Find research datasets worth reusing

Coral restoration – a systematic review of current methods, successes, failures and future directions

Coral reef ecosystems have suffered an unprecedented loss of habitat-forming hard corals in recent decades. While marine conservation has historically focused on passive habitat protection, demand for and interest in active restoration has been growing in recent decades. However, a disconnect between coral restoration practitioners, coral reef managers and scientists has resulted in a disjointed field where it is difficult to gain an overview of existing knowledge. To address this, we aimed to synthesise the available knowledge in a comprehensive global review of coral restoration methods, incorporating data from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with grey literature and through a survey of coral restoration practitioners. We found that coral restoration case studies are dominated by short-term projects, with 60% of all projects reporting less than 18 months of monitoring of the restored sites. Similarly, most projects are relatively small in spatial scale, with a median size of restored area of 100 m2. A diverse range of species are represented in the dataset, with 229 different species from 72 coral genera. Overall, coral restoration projects focused primarily on fast-growing branching corals (59% of studies), and report survival between 60 and 70%. To date, the relatively young field of coral restoration has been plagued by similar 'growing pains' as ecological restoration in other ecosystems. These include 1) a lack of clear and achievable objectives, 2) a lack of appropriate and standardised monitoring and reporting and, 3) poorly designed projects in relation to stated objectives. Mitigating these will be crucial to successfully scale up projects, and to retain public trust in restoration as a tool for resilience based management. Finally, while it is clear that practitioners have developed effective methods to successfully grow corals at small scales, it is critical not to view restoration as a replacement for meaningful action on climate change.

Lasting signature of planting year weather on restored grasslands

Ecological restoration — the rebuilding of damaged or destroyed ecosystems — is a critical component of conservation efforts, but is hindered by inconsistent, unpredictable outcomes. We investigated a source of this variation that is anecdotally suggested by practitioners, but for which empirical evidence is rare: the weather conditions during the first growing season after planting. The idea of whether natural communities face long-term consequences from conditions even many years in the past, called historical contingency, is a debated idea in ecological research. Using a large dataset (83 sites) across a wide geographic distribution (three states), we find evidence that precipitation and temperatures in the planting year (2-19 years before present) affected the relative dominance of the sown (native target species) and non-sown (mostly non-native) species. We find strong support for lasting planting year weather effects in restored tallgrass prairies, thereby supporting the historically contingent model of community assembly in a real-world setting.

Novel plant-microbe interactions: rapid evolution of a legume-rhizobium mutualism in restored prairies

1. When plants colonize new habitats, the novel interactions they form with new mutualists or enemies can immediately affect plant performance. These novel interactions also may provoke rapid evolutionary responses and can be ideal scenarios for investigating how species interactions influence plant evolution. 2. To explore how mutualists influence the evolution of colonizing plant populations, we capitalized on an experiment in which two former agricultural fields were seeded with identical prairie seed mixes in 2010. Six years later, we compared how populations of the legume Chamaecrista fasciculata from these sites and their original (shared) source population responded to nitrogen-fixing rhizobia from the restoration sites in a greenhouse reciprocal cross-inoculation experiment. 3. We found that the two populations differed both from their original source population and from each other in the benefits they derive from rhizobia, that one population has evolved reduced allocation to rhizobia (i.e., forms fewer rhizobium-housing nodules). 4. Synthesis. Our results suggest that these plant populations have evolved different ways of interacting with rhizobia, potentially in response to differences in rhizobium quality between sites. Our study illustrates how microbial mutualists may shape plant evolution in new environments and highlights how variation in microbial mutualists potentially may select for different evolutionary strategies in plant hosts.

