Research has shown that damaged ecosystems can recover within a lifetime if the cause of the damage is stopped.

Yale University looked at 240 independent studies investigating the recovery rates of ecosystems and their recoveries after being damaged by both human and natural causes. The researchers looked at several key damage and recovery factors and evaluated how long it took each ecosystem to recover to their original state having suffered from damage. The research also looked whether there was a correlation between amount of damage done and how quickly the eco system recovered.

It appears that 83 studies demonstrated recovery for all variables, 90 demonstrated a mixture of recovered and non-recovered variables, 67 demonstrated no recovery for any variable, and 15 percent of all the ecosystems in the analysis are beyond recovery.

The average time for recovery was 20 years or less and it was found that of those that did recover, 56 years was the longest recovery period. Human damage such as logging or agricultural usage caused longer recovery times than natural damage such as hurricanes.

Forests had one of the longest recovery periods whereas aquatic systems had one of the quickest recovery times. This is possibly due to the fact that aquatic systems had a much higher turnover of species and organisms thus allowing the habitat to recover more quickly.

The research shows that if damage is halted before it reaches a critical stage, recovery is possible although it may take several years for the ecosystem to fully recover. However it should be noted that it is almost impossible to fully predict how an ecosystem will react as there are many different factors involved in regeneration that cannot be separated out for example changes in weather, climate or pollution levels.

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