Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts

Nancy Shackelford^#^{1

2}, Gustavo B Paterno^#^{3

4}, Daniel E Winkler⁵, Todd E Erickson^{6

7}, Elizabeth A Leger⁸, Lauren N Svejcar⁹, Martin F Breed¹⁰, Akasha M Faist¹¹, Peter A Harrison¹², Michael F Curran¹³, Qinfeng Guo¹⁴, Anita Kirmer¹⁵, Darin J Law¹⁶, Kevin Z Mganga¹⁷, Seth M Munson¹⁸, Lauren M Porensky¹⁹, R Emiliano Quiroga^{20

21}, Péter Török²², Claire E Wainwright²³, Ali Abdullahi²⁴, Matt A Bahm²⁵, Elizabeth A Ballenger²⁶, Nichole Barger²⁷, Owen W Baughman²⁸, Carina Becker²⁹, Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja³⁰, Chad S Boyd⁹, Carla M Burton³¹, Philip J Burton³¹, Eman Calleja³², Peter J Carrick³³, Alex Caruana³², Charlie D Clements³⁴, Kirk W Davies⁹, Balázs Deák³⁵, Jessica Drake³⁶, Sandra Dullau¹⁵, Joshua Eldridge³⁷, Erin Espeland³⁸, Hannah L Farrell¹⁸, Stephen E Fick⁵, Magda Garbowski³⁹, Enrique G de la Riva⁴⁰, Peter J Golos⁷, Penelope A Grey⁴¹, Barry Heydenrych⁴², Patricia M Holmes⁴³, Jeremy J James⁴⁴, Jayne Jonas-Bratten⁴⁵, Réka Kiss³⁵, Andrea T Kramer⁴⁶, Julie E Larson²⁷, Juan Lorite^{47

48}, C Ellery Mayence⁴⁹, Luis Merino-Martín⁵⁰, Tamás Miglécz⁵¹, Suanne Jane Milton^{52

53}, Thomas A Monaco⁵⁴, Arlee M Montalvo⁵⁵, Jose A Navarro-Cano⁵⁶, Mark W Paschke⁵⁷, Pablo Luis Peri⁵⁸, Monica L Pokorny⁵⁹, Matthew J Rinella⁶⁰, Nelmarie Saayman⁶¹, Merilynn C Schantz⁶², Tina Parkhurst⁶³, Eric W Seabloom⁶⁴, Katharine L Stuble⁶⁵, Shauna M Uselman⁶⁶, Orsolya Valkó³⁵, Kari Veblen⁶⁷, Scott Wilson⁶⁸, Megan Wong⁶⁹, Zhiwei Xu⁷⁰, Katharine L Suding^{27