opencc-zeroMar 2020View details →

Rapid adaptation (or not) in restored plant populations

Mismatches between the traits of a colonizing population and a novel habitat can generate strong selection, potentially resulting in rapid adaptation. However, for most colonization events, it can be difficult to detect rapid adaptation or distinguish it from non-adaptive evolutionary changes. Here I take advantage of a replicated prairie restoration experiment to compare recently established plant populations in two closely-located restored prairies to each other and to their shared source population to test for rapid adaptation. Using a reciprocal transplant experiment six years after the populations were established, I found that one restored plant population showed evidence of adaptation, outperforming the other restored population when grown at its home site. In contrast, I detected no evidence for adaptation at the other site. These findings demonstrate that while rapid adaptation can occur in colonizing plant populations, it may not be the rule. Better understanding of when adaptation may or may not occur in these contexts may help us use evolution to our advantage, potentially improving establishment of desirable species in restored habitats.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Probiotic treatment restores protection against lethal fungal infection lost during amphibian captivity

Host-associated microbiomes perform many beneficial functions including resisting pathogens and training the immune system. Here, we show that amphibians developing in captivity lose substantial skin bacterial diversity, primarily due to reduced ongoing input from environmental sources. We combined studies of wild and captive amphibians with a database of over 1 000 strains that allows us to examine antifungal function of the skin microbiome. We tracked skin bacterial communities of 62 endangered boreal toads, Anaxyrus boreas, across 18 time points, four probiotic treatments, and two exposures to the lethal fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in captivity, and compared these to 33 samples collected from wild populations at the same life stage. As the amphibians in captivity lost the Bd-inhibitory bacteria through time, the proportion of individuals exposed to Bd that became infected rose from 33% to 100% in subsequent exposures. Inoculations of the Bd-inhibitory probiotic Janthinobacterium lividum resulted in a 40% increase in survival during the second Bd challenge, indicating that the effect of microbiome depletion was reversible by restoring Bd-inhibitory bacteria. Taken together, this study highlights the functional role of ongoing environmental inputs of skin-associated bacteria in mitigating a devastating amphibian pathogen, and that long-term captivity decreases this defensive function.

Data from: Agricultural land-use history and restoration impact soil microbial biodiversity

<ol> <li>Human land uses, such as agriculture, can leave long-lasting legacies as ecosystems recover. As a consequence, active restoration may be necessary to overcome land-use legacies; however, few studies have evaluated the joint effects of agricultural history and restoration on ecological communities. Those that have studied this joint effect have largely focused on plants and ignored other communities, such as soil microbes.</li> <li>We conducted a large-scale experiment to understand how agricultural history and restoration tree thinning affect soil bacterial and fungal communities within longleaf pine savannas of the southern United States. This experiment contained 64 pairs of remnant (no history of tillage agriculture) and post-agricultural (reforested following abandonment from tillage agriculture >60 years prior) longleaf pine savanna plots. Plots were each 1-ha and arranged into 27 blocks to minimize land-use decision making biases. We experimentally restored half of the remnant and post-agricultural plots by thinning trees to reinstate open-canopy savanna conditions and collected soils from all plots five growing seasons after tree thinning. We then evaluated soil bacterial and fungal communities using metabarcoding.</li> <li>Agricultural history increased bacterial diversity but decreased fungal diversity, while restoration increased both bacterial and fungal diversity. Both bacterial and fungal richness were correlated with a range of environmental variables including aboveground variables like leaf litter and plant diversity, and belowground variables such as soil nutrients, pH, and organic matter, many of which were also impacted by agricultural history and restoration.</li> <li>Fungal and bacterial community compositions were shaped by restoration and agricultural history resulting in four distinct communities across the four treatment combinations.</li> <li>Past agricultural land use left persistent legacies on soil microbial biodiversity, even over half a century after agricultural abandonment and after intensive restoration activities. The impacts of these changes on soil microbe biodiversity could play important roles in the functioning of ecosystems following agricultural abandonment and during restoration.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Comparative water use by maize, perennial crops, restored prairie, and poplar trees in the US Midwest

