Application of a trait‐based species screening framework for vegetation restoration in a tropical coral island of China

Abstract

Selecting suitable species for vegetation restoration presents a notable challengefor land managers and scientists. Recently developed trait-based approaches may be an effective means of overcoming this challenge. However, we lack a traitbased species screening model that can be used to select potential species for restoration of degraded ecosystems. 2.Here, we developed a species screening model based on quantitative trait-based theory and a maximum entropy algorithm. The objective was to select more species that have comparable restoration abilities to the target species that have high survival rates for vegetation restoration based on species' functional traits. Thus, species diversity will be improved to facilitate restoration. We also developed a software platform that can be used to implement the model. We then applied our model and software platform to select species for restoration efforts in a tropical coral island which is part of Hainan Island, China.3. As a prerequisite, we started with three target species which have high potential for restoring the island. Likewise, 66 non-native species were selected as the potential species pool. For each species, we identified and measured 28 traits that are strongly associated with harsh environments. Harsh environments are those with drought stress, high temperatures, intensive UV radiation, lack of real soil and nutrients, and high salinity and alkalinity. Then, our software platform was used to run the species selection model. Finally, 12 out of 66 species being identified as suitable species for restoration. 4. We transplanted seedlings of all 66 species to the island to monitor seedlings survival. We found that the 12 species identified from our model had high survival rates, which ranged from 86% to 91%. In contrast, the mean survival rate for species not identified from our model was less than 40%. These results suggest that our species screening procedure was appropriate for selecting candidate species for use in vegetation restoration.5. We show that by using species natural history information, as well as functional trait data, candidate species for restoration efforts can be successfully identified in a timely manner. Importantly, our proposed method is faster and less costly than more commonly used 'trial-and-error' method. The most time-consuming aspect of our approach is the need to measure the functional traits of target and potential S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section.

Which traits are necessary to quickly select suitable plant species for ecological restoration?

“…Data deposited in the Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10. 5061/dryad.6q573n5w0 (Wang et al, 2020b).…”

Tropical Rainforest Successional Processes can Facilitate Successfully Recovery of Extremely Degraded Tropical Forest Ecosystems Following Intensive Mining Operations

“…Third, evaluate whether the high fast-growth rate for these fast-growing species have resulted in large soil water and nutrient loss. If this these fast-growing species have indeed resulted in large soil water and nutrient loss, identify key traits that can be used Wang et al (2020) to select many functionally dissimilar tropical tree species from the undisturbed old-growth tropical rainforest. Finally, we recommend mixing selected late-successional tropical tree FIGURE 6 | A protocol for successfully performing reforestation to recover extremely degraded tropical rainforest.…”

“…This suggests that these five are the key traits related to higher growth rate in the monocultured fast growing species compared to the old-growth trees. Thus, these five traits can be utilized by a recently developed native species screening framework (Wang et al, 2020) in future to select many latesuccessional tropical tree species that are maximally dissimilar to these eight separately monocultured tropical tree species from all undisturbed old-growth tropical rainforest in whole Sanya City. Based on the limiting similarity theory, species that are functionally dissimilar can stable coexist (MacArthur and Levins, 1967).…”

An objective‐based prioritization approach to support trophic complexity through ecological restoration species mixes

“…This method also has similarities to selecting plant species to optimize functional diversity, or for the convergence of targeted plant trait representations for particular environments (e.g. traits that increase chances of survival in dry, harsh environments; Laughlin et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2020Wang et al, , 2021. However, our approach presented here is distinct from these other approaches, and it offers the unique advantage of optimizing targets according to flexible constraints and offers quantitative support for comparing different options easily both in terms of targets and cost.…”