Resource Database

Vegetation Function and Diversity on Reclaimed Surface-mined Lands of Southeastern Ohio, USA

Surface coal mining has transformed certain regions of Appalachia. Reclamation laws have evolved over the past fifty years, creating spatiotemporal variability in reclaimed landscapes. While the vegetation composition of reclaimed lands is well understood, less is known about the associated development of ecological function. We used two attributes of the plant community—diversity and the capacity to absorb photosynthetically active radiation—as fundamental indicators of ecosystem composition and function. Using both satellite-derived light reflectance and field sampling, we characterized the successional trajectory of reclaimed lands, reference forest, and reference grasslands in southeastern Ohio, USA. We also assessed the importance of active management in ecosystem restoration. The reclaimed lands in this study represent four different eras of regulation, from pre-1972 to post-1981. We compared the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within and among sites from 2000-2016, and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index among sites in 2016-2017. In this study, the oldest reclamation sites (45-50 years since reclamation) achieved the highest capacity for light absorption by 2016, suggesting that time since disturbance, reclamation technique, or a combination of the two are conducive to the restoration of ecological function. Younger reclaimed sites (25-35 years since reclamation) accrued function more rapidly than older sites—reaching NDVI equivalence with reference ecosystems 28-34 years after mining—suggesting that reclamation technique can accelerate recovery. Active management of reclaimed lands does not improve light absorption capacity, but it does increase plant diversity, which is linked to a variety of other ecological functions.

Vegetative Community and Health Assessment of a Constructed Juncus-dominated Salt Marsh in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Deer Island provides a buffer from storm and flood damage as well as shore-line stabilization to the mainland of Biloxi, Mississippi. The US Army Corps of Engineers and MS Department of Marine Resources have conducted restoration with beneficial use material, and two sites have since been planted with native vegetation. The sites are anticipated to function similarly to the Juncus roemerianus dominated salt marshes natural to the northern Gulf of Mexico and provides a test case for the success of future salt marsh loss mitigation.

This study assessed the vegetative health of the constructed sites using vascular plant community diversity and biomass, as well as relating these parameters to geomorphological characteristics of the area by measuring elevation and soil condition. Sampling in Spring and Fall 2017 through 2019 demonstrated establishment of planted salt marsh and naturally-recruited sand-berm vegetation but planted J. roemerianus, however, failed to establish. The two constructed sites were found to have a diverse array of vegetation, but function of the salt marsh in terms of root production and sediment organic carbon deposition remained underdeveloped when compared to the natural reference site.

The sea level rise was projected at the two constructed sites under three scenarios to assess the sites’ vulnerability to rising sea levels. All sites were found to be vulnerable to sea level rise except under the lowest sea level rise scenario. Further monitoring should be conducted to observe the development of ecological functions at these constructed marshes and evaluate their success in the long term.

Financial Mechanisms for Restoration at scale: Payment for Environmental Services Platform Transaction

Ecosystem restoration is one of nature-based-solutions that can help tackling climate change, but still does not occur at the scale to attend this urgency. It is necessary to reduce costs and engage landholders to restore lands. To reduce costs, it can be applied conducting natural regeneration technique in many regions in the Atlantic Forest. In order to outreach landowners, sometimes it is necessary to provide incomes.
To foster PES Programs in Brazil, it was organized a workshop with 59 experts. After that, we noticed that few landowners received resources to restore their lands and the main bottlenecks to scale up PES are: lack of financial resources; high operational cost (more costly than PES that reaches the landholders); lack of PES Public Policies; excessive bureaucracy; juridical insecurity.
In order to address these challenges, a Task Force was formed to looking for scale up restoration, using PES as a tool. The key conclusion was the urgency to create a National Policy and also to develop a PES transaction platform, aiming to bring a market concept to several environmental services (water, climate and biodiversity), joining “sellers” and “buyers” in the same place, reducing bureaucracy, providing legal certainty to both parties, developing an efficient monitoring system and decreasing operational PES costs.
Currently, National PES Policy was created and the PES Platform is under development and until of the end of this year, the first financial transactions for environmental services should be happen generating positive social and environmental impacts on the ground.

From Atlantic Forest Biome to local: Strengthening local forest landscape restoration networks

The Atlantic Forest (AF) is one of the tropical forests with the highest priority and global potential for restoration efforts. There is an urgent need for its recovery and investments must go beyond legal compliance. Considering different motivations and scales of interventions of the institutions interested in the forest landscape restoration (FLR) of the AF is crucial to guarantee that local institutions, especially the implementers, are involved and are being strengthened to access the opportunities that  will emerge for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and play an active role in it.
In 2020, Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact (AFRP) supported an integrated effort with three local institutions (AFRP regional Units) in different AF landscapes. These efforts aimed to strengthen their capacity, their technical expertise, and their geospatial database aiming to increase their protagonist to support FLR local networks as well as the planning and implementation of restoration projects in the field.
According to AFRP regional units and lessons learned on this process, there is still a need for the creation and standardization of local geospatial databases in a collaborative way, so that they can be integrated on national platforms. In addition, continued technical training and experiences sharing are necessary, as well as a better connection between local implementers with a more diverse number of investors and sources of funding. The AFRP needs to continuously strength the integration between multiple platforms and access opportunities for local restoration networks – that is one of the goals of the Pact Challenge in this decade.

