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Ecological restoration success is higher for natural regeneration than for active restoration in tropical forests.

ABSTRACT: Is active restoration the best approach to achieve ecological restoration success (the return to a reference condition, that is, old-growth forest) when compared to natural regeneration in tropical forests? Our meta-analysis of 133 studies demonstrated that natural regeneration surpasses active restoration in achieving tropical forest restoration success for all three biodiversity groups (plants, birds, and invertebrates) and five measures of vegetation structure (cover, density, litter, biomass, and height) tested. Restoration success for biodiversity and vegetation structure was 34 to 56% and 19 to 56% higher in natural regeneration than in active restoration systems, respectively, after controlling for key biotic and abiotic factors (forest cover, precipitation, time elapsed since restoration started, and past disturbance). Biodiversity responses were based primarily on ecological metrics of abundance and species richness (74%), both of which take far less time to achieve restoration success than similarity and composition. This finding challenges the widely held notion that natural forest regeneration has limited conservation value and that active restoration should be the default ecological restoration strategy. The proposition that active restoration achieves greater restoration success than natural regeneration may have arisen because previous comparisons lacked controls for biotic and abiotic factors; we also did not find any difference between active restoration and natural regeneration outcomes for vegetation structure when we did not control for these factors. Future policy priorities should align the identified patterns of biophysical and ecological conditions where each or both restoration approaches are more successful, cost-effective, and compatible with socioeconomic incentives for tropical forest restoration.

SUBMITTER: Crouzeilles R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5677348 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ecological restoration success is higher for natural regeneration than for active restoration in tropical forests.

Crouzeilles Renato R Ferreira Mariana S MS Chazdon Robin L RL Lindenmayer David B DB Sansevero Jerônimo B B JBB Monteiro Lara L Iribarrem Alvaro A Latawiec Agnieszka E AE Strassburg Bernardo B N BBN

Science advances 20171108 11

Is active restoration the best approach to achieve ecological restoration success (the return to a reference condition, that is, old-growth forest) when compared to natural regeneration in tropical forests? Our meta-analysis of 133 studies demonstrated that natural regeneration surpasses active restoration in achieving tropical forest restoration success for all three biodiversity groups (plants, birds, and invertebrates) and five measures of vegetation structure (cover, density, litter, biomass ...[more]

PMID: 29134195

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Project description:Tropical forest restoration initiatives are becoming more frequent worldwide in an effort to mitigate biodiversity loss and ecosystems degradation. However, there is little consensus on whether an active or a passive restoration strategy is more successful for recovering biodiversity because few studies make adequate comparisons. Furthermore, studies on animal responses to restoration are scarce compared to those on plants, and those that assess faunal recovery often focus on a single taxon, limiting the generalization of results. We assessed the success of active (native mixed-species plantations) and passive (natural regeneration) tropical cloud forest restoration strategies based on the responses of three animal taxa: amphibians, ants, and dung beetles. We compared community attributes of these three taxa in a 23-year-old active restoration forest, a 23-year-old passive restoration forest, a cattle pasture, and a mature forest, with emphasis on forest-specialist species. We also evaluated the relationship between faunal recovery and environmental variables. For all taxa, we found that recovery of species richness and composition were similar in active and passive restoration sites. However, recovery of forest specialists was enhanced through active restoration. For both forests under restoration, similarity in species composition of all faunal groups was 60-70% with respect to the reference ecosystem due to a replacement of generalist species by forest-specialist species. The recovery of faunal communities was mainly associated with canopy and leaf litter covers. We recommend implementing active restoration using mixed plantations of native tree species and, whenever possible, selecting sites close to mature forest to accelerate the recovery of tropical cloud forest biodiversity. As active restoration is more expensive than passive restoration, both strategies might be used in a complementary manner at the landscape level to compensate for high implementation costs.

Project description:Degradation of natural habitats due to urbanization is a major cause of biodiversity loss. Anthropogenic impacts can drive phase shifts from productive, complex ecosystems to less desirable, less diverse systems that provide fewer services. Macroalgae are the dominant habitat-forming organisms on temperate coastlines, providing habitat and food to entire communities. In recent decades, there has been a decline in macroalgal cover along some urbanised shorelines, leading to a shift from diverse algal forests to more simple turf algae or barren habitats. Phyllospora comosa, a major habitat forming macroalga in south-eastern Australia, has disappeared from the urban shores of Sydney. Its disappearance is coincident with heavy sewage outfall discharges along the metropolitan coast during 1970s and 1980s. Despite significant improvements in water-quality since that time, Phyllospora has not re-established. We experimentally transplanted adult Phyllospora into two rocky reefs in the Sydney metropolitan region to examine the model that Sydney is now suitable for the survival and recruitment of Phyllospora and thus assess the possibility of restoring Phyllospora back onto reefs where it was once abundant. Survival of transplanted individuals was high overall, but also spatially variable: at one site most individuals were grazed, while at the other site survival was similar to undisturbed algae and procedural controls. Transplanted algae reproduced and recruitment rates were higher than in natural populations at one experimental site, with high survival of new recruits after almost 18 months. Low supply and settlement success of propagules in the absence of adults and herbivory (in some places) emerge as three potential processes that may have been preventing natural re-establishment of this alga. Understanding of the processes and interactions that shape this system are necessary to provide ecologically sensible goals and the information needed to successfully restore these underwater forests.

Dataset Information

Ecological restoration success is higher for natural regeneration than for active restoration in tropical forests.

Publications

Ecological restoration success is higher for natural regeneration than for active restoration in tropical forests.

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