Integrating trait‐based empirical and modeling research to improve ecological restoration

Abstract A global ecological restoration agenda has led to ambitious programs in environmental policy to mitigate declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Current restoration programs can incompletely return desired ecosystem service levels, while resilience of restored ecosystems to future threats is unknown. It is therefore essential to advance understanding and better utilize knowledge from ecological literature in restoration approaches. We identified an incomplete linkage between global change ecology, ecosystem function research, and restoration ecology. This gap impedes a full understanding of the interactive effects of changing environmental factors on the long‐term provision of ecosystem functions and a quantification of trade‐offs and synergies among multiple services. Approaches that account for the effects of multiple changing factors on the composition of plant traits and their direct and indirect impact on the provision of ecosystem functions and services can close this gap. However, studies on this multilayered relationship are currently missing. We therefore propose an integrated restoration agenda complementing trait‐based empirical studies with simulation modeling. We introduce an ongoing case study to demonstrate how this framework could allow systematic assessment of the impacts of interacting environmental factors on long‐term service provisioning. Our proposed agenda will benefit restoration programs by suggesting plant species compositions with specific traits that maximize the supply of multiple ecosystem services in the long term. Once the suggested compositions have been implemented in actual restoration projects, these assemblages should be monitored to assess whether they are resilient as well as to improve model parameterization. Additionally, the integration of empirical and simulation modeling research can improve global outcomes by raising the awareness of which restoration goals can be achieved, due to the quantification of trade‐offs and synergies among ecosystem services under a wide range of environmental conditions.

[1]  Sandra Díaz,et al.  Towards an assessment of multiple ecosystem processes and services via functional traits , 2010, Biodiversity and Conservation.

[2]  Erwin Zehe,et al.  Simulating plant water availability in dry lands under climate change: A generic model of two soil layers , 2009 .

[3]  T. Wilbanks,et al.  Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 .

[4]  E. Cleland,et al.  Native and exotic plant species show differential growth but similar functional trait responses to experimental rainfall , 2015 .

[5]  Erwin Zehe,et al.  Effects of climate change on the coupled dynamics of water and vegetation in drylands , 2009 .

[6]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revisiting the Holy Grail , 2002 .

[7]  Katherine N. Suding,et al.  Restoration through reassembly: plant traits and invasion resistance. , 2008, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[8]  Daniel C. Laughlin,et al.  The intrinsic dimensionality of plant traits and its relevance to community assembly , 2014 .

[9]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Understanding relationships among multiple ecosystem services. , 2009, Ecology letters.

[10]  J. Funk,et al.  Revisiting the Holy Grail: using plant functional traits to understand ecological processes , 2017, Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

[11]  Serge Rambal,et al.  A generic process-based SImulator for meditERRanean landscApes (SIERRA): design and validation exercises , 2001 .

[12]  Frédéric Médail,et al.  Hot-Spots Analysis for Conservation of Plant Biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin , 1997 .

[13]  C. Violle,et al.  Let the concept of trait be functional , 2007 .

[14]  Investigating the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality: challenges and solutions , 2013, 1305.1985.

[15]  Andreas Huth,et al.  Connecting dynamic vegetation models to data – an inverse perspective , 2012 .

[16]  J. Aronson,et al.  Restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity: conflicts and opportunities. , 2011, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[17]  J. Retana,et al.  Functional trait variation along environmental gradients in temperate and Mediterranean trees , 2015 .

[18]  A. Gerakis,et al.  Development of a soil-plant phosphorus simulation model for calcareous and weathered tropical soils , 2003 .

[19]  G. Mace,et al.  Biodiversity and ecosystem services: a multilayered relationship. , 2012, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[20]  Lianhai Wu,et al.  SPACSYS: Integration of a 3D root architecture component to carbon, nitrogen and water cycling—Model description , 2007 .

[21]  H. Verbeeck,et al.  Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change-Challenges and perspectives. , 2018, Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics.

[22]  Eric Garnier,et al.  Plant Functional Diversity: Organism traits, community structure, and ecosystem properties , 2016 .

[23]  D. Laughlin,et al.  Applying trait-based models to achieve functional targets for theory-driven ecological restoration 1 Appendix S 1 . User ’ s guide and R code for applying trait-based models in ecological restoration Getting started , 2014 .

[24]  O. Roupsard,et al.  Root functional parameters along a land‐use gradient: evidence of a community‐level economics spectrum , 2015 .

[25]  J. Pausas,et al.  Restoration of Mediterranean woodlands , 2005 .

[26]  W. Härdtle,et al.  Nitrogen deposition and drought events have non-additive effects on plant growth – Evidence from greenhouse experiments , 2015 .

[27]  Benjamin Smith,et al.  Representation of vegetation dynamics in the modelling of terrestrial ecosystems: comparing two contrasting approaches within European climate space , 2008 .

[28]  W. Harpole,et al.  Plant Water Use Affects Competition for Nitrogen: Why Drought Favors Invasive Species in California , 2009, The American Naturalist.

[29]  Andrew D. Moore,et al.  An individualistic model of vegetation stand dynamics. , 1990 .

[30]  S. Running,et al.  Regional‐Scale Relationships of Leaf Area Index to Specific Leaf Area and Leaf Nitrogen Content , 1994 .

[31]  J. B. Ruhl,et al.  Committing to ecological restoration , 2015, Science.