How we are preparing for the next decade: Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact Challenge

Last year, even in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic and over a denial political period, the restauration agenda in Brazil strengthened, through the consolidation of key National and sub-national coalitions, including the The Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact (PACTO), performing a strategic role in this context. The PACTO is recognized as a coalition with a consolidated governance and is inspiring and collaborating with several initiatives, from on the ground activities, capacity building, to public policy and financial mechanism. Since it was launched, in 2009, the PACTO has been driven by technical and scientific basis, mobilization and engagement of a diverse group of stakeholders and sectors; development of a collaborative platform for achieving restoration solutions; harmonization of regional socio-ecological specificities into a common vision. Currently there are more than 300 institutions members at Pact, 17 Decentralized Units, 6 thematic working groups, and innumerous articles that corroborate the movement achievements and outcomes. Additionally, the Pact´s Geodatabase platform encompass beside the 1M Hectares of native forest recovery, more than 60,000 hectares of restoration projects, with detailed information about it, including planting trees methods, monitoring process and partners and sponsors institutions. Currently we are implementing the Pact Challenge, with the ambition of recording additionally more 1 M hectares by 2025, mainly focused
on the social and ecological drivers. To achieve that, we are implementing a pilot in 2 regions in the Atlantic Forest with good lessons learned contribution for the Decade.

Wetlands in Agricultural Landscapes as Habitat for Aquatic Wildlife

Wetlands provide critical habitat and valuable ecosystem services. However, land use conversion in southern Ontario over the past 200 years has led to the loss of 72% of wetlands. Wetlands in agricultural landscapes may offset wetland loss but are susceptible to contamination by pesticides and nutrients. We tested to what degree wetlands in agricultural landscapes supported aquatic wildlife based on surrounding land cover. We expected that wetlands surrounded by agricultural activity would be low quality habitat for aquatic species due to impaired water quality. We sampled 28 open-water wetlands in southwestern Ontario that were created, restored, or enhanced by Ducks Unlimited Canada within the past 5–10 years in partnership with local landowners. These wetlands were surrounded by forests, grasslands, and/or agricultural fields (Figure 1). We measured pesticide and nutrient levels and identified the aquatic invertebrate and fish communities throughout the summer after planting season. Of the pesticides tested for, 24 compounds were detected across 36% of wetlands. From our preliminary identification of invertebrates, 53 taxa were found across wetlands (14 ± 1.4 per wetland), with greater diversity in wetlands with cooler water temperatures and more surrounding forest cover (p = 0.04). Eight fish species were found across 89% of wetlands (2 ± 0.3 per wetland). Restoring wetlands in agricultural landscapes may therefore provide habitat for and bolster wetland-dependent species, as long as there are no long-term negative effects on these species, and will help to offset wetland loss in Ontario.

Restoration Planning – From Local to National Platforms

Over the last 20+ years hundreds of restoration projects and initiatives have been implemented in Brazil by NGOs, private companies, governments, research institutions, and landowners. During this period Brazil also committed to restore 12 million hectares of degraded lands and forests by 2030, developed a National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (PLANAVEG), and launched several regional initiatives to accelerate and increase the scale of forest and landscape restoration.
Because most restoration efforts have been done at the project level, there is a need to plan and implement restoration at the landscape level in order to achieve those ambitious goals. One of the challenges is the elaboration of action plans that generate multiple benefits for stakeholders at the landscape level. Therefore, different approaches are needed. The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) and its set of tools, applied in several landscapes in Brazil,
not only showed to be an effective methodology to guide and enable restoration at the landscape level but also showed very useful in planning restoration.
We present here the lessons-learned of two examples of restoration planning, based on the results of ROAM. The first one is in the Paraiba Valley in São Paulo State and the second in two sub-watersheds (Itaunas and São Mateus) in the north of Espirito Santo state. ROAM provided critical information and the enabling conditions to build effective restoration plans to restore the productivity and functionality of those landscapes and to contribute to Brazil´s national plan and global commitments.

