Linking restoration to the wider landscape: A study of a bracken control experiment within a upland moorland landscape mosaic in the Peak District, UK

115

We currently face both an extinction and a biome crisis embedded in a changing climate. Many biodiverse ecosystems are being lost at far higher rates than they are being protected or ecologically restored. At the same time, natural climate solutions offer opportunities to restore biodiversity while mitigating climate change. The Bonn Challenge is a U.N. programme to restore biodiversity and mitigate climate change through restoration of the world's degraded landscapes. It provides an unprecedented chance for ecological restoration to become a linchpin tool for addressing many environmental issues. Unfortunately, the Forest and Landscape Restoration programme that underpins the Bonn Challenge, as its name suggests, remains focused on trees and forests, despite rising evidence that many non-forest ecosystems also offer strong restoration potential for biodiversity and climate mitigation. We see a need for restoration to step back to be more inclusive of different ecosystem types and to step up to provide integrated scientific knowledge to inform large-scale restoration. Stepping back and up will require assessments of where to restore what species, with recognition that in many landscapes multiple habitat types should be restored. In the process, trade-offs in the delivery of different ecosystem services (e.g. carbon, biodiversity, water, albedo, livestock forage) should be clearly addressed. We recommend that biodiversity safeguards be included in policy and implemented in practice, to avoid undermining the biophysical relationships that provide ecosystem resilience to climate change. For ecological restoration to contribute to international policy goals will require integrated large-scale science that works across biome boundaries.

Section: Stepping Up To Create a Broad Scientific Basis For Large‐scamentioning

confidence: 99%

Step back from the forest and step up to the Bonn Challenge: how a broad ecological perspective can promote successful landscape restoration

Temperton

Buchmann

Buisson

et al. 2019

115

“…The virtual absence of this species in the vegetation suggests that the conditions were not suitable for its establishment, bracken tends to be absent from waterlogged areas, where J. effusus tends to be found (Watt 1976). The density of P. annua , Athyrium felix‐femina , and Oreopteris limbosperma decreased through time; these species were also not found in the vegetation within the experiment, and this implies that there has either been a reduced input from the diaspore rain produced in the surrounding landscape (Tong et al in press), or increased germination and mortality of existing seeds/spores.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Temporal Responses of Propagule Banks during Ecological Restoration in the United Kingdom

Ghorbani

Duc

McAllister

et al. 2007

Self Cite

Successful ecological restoration is expected to be accompanied by change in the propagule bank. We tested for temporal change in the soil propagule bank at two Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum)-infested sites in the United Kingdom (acid grassland and heathland), each with replicate experiments. A combination of bracken control (cutting, spraying, and combinations) and vegetation restoration treatments (seeding, fertilizer, harrowing) were applied. Soil propagule banks were sampled in 1998, 4-5 years after the start, and in 2003 after a further 5 years. We used univariate and multivariate statistical methods to investigate the response of the propagule bank to experimental treatment in space and time. Few effects were found in 1998, but after a further 5 years, the propagule bank size and composition changed significantly, implying that propagule bank development lags behind vegetation development. The effect of treatment on the propagule bank differed within sites. Thus, ecosystem development is occurring at different speeds and directions even in closely adjacent areas. Coupling between the propagule bank and vegetation changed between sampling times with either some new coupling or decoupling. At both sites, the propagule bank contained propagules of the target community and thus propagule bank development during restoration provides increased potential for vegetation recovery. However, it can take a considerable time for management effects to be detected in the propagule bank. Moreover, the effect or speed of effect is spatially variable. Continuing application of restoration treatments is recommended at heathland where there is a deep bracken litter layer.

“…This suggests that recruitment occurred as the Pt. aquilinum vegetation was initially controlled and this particular block was nearest to the seed sources (Tong et al 2006) or had better access to dispersal vectors. There is also potential for similar colonization at other sites with Betula stands common in the vicinity of Cannock and Sourhope (Ghorbani 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Affecting the Restoration of Heathland and Acid Grassland onPteridium aquilinum–Infested Land across the United Kingdom: A Multisite Study

Cox

Marrs

Pakeman³

et al. 2008

The variability in the success of Pteridium aquilinum (bracken) control and vegetation restoration has been highlighted as a major issue in the United Kingdom. Experiments were set up at four different regional locations to assess bracken control at the national scale and the impact of restoration practices at the local scale. Bracken control treatments (cutting once or twice per year, a combination of cutting and asulam spraying, and asulam in year 1) were combined with site-specific treatments designed to restore appropriate heathland or acid grassland vegetation. This article considers the effects on the developing understorey vegetation, testing the following hypotheses: (1) local differences between sites would affect community change; (2) treatments applied to control Pt. aquilinum (same at all sites) influences community change; and (3) treatments applied at the individual site level to restore vegetation influences community change toward the target vegetation. There were a considerable number of spatial effects. It is, therefore, difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all policy for vegetation restoration within a national Pt. aquilinum control strategy. Few bracken control treatment effects were found, and, where they were detected, it was only at single sites. Thus, the development of target vegetation requires a combination of control and restoration treatments that take into consideration the aspects of that site. Only three species, Deschampsia flexuosa, Galium saxatile, and Campylopus introflexus, increased as a direct effect of the control treatments. Vegetation restoration was most successful in the cutting-twice-per-year plots, the treatment with the greatest reduction in Pt. aquilinum cover.