Protocol for installing and monitoring a RestoreNet restoration field trial network site

Laushman, Katherine M.; McCormick, Molly; Munson, Seth M.; Balazs, Kathleen R.; Butterfield, Bradley J.

doi:10.3133/tm2a18

Cited by 4 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Our experimental design included four restoration treatments (seeding alone, seeding with connectivity modifiers, seeding with mulch, and seeding in pits) with four replicate plots for each treatment ( N = 16) × two seed mix types ( N = 32), which, along with four control plots (no seed or other treatment), composed a total of 36 plots. At each of our 21 sites, we randomly assigned one of four treatments, and a control, to 2 m × 2 m permanently marked plots, including: seeding alone; seeding with connectivity modifiers (“ConMods” are small physical barriers made from wire hardware cloth that mimic nurse plants and are designed to retain litter, nutrients, and seeds as well as provide a favorable microclimate for seedlings; Okin et al, 2015); seeding with wood mulch spread to loosely cover over the soil surface (to increase soil moisture and provide seed and seedling protection; Kader et al, 2019); seeding in pits, or shallow 40 × 40 cm depressions that are 10 cm deep to capture and retain water (Laushman et al, 2022), four pits were installed per plot with one in each quadrant equidistance from each other; no seeding or soil surface treatments (control). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each soil surface treatment was conducted with one of two different eight‐species seed mix types composed of grasses, forbs, and shrubs. Seed mixes were composed of high‐priority native species that are generally adapted for the dry conditions of the southwestern USA and tailored for each RestoreNet site in partnership with the local land manager or owner at each site (Laushman et al, 2022; Appendix S1: Table S1). Seeds were purchased from commercial vendors depending on availability and region (Appendix S1: Table S1) and any recommended pretreatments to break dormancy were applied.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To address this goal, we harnessed RestoreNet—a restoration field trial network co‐produced by land managers and scientists—on degraded sites that span environmental gradients in the southwestern USA (Havrilla et al, 2020). We systematically implemented the same restoration treatments and protocol (Laushman et al, 2022) across 21 RestoreNet sites in the Southwest USA from 2018 to 2020. Our specific objectives were to understand how seeded species emergence, survival, and growth depend on: Restoration treatments, including a seed mix type with species currently found within or near a site and adapted to the historical climate, versus a seed mix type with species from a warmer and drier climate, used with and without additional soil surface treatments (pits, mulch, and ConMod artificial nurse plants). Spatial environmental variables that change across site space (e.g., site characteristics such as mean annual precipitation and soil texture). Temporal environmental variables that change at a specific site through time (e.g., precipitation inputs relative to the date the site was seeded or monitored). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwesternUSrestoration sites

Farrell

Munson

Butterfield

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

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Restoration in dryland ecosystems often has poor success due to low and variable water availability, degraded soil conditions, and slow plant community recovery rates. Restoration treatments can mitigate these constraints but, because treatments and subsequent monitoring are typically limited in space and time, our understanding of their applicability across broader environmental gradients remains limited. To address this limitation, we implemented and monitored a standardized set of seeding and soil surface treatments (pits, mulch, and ConMod artificial nurse plants) designed to enhance soil moisture and seedling establishment across RestoreNet, a growing network of 21 diverse dryland restoration sites in the southwestern USA over 3 years. Generally, we found that the timing of precipitation relative to seeding and the use of soil surface treatments were more important in determining seeded species emergence, survival, and growth than site-specific characteristics. Using soil surface treatments in tandem with seeding promoted up to 3× greater seedling emergence densities compared with seeding alone. The positive effect of soil surface treatments became more prominent with increased cumulative precipitation since seeding. The seed mix type with species currently found within or near a site and adapted to the historical climate promoted greater seedling emergence densities compared with the seed mix type with species from warmer, drier conditions expected to perform well under climate change. Seed mix and soil surface treatments had a diminishing effect as plants developed beyond the first season of establishment. However, we found strong effects of the initial period seeded and of the precipitation leading up to each monitoring date on seedling survival over time, especially for annual and perennial forbs. The presence of exotic species exerted a negative influence on seedling survival and growth, but not initial emergence.Our findings suggest that seeded species recruitment across drylands can generally be promoted, regardless of location, by (1) incorporation of soil surface

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwesternUSrestoration sites

Farrell

Munson

Butterfield

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

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“…Survival was quantified as the proportion of surviving individuals at the end of the 2019 season. See Balazs, Munson, Havrilla, and Butterfield (2022) for more details on site descriptions and (Laushman et al, 2022) for design details. Work on private land was granted by Babbitt Ranches, Diablo Trust and Canyonlands Research Center managers.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant water‐use strategies predict restoration success across degraded drylands