Drill-seeding compared to broadcast-seeding improves a native bunchgrass establishment across multiple sites and years

Restoration in dryland ecosystems is renowned for low establishment of seeded species. As such, evaluations of current seeding methods are critical to understanding limitations and barriers to seeding success. Drill seeding is perceived as an optimal seeding strategy in many dryland ecosystems, but broadcast seeding is more commonly used as a seeding method due to physical and logistical constraints. For example, broadcast seeding may be conducted by aerial drops that are uninhibited by topography, whereas drill seeding equipment may be constrained to specific slopes. Few studies have quantified the differences between drill and broadcast seeding across spatiotemporal gradients. We compare two-year survival of emergent Pseudoroegneria spicata (bunchgrass) seedlings in the Great Basin for drill versus broadcast seeding methods across three planting years, three landscape aspects and two ecological sites (soil) using a 95% confidence interval approach to avoid penalty of multiplicity. We found drill seeding had overall greater survival of seedlings compared with broadcast seeding (2.7 times greater). However, differences varied by planting year, aspect and soil. Drill seeding had an obvious expression of benefit on clay soils with flat and north aspects (10.1 and 4.6 times greater for drill than broadcast seeding, respectively). In most conditions, drill seeding had greater survival than broadcast seeding, though in 2014 on south aspects broadcast seeding had greater survival than drill seeding (2.7 times greater). The results of this study demonstrate a need for precision restoration plans that account for spatiotemporal variation in addition to planting method in seeding efforts.

Guiding restoration decision-making with modern, robust, and usable genetic information

Government agencies worldwide have joined major restoration initiatives including the recent UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, the largest-ever intergovernmental effort focused on restoring lands degraded by human activity. Although these efforts are challenged by climate change, socioeconomic inequality, ethical questions, etc., in the context of native plant restoration they are also challenged by limited understanding of effective ways to source and translocate genetically appropriate restoration materials, as well as the effects of restoration on biodiversity. Here, we present recent work from the Genetics for Western Restoration and Conservation (GWRC) research group, with the aim of guiding manager and practitioner decisions about where to source seeds for native plant materials development and wildland restoration, while simultaneously providing insightful information into the evolutionary histories and adaptations of common, workhorse restoration species. To inform genetically based restoration decisions, we present POPMAPS (Population Management using Ancestry Probability Surfaces), a novel method to delineate population boundaries across species’ ranges by combining empirical genetic and geospatial data. Last, we discuss some of the inevitable limitations of sampling designs and challenges inherent in biological processes that vary across and even within species, as well as ways to adjust restoration strategies and goals to meet current and future needs.

Innovative Restoration: Developing seed technologies for sagebrush steppe recovery

The sagebrush steppe is one of the most ecologically imperiled ecosystems of North America. Historical destructive land use, exotic species invasion, and frequent, large-scale fires are contributing to rapid landscape‐level conversion from native perennial plant communities to highly degraded systems dominated by invasive annual grasses. Approximately half of the sagebrush steppe has already been lost, and this loss is continuing at a rapid rate. While seeding efforts to re-establish native plant communities have been ongoing for several decades, restoration failures can exceed 95% and germination and emergence are often the most critical phases in determining plant establishment success. Failures are due to a number of barriers, including competition from invasive annual grasses, freezing-induced mortality of newly emerged seedlings, drought, and many others. As part of the Sagebrush Sea Program (a 6-state, multi-organizational partnership, facilitated by The Nature Conservancy), our team is working with agency and industry partners to improve restoration outcomes through the development of seed technologies involving seed pelleting and coating. These seed technologies, designed to target key restoration barriers to plant establishment, may offer an opportunity to improve restoration outcomes across the sagebrush steppe and may be applicable across a range of ecosystems that rely on seed-based restoration. In this presentation we will demonstrate the application of a ‘precision restoration’ framework for seed technology development and share findings from prototype evaluations in both laboratory and field settings.

Insights into rangeland restoration outcomes from data-driven population models

Evidence that once healthy plant populations are slow or unable to recover after disturbance and seeding is widespread throughout restoration ecology, particularly in water-limited regions like the Great Basin, US. While considerable attention has been given to the role of abiotic conditions (e.g. moisture availability) and plant community composition (e.g. competition), less is known about how endogenous changes to population structure following wildfire influence recovery dynamics. Because recovering populations are dominated by young, small plants which may have lower survival and reproductive rates, their population dynamics may be altered from pre- to post-disturbance conditions. Using data from 531 post-fire big sagebrush populations where seeding occurred, we parameterized structured-population models to explore how changes in sagebrush population size-structure influence recovery dynamics. We find that shifts in population size-structure from large to small plants, and resulting transient dynamics, could significantly impede recovery after disturbance. We estimated that 500 of the 531 populations have the potential to grow and recover once a mature population size structure is established (i.e. asymptotic population growth rate 95% CI overlap with 1). But, we estimate 88% of these 500 populations declined, rather than grew, as they were re-establishing after post-fire seeding. Our modeling indicates that slow recovery was likely driven, in part, by the demographic effects of a population that was composed predominantly of small plants with low survival and reproduction. Our results suggest that alternative restoration approaches, such as planting some larger plants in conjunction with seeding, may accelerate recovery.

