Integrating functional traits into trophic rewilding science

Abstract

Abstract Trophic rewilding is gaining rapid momentum as a means of restoration across the world. Advances in research are elucidating the wide‐ranging effects of trophic rewilding and megafauna re‐establishment on ecosystem properties and processes including resilience, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, productivity and plant richness. A substantial gap remains in trophic rewilding research on how rewilding affects the frequency and expression of plant functional traits, a key hypothesised avenue by which megafauna can affect biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Yet, there is extensive literature examining the effects of mammal herbivory and exclusion on plant traits from which we may infer potential effects of megafauna reintroductions. Here, we synthesise the literature to show the multifaceted ways that plant functional composition responds to mammalian herbivory and explore how these responses are modulated by the density and identity of herbivores as well as resource availability, ecosystem productivity and historical contingency. We further explore these interactions in a quantitative analysis on European plant species. In addition, we link these broad patterns between mammal herbivory and traits to literature on plant invasions to predict how trophic rewilding may be able to reduce invasive plant dominance, as ecosystems around the world are transitioning towards novel states, occupied by a mix of native and introduced species. Expanding current research on herbivore effects (and their implications for trophic rewilding) beyond plant species richness and towards measurable functional traits can help assess and quantify processes that were not previously possible. Trait approaches can help to test mechanistic hypotheses on the top‐down impacts of large herbivores on plant communities to reveal links between trophic rewilding and ecosystem processes and properties. Synthesis. Given the rapid, much‐needed expansion of restoration and rewilding activities across the world, trait‐based ecology offers a pathway to generalisable predictions of the ecosystem impacts of rewilding, particularly in the context of both the unique landscape processes associated with rewilding (e.g. landscape scale spatiotemporal variability, dispersal) and of widely emerging novel ecosystems.