Water use by plant communities across years of varying water availability indicates how terrestrial water balances will respond to climate change and variability as well as to land cover change. Perennial biofuel crops, likely grown mainly on marginal lands of limited water availability, provide an example of a potentially extensive future land cover conversion. We measured growing-season evapotranspiration (ET) based on daily changes in soil profile water contents in five perennial systems—switchgrass, miscanthus, native grasses, restored prairie, and hybrid poplar—and in annual maize (corn) in a temperate humid climate (Michigan, USA). Three study years (2010, 2011 and 2013) had normal growing-season rainfall (480–610 mm) whereas 2012 was a drought year (210 mm). Over all four years, mean (±SEM) growing-season ET for perennial systems did not greatly differ from corn (496 ± 21 mm), averaging 559 (±14), 458 (±31), 573 (±37), 519 (±30), and 492 (±58) mm for switchgrass, miscanthus, native grasses, prairie, and poplar, respectively. Differences in biomass production largely determined variation in water use efficiency (WUE). Miscanthus had the highest WUE in both normal and drought years (52–67 and 43 kg dry biomass ha−1 mm−1, respectively), followed by maize (40–59 and 29 kg ha−1 mm−1); the native grasses and prairie were lower and poplar was intermediate. That measured water use by perennial systems was similar to maize across normal and drought years contrasts with earlier modeling studies and suggests that rain-fed perennial biomass crops in this climate have little impact on landscape water balances, whether replacing rain-fed maize on arable lands or successional vegetation on marginal lands. Results also suggest that crop ET rates, and thus groundwater recharge, streamflow, and lake levels, may be less sensitive to climate change than has been assumed.

opencc-zeroMay 2020View details →

Data from: Tree seedling responses to leaf-cutting ants herbivory in Atlantic Forest restoration sites

Leaf-cutting ants (LCA) are generalist herbivores capable of causing severe plant damage. Negative impacts of ant herbivory vary according to the density of nests and availability of palatable plants; however, it is not yet clear how these herbivores affect tropical forest restoration sites. To investigate how LCA preference affects plant species performance, we evaluated the herbivory of Atta sexdens rubropilosa on native tree species seedlings in Atlantic Forest restoration sites. We expected pioneer species to suffer higher herbivory by LCA when compared with non-pioneer species, and that species with higher damage will have poorer growth and higher mortality. The experiment was conducted in three restoration sites in northern Paraná state, southern Brazil, with 1500 seedlings of 5 pioneer and 5 non-pioneer species. Sites share similar age, stand size, tree species composition, and LCA nest density. The number of attacks, degree of leaf damage, number of leaves, plant height and survival were recorded. Specific leaf area, leaf polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins, and nitrogen content were analyzed for each species. Plant damage was similar between pioneer and non-pioneer plant species. This could be explained by trait variability among species in each group and by LCA generalist foraging. Preferred species suffered decreases in growth and survival. Less preferred species suffered fewer ant attacks and no change in performance. Results suggest that ant herbivory can influence plant species establishment and thus species composition in restoration sites by reducing performance and increasing mortality of some, but not all species, making LCA an important ecological filter.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Fertilizer legacies meet saltwater incursion: challenges and constraints for coastal plain wetland restoration

Coastal wetland restoration is an important tool for climate change adaptation and excess nutrient runoff mitigation. However, the capacity of restored coastal wetlands to provide multiple ecosystem services is limited by stressors, such as excess nutrients from upstream agricultural fields, high nutrient legacies on-site, and rising salinities downstream. The effects of these stressors are exacerbated by an accelerating hydrologic cycle, expected to cause longer droughts punctuated by more severe storms. We used seven years of surface water and six years of soil solution water chemistry from a large (440 ha) restored wetland to examine how fertilizer legacy, changes in hydrology, and drought-induced salinization affect dissolved nutrient and carbon concentrations. To better understand the recovery trajectory of the restored wetland, we also sampled an active agricultural field and two mature forested wetlands. Our results show that nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in soil solution were 2–10 times higher in the restored wetland compared to two mature forested wetlands, presumably due to legacy fertilizer mobilized by reflooding. Despite elevated nutrient concentrations relative to reference wetlands, the restored wetland consistently attenuated N and P pulses delivered from an upstream farm. Even with continued loading, N and P concentrations in surface water throughout the restored wetland have decreased since the initial flooding. Our results suggest that high nutrient concentrations and export from wetlands restored on agricultural lands may be a severe but temporary problem. If field to wetland conversion is to become a more widespread method for ameliorating nutrient runoff and adapting coastal plain ecosystems to climate change, we should adopt new methods for minimizing the initial export phase of wetland restoration efforts.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Demographic costs and benefits of natural regeneration during tropical forest restoration