[32]  Kimberley J. Simpson,et al.  Determinants of flammability in savanna grass species , 2015, The Journal of ecology.

[33]  J. Cornelissen,et al.  Scaling environmental change through the community‐level: a trait‐based response‐and‐effect framework for plants , 2008 .

[34]  J. Griffith,et al.  SER International Primer on Ecological Restoration , 2013 .

[35]  C. Ricotta,et al.  Mediterranean shrublands carbon sequestration: environmental and economic benefits , 2013, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change.

[36]  E. Garnier,et al.  Do rock endemic and widespread plant species differ under the Leaf–Height–Seed plant ecology strategy scheme? , 2003 .

[37]  Richard J. Hobbs,et al.  The Ridgefield Multiple Ecosystem Services Experiment: Can restoration of former agricultural land achieve multiple outcomes? , 2012 .

[38]  Richard J. Hobbs,et al.  Primed for Change: Developing Ecological Restoration for the 21st Century , 2013 .

[39]  N. Myers,et al.  The biodiversity challenge: Expanded hot-spots analysis , 1990, The Environmentalist.

[40]  J. Flexas,et al.  Variability in water use efficiency at the leaf level among Mediterranean plants with different growth forms , 2009, Plant and Soil.

[41]  Millenium Ecosystem Assessment.  Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis , 2005 .

[42]  A. Troumbis,et al.  Simulating vegetation shifts in north- eastern Mediterranean mountain forests under climatic change scenarios , 2009 .

[43]  Mark Westoby,et al.  A leaf-height-seed (LHS) plant ecology strategy scheme , 1998, Plant and Soil.

[44]  Richard J. Hobbs,et al.  Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades , 2015 .

[45]  Uta Berger,et al.  Pattern-Oriented Modeling of Agent-Based Complex Systems: Lessons from Ecology , 2005, Science.

[46]  I. R. Johnson,et al.  DairyMod and EcoMod: biophysical pasture-simulation models for Australia and New Zealand , 2008 .

[47]  R. B. Jackson,et al.  Global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100. , 2000, Science.

[48]  R. Hobbs.  Impacts of Land Use on Biodiversity in Southwestern Australia , 1998 .

[49]  Jack P. C. Kleijnen,et al.  EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL , 1992 .

[50]  J. Pereira,et al.  Mediterranean cork oak savannas require human use to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services , 2011 .

[51]  C. LeRoy,et al.  Indirect influences of a major drought on leaf litter quality and decomposition in a southwestern stream , 2014 .

[52]  J. Cornelissen,et al.  Leaf litter traits of invasive species slow down decomposition compared to Spanish natives: a broad phylogenetic comparison , 2010, Oecologia.

[53]  N Oreskes,et al.  Verification, Validation, and Confirmation of Numerical Models in the Earth Sciences , 1994, Science.

[54]  R. Delécolle,et al.  Sensitivity analysis of a crop simulation model, STICS, in order to choose the main parameters to be estimated , 2002 .

[55]  Juli G. Pausas,et al.  Response of plant functional types to changes in the fire regime in Mediterranean ecosystems: A simulation approach , 1999 .

[56]  G. Marion,et al.  A meta-analysis of the response of soil respiration, net nitrogen mineralization, and aboveground plant growth to experimental ecosystem warming , 2001, Oecologia.

[57]  L. Mommer,et al.  Going underground: root traits as drivers of ecosystem processes. , 2014, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[58]  C. Messier,et al.  Diversity increases carbon storage and tree productivity in Spanish forests , 2014 .

[59]  Sandra Díaz,et al.  Scaling environmental change through the community‐level: a trait‐based response‐and‐effect framework for plants , 2008 .

[60]  The phenotypic response of co-occurring Banksia species to warming and drying , 2014, Plant Ecology.

[61]  S. Higgins,et al.  TRY – a global database of plant traits , 2011, Global Change Biology.

[62]  M. Zunzunegui,et al.  Do leaf traits and nitrogen supply affect decomposability rates of three Mediterranean species growing under different competition levels , 2013 .

[63]  E. Garnier,et al.  The Leaf-Height-Seed plant ecology strategy scheme as applied to species from a Mediterranean old-field succession , 2004 .

[64]  Jlm Jan Hensen,et al.  Uncertainty analysis in building performance simulation for design support , 2011 .

[65]  B. Enquist,et al.  Rebuilding community ecology from functional traits. , 2006, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[66]  G. Daily.  Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems. , 1998 .

[67]  Christoph Lange,et al.  How Valid Are Model Results? Assumptions, Validity Range and Documentation , 2011 .

[68]  F. Jeltsch,et al.  Low-dimensional trade-offs fail to explain richness and structure in species-rich plant communities , 2011, Theoretical Ecology.

[69]  V. Hernandez-Santana,et al.  Plant functional trait responses to interannual rainfall variability, summer drought and seasonal grazing in Mediterranean herbaceous communities , 2012 .

[70]  Adrian C. Newton,et al.  Benayas Restoration : A Meta-Analysis Enhancement of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by Ecological , 2012 .

[71]  C. S. Holling.  Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems , 1973 .

[72]  J. Anderson,et al.  Effects of tree species and topography on soil chemistry, litter quality, and decomposition in Northeast Turkey , 2005 .

[73]  R. Cowling,et al.  Plant diversity in mediterranean-climate regions. , 1996, Trends in ecology & evolution.