A global meta-analysis on the ecological drivers of forest restoration success

Renato Crouzeilles (), Michael Curran, Mariana S. Ferreira, David B. Lindenmayer, Carlos E. V. Grelle and José M. Rey Benayas
Additional contact information
Renato Crouzeilles: Laboratory of Vertebrates, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Michael Curran: Group of Ecological Systems Design, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich
Mariana S. Ferreira: Laboratory of Vertebrates, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
David B. Lindenmayer: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University
Carlos E. V. Grelle: Laboratory of Vertebrates, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
José M. Rey Benayas: Alcala University

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Two billion ha have been identified globally for forest restoration. Our meta-analysis encompassing 221 study landscapes worldwide reveals forest restoration enhances biodiversity by 15–84% and vegetation structure by 36–77%, compared with degraded ecosystems. For the first time, we identify the main ecological drivers of forest restoration success (defined as a return to a reference condition, that is, old-growth forest) at both the local and landscape scale. These are as follows: the time elapsed since restoration began, disturbance type and landscape context. The time elapsed since restoration began strongly drives restoration success in secondary forests, but not in selectively logged forests (which are more ecologically similar to reference systems). Landscape restoration will be most successful when previous disturbance is less intensive and habitat is less fragmented in the landscape. Restoration does not result in full recovery of biodiversity and vegetation structure, but can complement old-growth forests if there is sufficient time for ecological succession.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11666 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11666

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11666

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().