For tropical forest restoration to result in long‐term biodiversity gains, native trees must establish self‐sustaining populations in degraded sites. While many have asked how seedling recruitment varies between restoration treatments, the long‐term fate of these recruits remains unknown. We address this research gap by tracking natural recruits of 27 species during the first 7 years of a tropical forest restoration experiment that included both planted and naturally regenerating plots. We used an individual‐based model to estimate the probability that a seedling achieves reproductive maturity after several years of growth and survival. We found an advantage for recruits in naturally regenerating plots, with up to 40% increased probability of reproduction in this treatment, relative to planted plots. The demographic advantage of natural regeneration was highest for mid‐successional species, with relatively minor differences between treatments for early‐successional species. Our research demonstrates the consequences of restoration decision making across the life cycle of tropical tree species.

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

A meta-analysis reveals increases in soil organic carbon following the restoration and recovery of croplands in Southwest China

In China, the Grain for Green Program (GGP) is an ambitious project to convert croplands into natural vegetation, but exactly how changes in vegetation translate into changes in soil organic carbon remains less clear. Here we conducted a meta-analysis using 734 observations to explore the effects of land recovery on the soil organic carbon and nutrients in 4 provinces in Southwest China. Following GGP, the soil organic carbon content (SOCc) and soil organic carbon storage (SOCs) increased by 33.73% and 22.39%, respectively. Likewise, soil nitrogen increased, while phosphorus decreased. Outcomes were heterogeneous, however, depending on variation in soil and environmental characteristics. Both the regional land use and cover change indicated by landscape type transfer matrix and net primary production from 2000 to 2020 further confirmed that GGP promoted the forest area (2.95%) and regional mean net primary production (52.94%). Our findings suggest that GGP could enhance soil and vegetation carbon sequestration in Southwest China and help to develop carbon neutral strategy.

opencc-byFeb 2017View details →

Restored cap frame

The model shows the fantail and the main beams and curb assembly of the cap. Some of the original timbers have been retained (darker brown) with new timber grafted on as repairs. Parts of the assembly have been duplicated to give an exploded view. Modelled by Cliff Featherston Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

opencc-zeroOct 2023View details →

Data from: Increases in understory plant cover and richness persist following restoration treatments in Pinus ponderosa forests

A combination of forest thinning followed by prescribed burning is widely applied in the western US to increase ecosystem resistance and resilience to disturbances. Understory plant community responses may be driven both by management treatments and climatic factors. Thus, responses to treatments during a 20-year megadrought have implications for the role of management in fostering adaptive capacity to climate change. We used a network of five sites (600 plots) spanning an environmental gradient in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of the American Southwest, an ecosystem that is broadly distributed and actively managed throughout the western US. We used repeated long-term monitoring data to quantify plant community responses to treatment 1-5, 6-10, and >10 years post-implementation. Specifically, we focused on the effects of treatment and abiotic conditions on native and nonnative plant cover and species richness, and on the proportion of native species with northern (cool-mesic) biogeographic affinities. Overall, thinning and prescribed burning nearly doubled native cover and increased native species richness by about 50% relative to untreated controls. These effects persisted for over a decade after treatment, even under the influence of significant and persistent drought. Cover and richness were also greater on intermediate to wet sites. Finally, native species with northern biogeographic affinities were reduced for up to five years after treatment relative to those with southern (warm-xeric) affinities, and in dry years, indicating that both management and interannual climate variability may foster shifts in plant communities that are more resilient to a warming climate. Synthesis and applications: In ponderosa pine forests of the American Southwest, tree thinning followed by prescribed burning will generally promote restoration goals of increasing resilience to climate change by enhancing the diversity and abundance of native understory plant species, even during a persistent 20-year megadrought.