Large-scale deployment of enhanced seeds using customised precision seeding machines improves dryland restoration success

The mining industry in Australia’s biodiverse, arid north-west is required to rehabilitate disturbed land with native ecosystems that are comparable to pre-disturbed conditions. Due to relatively high plant density targets, and the scale of this task (e.g. > 3,000 km2 ), the planting of tubestock is uneconomical and not favoured by the industry. Therefore, significant effort has been placed on developing approaches and technologies that improve plant establishment via direct seeding. Recruitment bottlenecks at the germination-emergence phase, however, often hinders seed-based rehabilitation programs in this region. Difficult-to-alleviate seed dormancy mechanisms and restricted emergence potential when seeds are sown in highly altered, rocky soil profiles have been frequently encountered. These seed-use shortfalls are further confounded by a range of seeds that possess poor flow properties (e.g. densely haired seeds) which impede or block conventional direct seeding machinery.
In this presentation, we will discuss some of our biological, technological, and precision-engineered seeding solutions that have been developed over the past decade to overcome these seed-use shortfalls. Most recently, we have improved the flow properties of problematic native seeds via flash flaming applications (i.e. rapid exposure of seeds to flames to remove unwanted hairs), applied species-specific seed enhancement treatments (e.g. application of smoke cues through hydropriming), and precision sown these seeds using custom-built machinery designed to deal with rocky soil profiles. Combined, we have increased seedling emergence potential for many of species from less than 5% to over 40%. These techniques show promise for scalability across mined land in Australia and across the globe

Please Step Away From the Model: Improving estimates of coniferous forest regeneration and persistence by studying patterns and mechanisms in real life

Computational modeling-based research forecasts severe reductions in the persistence of semiarid coniferous forests in western North America, resulting from declines in juvenile survival in both natural and post-disturbance landscapes. This presents an interesting ecological situation where the importance of a process has been identified, yet very little is actually known about it. In this presentation we will overview research that seeks to elucidate a set of important mechanisms associated with biotic and abiotic controls on juvenile ponderosa pine survival. The first part includes extensive field surveys to characterize the growth characteristics of juvenile ponderosa pines and other conifers, and attribution of tree cohort development to climatic versus edaphic-environmental control. The second part is comprised of a manipulative field experiment to better understand how small precipitation changes, microclimate, and population stress tolerance influence juvenile ponderosa pine survival. We will then show how insights from this research can be used to improve estimates of regeneration-associated forest persistence in scenarios of future climate change, and can also be used to direct forest management towards the locations and actions that are most likely to be successful in the future. In total, this research will illustrate how targeted research on fine-scale patterns and mechanisms may be used to substantially improve simulation-based understanding of the scope and scale of an ecological process that is expected to become more substantial and problematic in a changing climate.

Re-emerging Strategies to Enhance Plant Establishment in Dryland Systems

Many applied researchers have spent the past decade attempting to develop sophisticated restoration methods to arrest and mitigate land degradation in dryland systems that result from climate change, invasion of non native species and land transformation. Despite the promise of newly developed approaches, many techniques developed by academic researchers are not actually useful in the field due to enormous logistic or monetary infeasibility of deployment at management-relevant scales. As a result, ancient approaches to land management are regaining popularity for use in restoration programs. However, many of these approaches have not been formally tested in a way to determine best management practices. In this talk, I will describe recent research that explores the utility of several old-school land management approaches, including rock lunas, seedballs, and fertile islands. I will describe when and how each approach might be employed as a successful strategy to address restoration challenges in dryland systems.
This presentation is part of the accepted SER symposium entitled ‘Advancing restoration science to overcome dryland
regeneration failures’

Regeneration potential following tree die-off in dryland forests and woodlands

Dryland ecosystems across the western US are currently experiencing warmer temperatures coupled with climate-driven increases in disturbance. This may result in biome‐level vegetation shifts to alternate vegetation types if there is a failure of trees to regenerate. Restoring these ecosystems in the aftermath of these large-scale disturbance events requires identifying locations where landscape conversions are likely as well as the population bottlenecks limiting regeneration. Here we present results from studies assessing where regeneration failure has occurred across broad physiographic gradients among populations of piñon pine (Pinus edulis), a widespread dryland conifer in the U.S. Southwest. In addition, we assess how various population processes, specifically seed cone production, seedling establishment, and juvenile survival vary across this broad physiographic gradient to identify population bottlenecks. Our results suggest that regeneration failure is more likely in areas with hotter and drier climatic conditions: piñon pine seed cone production, seedling establishment, and juvenile survival were all strongly affected by physiographic factors that increase tree water stress. Establishment and survival were also highly dependent upon overstory trees and shrubs for providing favorable microsites, particularly in areas with greater grass cover, suggesting that seeding and planting efforts will have the greatest likelihood of success beneath nurse shrubs and trees. Following recent disturbance events such as drought-induced tree mortality, regeneration failure is likely to occur in areas without sufficient remaining overstory tree or shrub cover, especially at locations with high grass cover and hotter and drier climatic conditions.