71}

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. nshack@uvic.ca.
² Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. nshack@uvic.ca.
³ Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Restoration Ecology Research Group, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany.
⁵ US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, UT, USA.
⁶ School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
⁷ Kings Park Science, Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, Kings Park, Western Australia, Australia.
⁸ Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA.
⁹ USDA Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center, Burns, OR, USA.
¹⁰ College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
¹¹ Department of Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
¹² School of Natural Sciences and ARC Training Centre for Forest Value, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
¹³ Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
¹⁴ USDA FS - Southern Research Station, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Nature Conservation and Landscape Planning, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Bernburg, Germany.
¹⁶ School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Agricultural Sciences, South Eastern Kenya University, Kitui, Kenya.
¹⁸ US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
¹⁹ US Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service Rangeland Resources and Systems Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
²⁰ Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca, Catamarca, Argentina.
²¹ Cátedra de Manejo de Pastizales Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Catamarca, Catamarca, Argentina.
²² MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary.
²³ Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Water Resources, Nashville, TN, USA.
²⁴ Hirola Conservation Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
²⁵ USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Merced Field Office, Merced, CA, USA.
²⁶ National Park Service, Southeast Utah Group, Moab, UT, USA.
²⁷ Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
²⁸ The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, Burns, OR, USA.
²⁹ Plant Conservation Unit, Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
³⁰ University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario, Albacete, Spain.
³¹ University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
³² Institute of Applied Sciences, Malta College for Arts, Sciences and Technology, Fgura, Malta.
³³ Plant Conservation Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
³⁴ USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Great Basin Rangelands Research Unit, Reno, NV, USA.
³⁵ Lendület Seed Ecology Research Group, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Debrecen, Hungary.
³⁶ Murrang Earth Sciences, Ngunnawal Country, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
³⁷ Great Ecology, Denver, CO, USA.
³⁸ USDA-ARS Pest Management Research Unit, Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT, USA.
³⁹ German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
⁴⁰ Department of Ecology, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany.
⁴¹ Biodiversity Management Branch, Environmental Resource Management Department, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁴² Greening Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁴³ Department of Conservation Ecology & Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch Central, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁴⁴ Natural Resource Management and Environmental Sciences, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Biology, University of Nebraska-Kearney, Kearney, NE, USA.
⁴⁶ Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL, USA.
⁴⁷ Department of Botany, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁴⁸ Interuniversity Institute for Earth System Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁴⁹ New Zealand Department of Conservation, Christchurch, New Zealand.
⁵⁰ Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química inorgánica, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
⁵¹ ÖMKi - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Budapest, Hungary.
⁵² Hadison Park, Kimberley, South Africa.
⁵³ Wolwekraal Conservation and Research Organisation (WCRO), Prince Albert, South Africa.
⁵⁴ US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Forage and Range Research Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁵⁵ University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁵⁶ Department of Environment and Agronomy, National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
⁵⁷ Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁵⁸ Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Santa Cruz, Argentina.
⁵⁹ USDA - NRCS, Bozeman, MT, USA.
⁶⁰ USDA Agricultural Research Service, Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory, Miles City, MT, USA.
⁶¹ Plant Science, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Elsenburg, South Africa.
⁶² Red Rock Resources LLC, Miles City, MT, USA.
⁶³ Bush Heritage Australia, Eurardy, Western Australia, Australia.
⁶⁴ Deptartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA.
⁶⁵ Holden Arboretum, Kirtland, OH, USA.
⁶⁶ Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Wildland Resources & Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁶⁸ Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
⁶⁹ Centre of eResearch and Digital Innovation, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
⁷⁰ School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁷¹ Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34294898
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01510-3

Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts

Nancy Shackelford et al. Nat Ecol Evol. 2021 Sep.

. 2021 Sep;5(9):1283-1290.

doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01510-3. Epub 2021 Jul 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. nshack@uvic.ca.
² Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. nshack@uvic.ca.
³ Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Restoration Ecology Research Group, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany.
⁵ US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, UT, USA.
⁶ School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
⁷ Kings Park Science, Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, Kings Park, Western Australia, Australia.
⁸ Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA.
⁹ USDA Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center, Burns, OR, USA.
¹⁰ College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
¹¹ Department of Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
¹² School of Natural Sciences and ARC Training Centre for Forest Value, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
¹³ Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
¹⁴ USDA FS - Southern Research Station, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Nature Conservation and Landscape Planning, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Bernburg, Germany.
¹⁶ School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Agricultural Sciences, South Eastern Kenya University, Kitui, Kenya.
¹⁸ US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
¹⁹ US Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service Rangeland Resources and Systems Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
²⁰ Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca, Catamarca, Argentina.
²¹ Cátedra de Manejo de Pastizales Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional de Catamarca, Catamarca, Argentina.
²² MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary.
²³ Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Water Resources, Nashville, TN, USA.
²⁴ Hirola Conservation Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
²⁵ USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Merced Field Office, Merced, CA, USA.
²⁶ National Park Service, Southeast Utah Group, Moab, UT, USA.
²⁷ Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
²⁸ The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, Burns, OR, USA.
²⁹ Plant Conservation Unit, Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
³⁰ University of Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario, Albacete, Spain.
³¹ University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
³² Institute of Applied Sciences, Malta College for Arts, Sciences and Technology, Fgura, Malta.
³³ Plant Conservation Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
³⁴ USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Great Basin Rangelands Research Unit, Reno, NV, USA.
³⁵ Lendület Seed Ecology Research Group, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Debrecen, Hungary.
³⁶ Murrang Earth Sciences, Ngunnawal Country, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
³⁷ Great Ecology, Denver, CO, USA.
³⁸ USDA-ARS Pest Management Research Unit, Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT, USA.
³⁹ German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
⁴⁰ Department of Ecology, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany.
⁴¹ Biodiversity Management Branch, Environmental Resource Management Department, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁴² Greening Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁴³ Department of Conservation Ecology & Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch Central, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁴⁴ Natural Resource Management and Environmental Sciences, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
⁴⁵ Department of Biology, University of Nebraska-Kearney, Kearney, NE, USA.
⁴⁶ Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science and Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL, USA.
⁴⁷ Department of Botany, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁴⁸ Interuniversity Institute for Earth System Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
⁴⁹ New Zealand Department of Conservation, Christchurch, New Zealand.
⁵⁰ Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química inorgánica, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
⁵¹ ÖMKi - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Budapest, Hungary.
⁵² Hadison Park, Kimberley, South Africa.
⁵³ Wolwekraal Conservation and Research Organisation (WCRO), Prince Albert, South Africa.
⁵⁴ US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Forage and Range Research Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁵⁵ University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁵⁶ Department of Environment and Agronomy, National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
⁵⁷ Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁵⁸ Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Santa Cruz, Argentina.
⁵⁹ USDA - NRCS, Bozeman, MT, USA.
⁶⁰ USDA Agricultural Research Service, Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory, Miles City, MT, USA.
⁶¹ Plant Science, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Elsenburg, South Africa.
⁶² Red Rock Resources LLC, Miles City, MT, USA.
⁶³ Bush Heritage Australia, Eurardy, Western Australia, Australia.
⁶⁴ Deptartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA.
⁶⁵ Holden Arboretum, Kirtland, OH, USA.
⁶⁶ Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
⁶⁷ Department of Wildland Resources & Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁶⁸ Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
⁶⁹ Centre of eResearch and Digital Innovation, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
⁷⁰ School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁷¹ Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34294898
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01510-3

