15. The statistical analysis of ANOVA proved that these changes were significant (p < 0.05). The results outshine the advantages of rewilding facilitated by ecosystem engineers to regain ecological functionality and fast-track the recovery processes. The method offers a sustainable and scalable approach to wetland restoration and can guide conservation policies to mitigate the degradation of the ecosystem and improve environmental resilience in the long term.