Where to restore: Using regional and local soil maps to identify potential pine barren and sand plain habitat

Tools to identify locations for restoration and rewilding efforts are especially crucial where land conversion, succession, and other processes leave potential habitat cryptic on the landscape. We quantified potential habitat for the globally rare pine barren and sand plain ecosystems of New York State, whose current extent is greatly reduced from the past yet host a variety of rare and threatened biota. They occur almost exclusively on deep, sand and gravel soils. We used spatially explicit soil maps at two spatial scales to identify glacially-derived sand and gravel soils that, potentially, support these ecosystems. We matched the output of our analysis with known distributions of remnant habitat and indicator species.

Our analysis revealed over 1.8 million ha of sand and gravel soils, 50 times the area of known pine barren and sand plain habitat. Our modeled soils matched closely onto known distributions of indicator arthropod, amphibian, and plant species. More than half of the potential area is presently forested, with nearly all of the remainder split between agriculture and urban land uses.

Our analysis shows that opportunities exist to supplement the conservation of existing habitat by restoring sites that possess suitable physical soil conditions. We suggest that priority be given to areas that are nearby existing high-quality habitat, including ones that are currently forested or even agricultural. Combining soils maps with the locations of remnant populations can greatly expand the palette open to those seeking to restore and rewild landscapes for the sake of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services.

Assisted natural regeneration as a forest restoration method

Assisted natural regeneration is a forest restoration method that has received more attention in the last decade, mainly in landscapes that have forest remnants and local resilience. Several management actions can be applied, including grass control and biodiversity enrichment through the reintroduction of different species groups. This video aims to demonstrate the operational actions carried out in an assisted natural regeneration experiment in the Doce River basin, in south-eastern Brazil, which consisted of three types of interventions applied in areas undergoing natural regeneration that were set aside 3 to 8 years ago. The treatments were: i) weed control and fertilization of wildlings, ii) weed control + enrichment planting using seedlings of five tree species and iii) weed control + enrichment planting using seedlings of fifteen tree species. The video will show exotic grass control, the delimitation of planting-holes and soil preparation using post hole diggers, tree seedling planting, fertilization of wildlings and planted seedlings, and the preliminary results after 12 months. We will also demonstrate some practical challenges and detail topics related to planning, deployment and monitoring. It consists of an assembly of records filmed during the operations plus a demonstration of how to allocate the seedlings with an animation, all using appropriate captions in English and a list of the challenges and lessons learned at the end of the video. We expect this will contribute to other forest restoration practitioners or researchers who aim to implement similar experiments.

Bird perches for seed dispersion in disturbed dry mountain forests: Implications for Ecological Restoration

Large areas of subtropical dry mountain forests at northwest Argentine have been transformed into mountain pastures due to cattle ranching and intentional fires. Restoration of these degraded areas depends on seed dispersal from the forest remnants, dispersion mediated mainly by birds. Artificial perches are a useful ecological restoration tool because they increment the structure of the standing vegetation and encourage disperser birds to alight. We placed artificial bird perches to restore a degraded area at Campo Alegre Private Provincial Reserve at northwest Argentine. We aim to know which plant species reach the perches through the seed rain generated by birds. We placed six experimental units where we installed four artificial bird perches and four control treatments. Under each perch and control area we placed a 0.56 m2 seed trap and we collected seeds every 15 days during two consecutive summer seasons (2018-2020). All the species collected were native. Only 2 ornithocoric seeds we found in control areas. In contrast, under bird perches we collected 4994 ornithocoric seeds in total. The most abundant species was the shrub Rubus imperialis, but we also found six tree species (Scutia buxiflora, Zanthoxylum coco, Schinus mirtyfolius, Sapium haematospermum, Allophylus edulis, Blepharocalyx salicifolius). Although seed dispersion is increased by artificial perching, it is important to evaluate if such seeds are capable to germinate and establish in the disturbed areas.

Establishing an Ecological Workforce Developing Training and Qualifications Certificate for on-the-ground laborers and operators

A coalition of restoration industry leaders, employers, community colleges, training providers, and workforce development partners are establishing an Ecological Workforce Training Program and industry-recognized Certificate. The Program, which will be piloted in June 2021, is a combination of specially developed curriculum supplemented by worksite training.

The Program delivers specially designed curriculum to the on-the-ground restoration laborers and equipment operators, giving them the skills and knowledge to work appropriately in ecologically sensitive habitats, including an understanding of the permitting requirements and restrictions, habitat types, and species of concern.

It is on the ground where the labor force interfaces with the resources, yet there currently is no specialized, publicly available training for those workers. The extent to which workers are trained in this specialty is primarily based on on-the-job training, which varies dramatically between employers. Lack of industry standards can lead to damage to resources and unsatisfactory project outcomes.

Creation of a respected training program will foster recognition of Environmental Restoration activities as an economic driver and identify an Ecological Workforce separate from and with more specialized skills than, traditional civil construction laborers. This initiative is a powerful means of addressing the long standing barriers to employment in restoration work faced by many in our underserved communities. The Program will expeditiously retrain laborers of all levels into highly paid and fulfilling jobs with excellent wages and benefits, while supporting more successful restoration project outcomes.