Erratum in

Author Correction: Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts.
Shackelford N, Paterno GB, Winkler DE, Erickson TE, Leger EA, Svejcar LN, Breed MF, Faist AM, Harrison PA, Curran MF, Guo Q, Kirmer A, Law DJ, Mganga KZ, Munson SM, Porensky LM, Quiroga RE, Török P, Wainwright CE, Abdullahi A, Bahm MA, Ballenger EA, Barger N, Baughman OW, Becker C, Lucas-Borja ME, Boyd CS, Burton CM, Burton PJ, Calleja E, Carrick PJ, Caruana A, Clements CD, Davies KW, Deák B, Drake J, Dullau S, Eldridge J, Espeland E, Farrell HL, Fick SE, Garbowski M, de la Riva EG, Golos PJ, Grey PA, Heydenrych B, Holmes PM, James JJ, Jonas-Bratten J, Kiss R, Kramer AT, Larson JE, Lorite J, Mayence CE, Merino-Martín L, Miglécz T, Milton SJ, Monaco TA, Montalvo AM, Navarro-Cano JA, Paschke MW, Peri PL, Pokorny ML, Rinella MJ, Saayman N, Schantz MC, Parkhurst T, Seabloom EW, Stuble KL, Uselman SM, Valkó O, Veblen K, Wilson S, Wong M, Xu Z, Suding KL. Shackelford N, et al. Nat Ecol Evol. 2021 Sep;5(9):1319. doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01544-7. Nat Ecol Evol. 2021. PMID: 34321611 No abstract available.

Abstract

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but without a global evaluation of successes and failures it is impossible to gauge feasibility. Here we examine restoration seeding outcomes across 174 sites on six continents, encompassing 594,065 observations of 671 plant species. Our findings suggest reasons for optimism. Seeding had a positive impact on species presence: in almost a third of all treatments, 100% of species seeded were growing at first monitoring. However, dryland restoration is risky: 17% of projects failed, with no establishment of any seeded species, and consistent declines were found in seeded species as projects matured. Across projects, higher seeding rates and larger seed sizes resulted in a greater probability of recruitment, with further influences on species success including site aridity, taxonomic identity and species life form. Our findings suggest that investigations examining these predictive factors will yield more effective and informed restoration decision-making.

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References

1. Hobbs, R. J. et al. Restoration ecology: the challenge of social values and expectations. Front. Ecol. Environ. 2, 43–38 (2004). - DOI
1. Harris, J. A., Hobbs, R. J., Higgs, E. & Aronson, J. C. Ecological restoration and global climate change. Restor. Ecol. 14, 170–176 (2006).
1. Aronson, J. C. & Vallejo, R. in Restoration Ecology: The New Frontier (eds. van Andel, J. & Aronson, J. C.) (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
1. Suding, K. et al. Committing to ecological restoration. Science 348, 638–640 (2015). - DOI - PubMed
1. Plaza, C. et al. Soil resources and element stocks in drylands to face global issues. Sci. Rep. 8, 13788 (2018).

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Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts

Affiliations

Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts

Authors

Affiliations

Erratum in

Abstract

References

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources