Knowledge sharing for shared success in the decade on ecosystem restoration

Abstract

The Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to provide the means and incentives for upscaling restoration efforts worldwide. Although ecosystem restoration is a broad, interdisciplinary concept, effective ecological restoration requires sound ecological knowledge to successfully restore biodiversity and ecosystem services in degraded landscapes. We emphasize the critical role of knowledge and data sharing to inform synthesis for the most robust restoration science possible. Such synthesis is critical for helping restoration ecologists better understand how context affects restoration outcomes, and to increase predictive capacity of restoration actions. This predictive capacity can help to provide better information for evidence‐based decision‐making, and scale‐up approaches to meet ambitious targets for restoration. We advocate for a concerted effort to collate species‐level, fine‐scale, ecological community data from restoration studies across a wide range of environmental and ecological gradients. Well‐articulated associated metadata relevant to experience and social or landscape contexts can further be used to explain outcomes. These data could be carefully curated and made openly available to the restoration community to help to maximize evidence‐based knowledge sharing, enable flexible re‐use of existing data and support predictive capacity in ecological community responses to restoration actions. We detail how integrated data, analysis and knowledge sharing via synthesis can support shared success in restoration ecology by identifying successful and unsuccessful outcomes across diverse systems and scales. We also discuss potential interdisciplinary solutions and approaches to overcome challenges associated with bringing together subfields of restoration practice. Sharing this knowledge and data openly can directly inform actions and help to improve outcomes for the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Terrestrial ecosystem restoration increases biodiversity and reduces its variability, but not to reference levels: A global meta‐analysis

“…Further resolving these drivers at finer taxonomic and geographic scales will provide an opportunity to increase restoration predictability and better manage limited conservation resources (Brudvig & Catano, 2021). Although current data are limited, we hope that future synthesis capitalising on the many efforts currently underway to develop comprehensive databases of restoration data (Ladouceur et al, 2022). More detailed restoration data will be able to extend the present work by quantifying the difference in responses of native versus exotic biodiversity, the effectiveness of various levels of restoration intervention (across and among taxa), and the effects of gradients of disturbance and the long‐term resilience of restoration activities.…”

Why are some plant species missing from restorations? A diagnostic tool for temperate grassland ecosystems

“…Additionally, while a wide range of resources are available to help identify and treat these factors, much more work is needed. Continued knowledge and data-sharing that supports synthesis to advance restoration science will be critical to continued progress in meeting these goals (Ladouceur et al, 2022).…”

“…Next, it is critical to survey healthy native populations of the target species, as close to the restoration site as possible, and talk with experts who have worked with the target species. Collaboration between researchers and practitioners knowledgeable on the subject is crucial and will continue to shrink the science-practice divide (Ladouceur et al, 2022) critical to improving restoration outcomes. Practitioners should ensure baseline assumptions about the target species and the restoration site are met.…”

The road to recovery: a synthesis of outcomes from ecosystem restoration in tropical and sub-tropical Asian forests

“…Publications to date typically report on individual or a few sites, but syntheses of evidence are needed for improved predictions of the outcomes that can be expected from forest restoration (e.g. [8,[15][16][17]).…”