Introducing seagrass restoration path of Enhalus acoroides (Linnaeus f.) Royle in Thailand

The seagrass meadows are one of the most important ecosystems in the coastal areas as they provide various ecosystem services for global biodiversity, human-wellbeing, climate change adaptation and mitigation. However, these ecosystems are declining in alarming rate especially in the Southeast Asian region where the pressures on seagrass meadows have remained same for the last 20 years. In Thailand, the restoration and the monitoring of seagrass ecosystems has been limited, combined with different methodologies across the country and the lack of monitoring options. The objective of this short video is to introduce the path for restoration of Enhalus acoroides from the seedling and all the most important steps included in the restoration. The video is following the major steps of fruit and seed collection, growth of the seeds in the laboratory, planting in the field and monthly monitoring. This short video provides the opportunity to share the knowledge on the appropriate methodology to the local communities, restoration practitioners and other interested parties from government or private sector as outreach programs.

LIFE: EU FUNDING FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION ACTIONS

Background
The LIFE programme is the European Union (EU)’s funding instrument for environment and climate action. It has co-financed more than 5 500 projects across the EU and beyond1 , and it represents the largest and most efficient financial mechanism for social-ecological restoration in Europe.

Objectives
A video will be produced to show how the LIFE programme contribution enables conservation actions to achieve ecological restoration in the EU. More specifically, the video is aimed at sharing LIFE best practices with a general public, as well as at inspiring professionals working in ecological restoration worldwide to take action (local authorities, technicians, private landowners…).

Methods
Selected successful LIFE projects from numerous EU countries and different biogeographical areas will be contacted to provide audiovisual material that highlights their achievements on restoration actions to combat biodiversity loss, climate change and adverse effect of inappropriate land use. Examples may include, among others, LIFE to alvars, Cumbrian BogsLIFE+, and LIFE-GREEN4GREY.

Expected results
One informative clip of around 1-2 minutes will highlight new approaches and innovative techniques within ecological restoration. A simple but well-structured script, supported with keywords and other engaging elements, will result in an attractive and inspiring video that will feature in #SER2021. It will be promoted through LIFE’s social media and other suitable communication channels such as the LIFE newsletter. Dissemination actions will of course be tailored to the event’s objectives and happen in accordance with relevant dates in its calendar.

Long-term burn season effects on an upland longleaf pine forest

The longleaf pine ecosystem of the southeastern United States is a fire-dependent ecosystem. Fire is essential to its natural regeneration and maintenance of species rich understory and habitat for a variety of wildlife. In the absence of fire, longleaf pine dominated forests are gradually succeeded by hardwood species and the understory loses its species richness. Conversely, the introduction of fire into the long-unburned degraded longleaf pine forests can help restore these ecosystems. Both fire frequency as well as season of burn may affect structure and composition of these forests. For example, winter-burned forests may have higher abundance of shrubby species in the understory compared to summer-burned forests, which may be richer in graminoids. Also, long unburned forests have reduced abundance of longleaf pine in the overstory. At the Escambia Experimental Forest in southeastern United States, we have maintained long-term research plots that have been burned either in summer, winter, or fall on a biannual basis since 1973, along with unburned control plots. These plots distinctly demonstrate the long-term effects of seasonal burning compared to fire exclusion on overstory and understory composition, and are an excellent resource for creating a video aimed at educating researchers, restoration practitioners, students, landowners, and general public. We will create a high-quality, professionally recorded and edited 3- minute video that will provide a virtual field trip to these long-term seasonally burned longleaf pine plots and present some important results from the research. After watching the video, the audience will have improved understanding of the relevance of fire and season of burn in sustaining and/or restoring longleaf pine forests.

Producing native plant materials for restoration of paramos in Ecuador

Since 2000, Fund for the Protection of Water (FONAG) has worked on activities for the recovery of degraded ecosystems focusing on paramos, wetlands and mountain forests in source water areas around Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Since 2003, native and exotic forest species have been planted. Since 2014, native shrub and tree species have been used through nurseries with the capacity to provide additional new species. However, there was no traceability of the origin of the genetic material used.

Recognizing the value of using native, ecologically appropriate, and genetically diverse plant material to support ecosystem recovery aiming at greater resilience in the face of unpredictable climate conditions, in 2018, a program was started to produce paramo species from seeds with traceable origin. The video will show how you the system governance that FONAG took to generate plant production contracts for each specific site to be restored and how this process has resulted in the production of more native species that previously did not exist in nurseries, especially shrubs. Since then, 361,200 plants of more than 20 different species have been produced and used in the restoration of approximately 360 hectares.