Butterfield

Munson

Farrell

2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Plant strategies for coping with water limitation are likely to mediate restoration outcomes in degraded dryland ecosystems. Trade‐offs in traits related to water acquisition and use can intensify in more arid environments, making their effects on dryland restoration success even more salient. However, isolating the effects of drought responses from those of other environmental factors, as well as identifying the specific drought resistance traits that influence restoration success, can be difficult. In the present study, we couple a controlled dry‐down experiment with a cross‐site restoration field trial of out‐planted seedlings (RestoreNet) using a suite of dryland herbaceous plant species from the same seed sources. We quantified interspecific variation in physiological responses to drought, specifically reductions in stomatal conductance (gs) and stem water potential (SWP), by comparing well‐watered control plants to those experiencing decreasing soil moisture. Drought responses of SWP and gs varied independently among species, but both were related to survival in the cross‐site restoration field trial when effect sizes were aggregated across all sites. Responses were consistent with acquisitive water‐use strategies resulting in greater success, where species with greater declines in SWP or weaker declines in gs under drought had greater survival. The correlation between SWP drought response and survival also intensified in sites with lower accumulated precipitation following restoration. Differences among functional groups revealed two different paths to restoration success: forbs that maintain high gs and narrow safety margins to maximize exploitation of moisture pulses before going into drought dormancy, or C4 grasses that maintain efficient water uptake in drying soils while risking cavitation. C3 grass species varied between these two strategies. Synthesis and applications. Taken together, the results of this study and others conducted at RestoreNet sites indicate that while a diversity of physiological responses to drought may exist in dryland plant communities, successfully restoring herbaceous species through out‐planting in degraded conditions is likely to be achieved with species that maximize water uptake via one of two strategies, with tolerance of low SWP being particularly important in the most arid settings.

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“…RestoreNet is a network of field sites with complementary seeding and outplanting experiments aimed at identifying tools for improving restoration outcomes in degraded dryland ecosystems (Laushman et al, 2022). The eight field sites used in this study all have a history of disturbance, primarily from overgrazing, that has resulted in minimal initial perennial vegetation and extensive bare ground with abundant non‐native, weedy annual species present (see Balazs et al, 2021 for detailed site descriptions).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional composition of plant communities mediates biomass effects on ecosystem service recovery across an experimental dryland restoration network

2022

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Land degradation can result in a loss of critical ecosystem services that we often seek to restore through re‐establishment of desired plant communities. Trait‐based approaches have the potential to target specific ecosystem services based on associations between the functional composition of plant communities and ecosystem properties that serve as indicators of those services. The effect of functional composition on ecosystem recovery may depend on the amount of restored plant biomass, itself a supporting service frequently targeted in restoration efforts. Yet, interactions between functional composition and biomass are not formally integrated into trait‐based analytical frameworks. We tested the hypothesis that functional composition of plant communities both drives, and interacts with, biomass production to influence indicators of soil functioning and weed suppression across a network of degraded dryland restoration experiments. This networked approach allowed us to identify generalized effects of functional composition on ecosystem recovery across a range of dryland climate conditions. Climate had a substantial effect on ecosystem indicators, with weed cover and soil surface stability increasing in more arid climates, water infiltration increasing with precipitation, and aggregate structure increasing with less freezing. After accounting for climate effects across study sites, we found significant effects of community‐weighted mean (CWM) trait values on biomass, particularly a positive effect of leaf carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratio, and of CWM‐biomass interactions on other ecosystem indicators. Cover of exotic species was reduced in restored communities with a combination of low leaf dry matter content and high biomass, soil water infiltration increased with lower specific root length and high biomass, and soil aggregate stability increased with higher root dry matter content and high biomass, among other effects. Functional diversity had no significant effects on any ecosystem indicators. Synthesis: The influence of community functional composition on ecosystem properties increases with community biomass, particularly in disturbed or low productivity systems. This suggests that active management should not only focus on trait values that optimize individual ecosystem indicators but also how those functional strategies are complementary or counter to those that increase biomass. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

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Protocol for installing and monitoring a RestoreNet restoration field trial network site

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwesternUSrestoration sites

Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwesternUSrestoration sites

Plant water‐use strategies predict restoration success across degraded drylands

Functional composition of plant communities mediates biomass effects on ecosystem service recovery across an experimental dryland restoration network

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