193 research outputs found
Restoring tropical forests from the bottom up.
How can ambitious forest restoration targets be implemented on the ground
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Riparian forest recovery following a decade of cattle exclusion in the Colombian Andes
Applied nucleation as a forest restoration strategy.
a b s t r a c t The pace of deforestation worldwide has necessitated the development of strategies that restore forest cover quickly and efficiently. We review one potential strategy, applied nucleation, which involves planting small patches of trees as focal areas for recovery. Once planted, these patches, or nuclei, attract dispersers and facilitate establishment of new woody recruits, expanding the forested area over time. Applied nucleation is an attractive option in that it mimics natural successional processes to aid woody plant recolonization. To date, results of experimental tests of applied nucleation are consistent with theoretical predictions and indicate that the density and diversity of colonists is higher in planted nuclei than in areas where no planting takes place (e.g. passive restoration). These studies suggest that the applied nucleation strategy has the potential to restore deforested habitats into heterogeneous canopies with a diverse community composition, while being cheaper than projects that rely on plantation designs. We recommend several areas where research would aid in refining the methodology. We also call for further comparisons as nuclei age beyond the 2-13 years that have been studied, thus far, in order to confirm that practical applications continue to match theoretical predictions. Finally, we suggest that applied nucleation could be effective in the restoration of a variety of habitat types or species guilds beyond the ones to which it has been applied thus far
Tailoring restoration interventions to the grassland-savanna-forest complex in central Brazil
Made available in DSpace on 2019-09-18T00:41:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Schmidtetal2019RestorationEcology.pdf: 228617 bytes, checksum: f2e62c1741a1f02b90f6b15189f85175 (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2019bitstream/item/202063/1/Schmidt-et-al-2019-Restoration-Ecology.pd
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Active restoration accelerates recovery of tropical forest bird assemblages over two decades
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Landscape Context Mediates Avian Habitat Choice in Tropical Forest Restoration
Birds both promote and prosper from forest restoration. The ecosystem functions birds perform can increase the pace of forest regeneration and, correspondingly, increase the available habitat for birds and other forest-dependent species. The aim of this study was to learn how tropical forest restoration treatments interact with landscape tree cover to affect the structure and composition of a diverse bird assemblage. We sampled bird communities over two years in 13 restoration sites and two old-growth forests in southern Costa Rica. Restoration sites were established on degraded farmlands in a variety of landscape contexts, and each included a 0.25-ha plantation, island treatment (trees planted in patches), and unplanted control. We analyzed four attributes of bird communities including frugivore abundance, nectarivore abundance, migrant insectivore richness, and compositional similarity of bird communities in restoration plots to bird communities in old-growth forests. All four bird community variables were greater in plantations and/or islands than in control treatments. Frugivore and nectarivore abundance decreased with increasing tree cover in the landscape surrounding restoration plots, whereas compositional similarity to old-growth forests was greatest in plantations embedded in landscapes with high tree cover. Migrant insectivore richness was unaffected by landscape tree cover. Our results agree with previous studies showing that increasing levels of investment in active restoration are positively related to bird richness and abundance, but differences in the effects of landscape tree cover on foraging guilds and community composition suggest that trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and bird-mediated ecosystem functioning may be important for prioritizing restoration sites
Lessons on direct seeding to restore Neotropical savanna
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Previous issue date: 2019bitstream/item/201069/1/1-s2.0-S0925857419302538-main.pd
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Rewilding and restoring nature in a changing world
Overview of the PLoS ONE collection 'Rewilding and Restoration'
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