We want showed how this has led to restauration project improvements and challenges, from climatic conditions, soil preparation, seed collection and maintenance until the plants are ready for planting at the restoration site

RestoreNet: an emerging dryland restoration network to increase revegetation success

Despite widespread demand for dryland restoration, there is often sparse information available to help land managers and practitioners effectively establish native vegetation and stabilize soils at degraded sites. Restoration treatments that help overcome barriers of suitable plant material, low and variable rainfall, high temperatures, infertile soils, and invasive species can enhance plant and ecosystem recovery. RestoreNet is a restoration field trial network that systematically tests restoration treatments across environmental gradients in the southwestern US. Digging pits and applying wood mulch treatments increased total seedling density, with pits promoting the highest seeded species recruitment while limiting unseeded non-native species establishment. Seeding increased total seedling density regardless of seed mix type, but seed mixes with cooler-adapted species promoted greater seeded species density relative to warmer adapted mixes. Seedling recruitment was tied to site, time, and environmental context. The positive effect of high precipitation was greatest in the weeks immediately following seeding and in the first-year treatments were implemented. Outplanting greenhouse grown individuals led to higher survival than seeding, and survival of these individuals was driven by traits that allowed for rapid water acquisition during favorable periods at warmer sites. RestoreNet represents a growing opportunity to compare restoration effectiveness across sites and infer appropriate treatments at new sites along environmental gradients before suitable methods are needed following large-scale disturbance.

Restoration of ecosystem services to degraded landscapes can be facilitated through a trait-based approach. Specifically, functional traits mediate responses to environmental constraints such as aridity, soil degradation and grazing, as well as effects on ecosystem services like soil stabilization, weed suppression and productivity. Using a trait-based approach, we established a suite of experimental biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments across the Colorado Plateau as part of RestoreNet. We demonstrate a clear functional basis to plant survival and performance, with strong interactions between relevant traits and the local environmental stressors across experimental restoration sites. Furthermore, we demonstrate the influence of functional traits on the simultaneous provisioning of soil stabilization, weed suppression and productivity, and how tradeoffs and complementarity among these ecosystem services are driven by trait-environment relationships. Lastly, we show that plant water use strategies underpin these patterns, with important implications for site-specific species selection and management objectives. We argue that the results of this research may be generalizable to many dryland ecosystems, and that the general experimental approach, replicated across many sets of environmental conditions and species pools, could help advance restoration theory and practice.

Raising up Providence Island mangroves after Iota’s fury

On November 16, IOTA, the largest hurricane of 2020 in the Atlantic reached winds of about 250Km h-1. It was at 18 kilometers from the Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands (Colombia) being category 5. IOTA left in his wake close to 98% of the houses destroyed and affectations at least 93% of its plant covers in these Caribbean Island. In mangrove ecosystems particularly, the Hurricane left approximately 70% of the coverage affected mainly by defoliation, breaking of branches and trunks, and accumulation of large-scale debris. The impact of the hurricane was particularly evident in fringe mangroves dominated by Rhizophora mangle (red mangrove), while in basin forests dominated by Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, Conocarpus erectus, the forests showed better health, natural regeneration and even, regrowth twenty days after the occurrence of the phenomenon. In this video, a series of photographs and short videos have compiled that show the impact of the Hurricane on these ecosystems and the first steps that have been taken for their restoration, including characterization fieldwork and “first aid” measures for this valuable ecosystem, worked with the local community.

Seeding native species increases resistance to fire-induced annual grass invasion in semiarid woodlands

In the cold deserts of the western United States, the invasion of fire-adapted annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) can initiate a grass-fire cycle that results in the progressive loss of native plant communities. Invasion is often facilitated by fire, and given observed increases in the size and frequency of wildfires, there is a pressing need to understand the ecosystem attributes associated with susceptibility to invasion and to identify appropriate management responses. In this talk, we share lessons from a long-term experiment examining plant community responses to fire and post-fire seeding treatments in a shrubland-woodland mosaic. We found that resistance to post-fire cheatgrass invasion varied across the landscape, with the highest levels of invasion occurring at lower elevation (warm/dry) sites and in plots with high pre-fire tree cover. Where resistance to invasion was low, seeding perennial species after burning reduced invasibility. Importantly, seeding a functionally diverse mix of native species was more effective at increasing perennial cover and inhibiting cheatgrass invasion than seeding a mix of non-native perennial grasses commonly used in rehabilitation efforts. Our results are consistent with other experimental research, yet differ from observational studies that have shown limited success from post-fire seeding of native species. We integrate our findings with what is known from the available literature to discuss key factors determining post-fire seeding treatment outcomes: landscape heterogeneity in plant community recovery, year-to-year fluctuations in weather conditions, post-fire grazing, and bet hedging strategies such as functional diversity in seed mixes.