opencc-zeroNov 2023View details →

Data and code for: Facilitating the recovery of insect communities in restored streams by increasing oviposition habitat

Recruitment limitation is known to influence species abundances and distributions. Recognition of how and why it occurs both in natural and in designed environments could improve restoration. Aquatic insects, for instance, rarely re-establish in restored streams to levels comparable to reference streams even years after post-restoration. We experimentally increased oviposition habitat in five out of ten restored streams in western North Carolina to test whether insect egg-laying habitat was limiting insect populations in restored streams. A main goal was to test whether adding oviposition habitat in the form of rocks that partially protrude above the water surface could be used to increase the abundance and richness of stream insect eggs and larval insects in restored streams. Adding egg-laying habitat enhanced several response variables (e.g., protruding rocks, number of eggs, egg masses, egg morphotype richness, and oviposition habitat stability) to levels similar to those found in reference streams. Following the addition of protruding rocks, egg mass abundance increased by 186 % and richness increased by 77 % respectively in restored-treated streams. Densities of larval insects that attached their eggs to protruding rocks showed an overall pattern consistent with treatment effects due to the combination of non-significant and significant increases of several taxa and not just one taxon. Our results indicate that these stream insect populations are limited by oviposition habitat and that adding egg-laying habitat alleviated this component of recruitment limitation. However, the weaker larval response indicates that additional post-recruitment factors, such as egg or larval mortality, may still be limiting a full recovery of larval insect abundances in these restored streams. This study shows the importance of integrating information from animal life histories, ecology, and geomorphology into restoration practices to improve the recovery of aquatic insects, which are commonly used to assess water quality and the biological efficacy of stream restoration.

opengpl-2.0-or-laterOct 2023View details →

Evaluating Effects of Climate Change, Restoration Scenarios, and Hatchery Effects on Chinook Salmon in the Stillaguamish River Basin with the HARP Model

Model code (R) to accompany the 2023 NOAA report "Evaluating Effects of Climate Change, Restoration Scenarios, and Hatchery Effects on Chinook Salmon in the Stillaguamish River Basin with the HARP Model"

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Data for: DNA metabarcoding uncovers dispersal-constrained arthropods in a highly fragmented restoration setting

Degraded areas are often restored through active revegetation, however recolonisation by animals is rarely engineered. Recolonisation may be rapid for species with strong dispersal abilities. However, poor dispersers, such as many flightless arthropods, may struggle to recolonise newly restored sites. Actively reintroducing or 'rewilding' arthropods may therefore be necessary to facilitate recolonisation and restoration of arthropod communities and the ecological functions they perform. However, active interventions are rare. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, we asked whether potential source remnant arthropod communities were dispersal-constrained and struggling to recolonise restoration sites. Second, we tested whether reintroducing entire arthropod communities from remnant populations would help dispersal-constrained species establish during farmland ecological restoration in southern Australia. Rewilding was conducted in summer 2018 by transplanting leaf litter, soil, and entire communities contained within it from remnant source populations into geographically isolated restoration sites, which were paired with untreated controls (n = 6 remnant, rewilding transplant, and control sites). We collected leaf litter and extracted arthropod communities 19 months after the initial rewilding event, then sequenced mite, springtail, and insect communities using a metabarcoding approach. Within all groups, community similarity decreased with spatial distance between sites, suggesting significant dispersal barriers. However, only mite communities showed a strong response to rewilding, which was expressed as increased compositional similarity towards remnant sites and greater species richness relative to controls. Our results demonstrate that many arthropod species may struggle to recolonise geographically isolated restoration sites and that full community restoration requires active interventions via rewilding.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2023View details →

