Factors influencing seed mix design for prairie restoration

Abstract

Decision‐making is central to restoration practice, from the framing of objectives to the employment of tools and strategies. Yet, it remains largely unclear how decisions are made during restoration and this limits understanding of how restoration managers design and implement restoration projects and what restoration approaches may be most effective. This is true for tallgrass prairies in the Midwestern United States, which are commonly restored through seed sowing. To understand how managers make decisions during prairie restoration, we used a mixed‐methods approach including interviews, a focus group, and an online survey, to ask managers about: restoration objectives, factors influencing seed mix design, tools and resources used in seed mix design, seeding methods, and monitoring. Respondents considered biodiversity the most important restoration objective, and the most important biodiversity measures were species richness and functional group diversity. Seed mix design was influenced by seed availability. We identified 141 taxa that managers would like to use in restoration, but cannot due to factors like cost, availability, or problems with germination or establishment. Managers most frequently used their own experience and consultation with other practitioners to guide seed mix design; and commonly used tools developed within their organization. Most managers agreed that monitoring was important for assessing restoration outcomes, but were unable to devote enough time to monitoring. These findings illustrate opportunities for partnerships, among restoration managers, and among managers, seed producers, and researchers.

Seed sourcing strategies for ecological restoration under climate change: A review of the current literature

“…(Muñoz-Rojas et al, 2016;Groves and Brudvig, 2018). Despite its importance to the successful outcome of restoration projects, seed procurement is largely dependent upon local and regional availability; both the species diversity and volume of seed available frequently fail to meet the needs of land managers (Houseal and Smith, 2000;White et al, 2018;Camhi et al, 2019;Oldfield, 2019;Harrison et al, 2020;Barak et al, 2021;Török et al, 2021).…”

Four reasons why functional traits are not being used in restoration practice

“…Restoration practitioners are tasked with many decisions, from setting restoration targets to defining reasonable plans and timelines for execution and monitoring. Throughout this process, practitioners often rely on their own experiences for decision‐making, whether it be from ‘ecological intuition’ or in‐house monitoring and trials (DeSimone 2013; Barak et al 2021). Practitioner's intuition is often implicitly based on the functional roles of species and/or their broad characteristics (e.g.…”

Phylogenetically and functionally diverse species mixes beget diverse experimental prairies, whether from seeds or plugs

“…multiple ecosystem functions; Zirbel et al 2019). As a consequence, these biodiversity measures are increasingly part of restoration planning, as they are tied to important restoration objectives (Hipp et al 2015; Zirbel et al 2019; Barak et al 2021).…”

“…Ecological restoration is a critical component of conservation, and restored habitats provide valuable ecosystem services (Dobson et al 1997; Wortley et al 2013; Possingham et al 2015). Biodiversity is considered an important driver of these services, and/or a restoration goal in its own right (Brudvig 2011; Wortley et al 2013; Barak et al 2021). While biodiversity is often characterized solely in terms of taxonomic diversity or species richness (a count of species present in a community), phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional diversity (FD) are measures that reflect evolutionary distance and trait variation, respectively, between species in a community.…”