Seedling ontogenetic trait shifts implications for restoration ecology

Trait-based frameworks are increasingly utilized in restoration ecology to understand species responses to environmental variation and to build community assemblages resilient to global change. Yet, ontogenetic trait variation within species, particularly during early stages of development, remains understudied. We used a manipulative greenhouse experiment to explore trait variation in early stages of development in 11 perennial plant species abundant across the western US. We examined variability in key trait values (i.e., specific leaf area, root:shoot ratio, specific root length, and root dry matter content) of 20 – 62-day-old seedlings grown under high and low levels of water availability. We also compared these to compiled trait databases to assess how representative these readily available data sources are of seedling trait values. Seedling trait values consistently differed from those of vegetatively mature plants and database values with variation dependent on stage of development, plant functional type and species, and water availability. Overall, forbs experienced greater ontogenetic trait shifts relative to grasses for all measured root-associated traits. Seedlings transitioned from fast-growing resource acquisitional strategies toward more conservative, slow-growing strategies over time. Results suggest plant trait database values may be poor predictors of early seedling trait values. Such mismatches in species trait information could result in inaccurate predictions of community assembly outcomes or incongruities between seedling traits and environmental filters experienced by seedlings during early stages of recruitment. Additional work is needed to characterize trait variation across plant ontogeny and will support a predictive understanding of plant recruitment processes and outcomes of ecological restoration.

Restoration Techniques and Experiences in Quito’s Paramo and Cloud Forest Ecosystems by the World’s First Water Fund FONAG as Member of the Acción Andina Initiative in Ecuador

To protect and recover the city’s water sources during its 2020-2021 campaign, FONAG the first water protection fund in the world, carried out restoration projects in the paramo and cloud forest ecosystems surrounding Ecuador’s capital, Quito, as a member of Acción Andina, a Latin-American initiative for the conservation and restoration of high-altitude native forests. Northwest of the city, FONAG produced 30,000 native plants in local nurseries including Polylepis pauta for restoration at high-altitude sites (3,700-3,900 m) and around 15 species of native cloud forest (1,800-2,200 m) plants from different stages of ecological succession. FONAG is using this production, together with 20,000 more individuals already produced and ready to plant, to restore around 40 hectares of native forest cleared for livestock farming. This restoration features different plant combinations chosen in accordance with the degradation levels of each restored site, e.g., with pioneer species used in higher proportions where the forest was almost fully replaced by non-native grasses. Northeast of the city, FONAG is restoring fragmented Polylepis forests, highly important in hydrological regulation within the paramo ecosystem, starting with 15,000 Polylepis incana individuals planted on 20 hectares of land believed to have been previously part of a larger forest patch lost to deforestation. Continuing these efforts, we have begun production of 30,000 more Polylepis incana and P. pauta plants from seeds collected in the remaining forest and due to be planted in late 2021 for the restoration of around 30 more hectares of deforested land.

Soil microbial inoculation and seed biopriming technologies for restoring dryland ecosystems

Dryland regions, which cover 40% of the global terrestrial area, and comprise a third of global biodiversity hotspots, are being seriously affected by soil degradation processes. The need to develop cost-effective large-scale solutions to restore these landscapes, is crucial to preserve biodiversity and achieve ecosystem functionality and sustainability. Indigenous soil bacteria, including cyanobacteria from soil biocrusts, have shown promise as bio-fertilizers as they may promote seedling growth of native plants, and fix carbon and nitrogen into the soil. However, these bio-inoculants have not yet been fully exploited for ecological restoration. In this talk, I will present our most recent research on i) the effects of bio-priming seeds with indigenous bacteria and cyanobacteria on plant growth of native plants used in dryland restoration; ii) the potential of cyanobacteria consortia for restoring soil function on reconstructed soils; and iii) the development of novel methodologies for targeted delivery of functional bacteria and cyanobacteria (i.e., via bio-encapsulation in extruded pellets). Our results have shown that both bacteria and cyanobacteria promote germination and seedling growth of native arid species, including hummock grasses and Acacia trees and shrubs. We also found that cyanobacteria inoculation can increase the levels of soil carbon and microbial diversity and promote the formation of a functional soil biocrust. These biotechnological approaches for indigenous microbial application in degraded drylands, are currently being applied in large-scale restoration programs across the Australian arid zone.

Restoring Forest Roadways to Benefit The Threatened Southern Mountain Caribou

The Caribou Flats roadways lies within the population range boundary of the Chase caribou herd. Federally, the Chase herd is considered part of the Southern Mountain population of caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) and listed as threatened on Schedule 1 of the Federal Species At Risk Act. The recovery strategy for Southern Mountain caribou recommends undertaking actions to improve habitats in current ranges by restoring linear features, such as old roads, and making habitat less suitable for other prey species.

In collaboration with Tsay Keh Dene Nation, our project team restored the Caribou Flats roadway using functional and ecological restoration techniques. The intent was to make the road less suitable for other prey species, predator travel, and human recreational and hunting use. This road was an ideal candidate for restoration since it provided access from low to high elevation, and was adjacent to a known caribou migration corridor. Functional restoration techniques such as tree felling and hinging, and access control, were employed to reduce line of sight and travel opportunities along the road. The ecological restoration techniques employed included road decompaction, mounding, ripping, and tree planting. Before road restoration work commenced, baseline vegetation and camera-trap data were collected for comparison, during future monitoring work.

In the short-term, the functional restoration techniques were expected to both reduce predator line of sight along the road and reduce human use. This reduced use is expected to allow the planted seedlings to establish, and in the long-term, return the road to a mature forest environment.