Biodiversity in Functional Restoration

1. Biodiversity in Functional Restoration Joan L. Walker Southern Research Station Clemson, SC

3. (UNEP 2010)

6. Biodiversity • Variability among living organisms from all sources and the ecological complexes of which they are part; includes diversity within species, communities, landscapes • Functional Restoration • Restoration focused on restoring ecological services that satisfy human needs or values • Supporting (nutrient cycling, primary production) • Provisioning (timber, fish, food crops) • Regulating (climate, water supply, soil quality) • Cultural (aesthetic values) Definitions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005)

7. Benayas et al. analyzed results of 89 studies with multiple measures of biodiversity and ecosystem services • Findings: • Restoration increased provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services by 44 and 25% • Both remained lower in restored versus reference systems Meta-analysis: Restoration, biodiversity, ecological services

8. Restored sites exceeded degraded sites • But restored sites were inferior to reference sites • Biggest response tropical terrestrial systems Ecosystem services responses to restoration for different biomes

9. Restored biodiversity correlated with ecological services delivery Beneyas et al 2009

10. Not really this simple! • Biodiversity, the focal objective • A conceptual model (Brudvig 2011) • Less studied aspects of restoration • Biodiversity in other functional restorations • Some thoughts Where is this talk going???? Recipe for success… Dry upland seed Nearby dry upland site

11. A conceptual model Brudvig 2011

12. Regional species pool • Sets bounds on levels and composition • Site-level factors • Filters that facilitate or impede membership • Make a site suitable for target community • Efforts dictated by degradation • Approaches: Wide array of methods applied • Replace, remove topsoil • Channel reconstruction • Canopy manipulations • Restore disturbance regime • Species additions (focal, interacting) • Control invasive spp (many methods) Factors and approaches

13. Landscape factors • Conceptual relationships considered • Site size limits potential • Patches influenced by matrix, connectivity • Approaches: corridor or stepping stone restoration • Historical contingency • Timing and pre-restoration legacies (alternative stable states, novel ecosystems, assembly rules, threshold models) • Approaches: manipulate timing, but understand other factors (disturbance history at site and landscape scales) Factors (continued)

14. Emphasis on terrestrial systems, plants confirmed

15. Regional Species Pool RESTORATION 6% 0.5% 97% • Landscape factors • 4 Landscape composition • 7 Connectivity to remnant • 5 Patch size & geometry • Historical contingency • 4 Land-use legacies • 0.5 Species arrival • 0 Historical landscape effects • 0 Year effects • Site Level factors • 34Abiotic conditions • 19 Habitat structure • 70 Biotic conditions • 17 Disturbance regime 11% 4% 78% • Site Level Biodiversity • 88 Species • 11 Functional • 0.5 Genetic 4% 10%

16. Regional Species Pool RESTORATION 6% 0.5% 97% • Landscape factors • 4 Landscape composition • 7 Connectivity to remnant • 5 Patch size & geometry • Historical contingency • 4 Land-use legacies • 0.5 Species arrival • 0 Historical landscape effects • 0 Year effects • Site Level factors • 34Abiotic conditions • 19 Habitat structure • 70 Biotic conditions • 17 Disturbance regime 11% 4% 78% • Site Level Biodiversity • 88 Species • 11 Functional • 0.5 Genetic 4% 10%

17. Large experiments needed; some variables cannot be manipulated (meta-analyses) • Focus on what kinds of situations is landscape effect likely to be more or as important as site factors. • Similarly, consider the most likely conditions for effects of ‘time factors’ and investigate significance there first. More landscape and historical contingency research?

18. Regional Species Pool RESTORATION 6% 0.5% 97% • Landscape factors • 4 Landscape composition • 7 Connectivity to remnant • 5 Patch size & geometry • Historical contingency • 4 Land-use legacies • 0.5 Species arrival • 0 Historical landscape effects • 0 Year effects • Site Level factors • 34Abiotic conditions • 19 Habitat structure • 70 Biotic conditions • 17 Disturbance regime 11% 4% 78% • Site Level Biodiversity • 88 Species • 11 Functional • 0.5 Genetic 4% 10%

19. Does plant community diversity predict other levels of diversity (e.g. consumers, soil microbes)? • Does species restored species diversity relate to functional group diversity, genetic diversity? • Trait based approach may provide an avenue to develop general predictive models of biodiversity restoration… • Multi-species interactions Less studied aspects of biodiversity restoration

20. Things that are hard to see and measure • Belowground processes, interactions • Things that take special expertise, equipment • Assessing, evaluating genetic diversity and significance • Things that involve more than 2 or more species or trophic levels • Things you learn from really big experiments • Significance of restoration factors in contrasting site types, or across ecosystems Less studied aspects of biodiversity restoration

21. A really big experiment - sites • Stand & Landscape Level Studies • 4 Focal landscapes • 3 Ecoregions • Range of latitude & longitude • Regional Level Study • 18 landscapes • 4 Ecoregions • Expanded geographic range US Environmental Protection Agency Level III ecoregions map indicating the location of target Department of Defense installation and National Forests.

22. Significance of within species variation on herbaceous community restoration • Need for suitable seed transfer zones to protect genetic diversity and support successful projects • Better understanding of how within species diversity affects community development (inter- and intra-specific interactions, rhizosphere conditions, e.g.) • Ecology of seed production (weather, fire, pathogens-interactions, e.g.) • Seedling establishment – frequency, significance in natural systems • Value of functional surrogates, significance of redundancy in functional groups Some of my personal favorites

23. Biodiversity and the restoration of other ecosystem services Benayas et al 2009

24. KEY QUESTION: • What do you want the plant community (biodiversity) to do? • Are there species or combinations of species that do it better? • Shift from taxa based diversity to functional group (guild) based diversity Some thoughts on biodiversity and restoration of other ecosystm services

25. Advantages to solving problems with multiple species when you can • Hedge bets for success • Receive unknown benefits • Consider opportunities to increase biodiversity in follow-up actions • Relationships of ecosystem services to biodiversity are not well- understood; incorporate monitoring and installations that can shed light on the subject Some thoughts on biodiversity and restoration of other ecosystm services

26. Questions?