Reassessing the climate mitigation potential of Chinese ecological restoration: the undiscovered potential of urban areas

The dataset includes urban climate mitigation benefit data for all 371 cities and 1,721 clusters in China, as well as aggregate data of different ecological restoration projects and climate backgrounds. Combining multi-source high-resolution remote sensing data sets and the reanalysis dataset, the absolute value standard deviation method of multiple linear regression is used to extract the largest dominant factor (pixel-by-pixel calculation) of daytime surface temperature in each city except NDVI (as a greening indicator). Then, the time trends of surface temperature, NDVI, and dominant factors were calculated based on the Theil-Sen Median slope estimation method. Finally, based on the linear statistical relationship of the three indicators, the surface temperature trend under the no-greening scenario was constructed, and the difference between the simulated and observed surface temperature trends was used to characterize the urban climate mitigation benefits of the ecological restoration project. The data details are as follows:  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Mr. Dong Xu via <a href="mailto:zhangh573@mail2.sysu.edu.cn">xu.dong@u.nus.edu.</a> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> Data name </td> <td> Spatial resolution </td> <td> Time resolution </td> <td> Source </td> <td> Unit </td> <td> Note </td> </tr> <tr> <td> MOD13A2 </td> <td> 1000 m </td> <td> 16-Day </td> <td> USGS.a </td> <td> / </td> <td> UG index </td> </tr> <tr> <td> MOD11A1 </td> <td> 1000 m </td> <td> Daily </td> <td> USGS.a </td> <td> Kelvin </td> <td> UST index </td> </tr> <tr> <td> MOD09A1 </td> <td> 500 m </td> <td> 8-Day </td> <td> USGS.a </td> <td> / </td> <td> Calculate IBI index </td> </tr> <tr> <td> ERA5-Land reanalysis dataset </td> <td> 10000 m </td> <td> Day </td> <td> ECMWF.b </td> <td> / </td> <td> Sensitivity analysis </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Population density datasets </td> <td> 1000 m </td> <td> Annual </td> <td> WorldPop.c </td> <td> /   </td> <td> Sensitivity analysis </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Global Urban Boundaries </td> <td> 30 m </td> <td> Annual </td> <td> Li et al. </td> <td> / </td> <td> Delineate LUBs </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Note: a, United States Geological Survey (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). b, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (https://www.ecmwf.int/). c, WordPop (https://www.worldpop.org/).   1. Li X, Gong P, Zhou Y, et al. Mapping global urban boundaries from the global artificial impervious area (GAIA) data[J]. Environmental Research Letters, 2020, 15(9): 094044. </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

opencc-byApr 2020View details →

Parthenon West Frieze Block IX Restoration Model

Restoration model of the Parthenon Frieze Block W IX (decimated version). Photogrammetry render performed on 157 images of a Block W IX cast made produced from Elgin molds, housed in Skulpturhalle, Basel, Switzerland. These render details are the same as listed in the previous state model. Starting with the state model, I used ZBrush to repair existing structural damage via copy-paste from within this block (and in one instance, from Block W VII). Then, I used polypaint to apply era-appropriate pigment based on comparanda, early accounts of the Frieze, and understood color conventions of the time in order to achieve a model most similar to what would have been originally depicted on the Acropolis. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

opencc-byJul 2020View details →

Restored Tower

These hermitic buildings served as refuge for the owner's family against foreign bandits as well as against other family clans, whom was common to be in dispute. This kind of use is reflected in the type of openings located at the top of the tower that could allow throwing stones and shot arrows. [Learn More](http://esg.pt/3dpast/platform) Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab