Affiliation:
1. CNRS UMR 6553 ECOBIO, Université de Rennes 1 Rennes France
Abstract
AbstractQuestionsEvaluating reasons for the success (or failure) of restoration projects is one of the major goals for applied ecologists in the context of the dramatic worldwide decline in biodiversity. To that end, finding appropriate indicators and reference ecosystems is mandatory, especially for habitats in which restoration projects have been barely evaluated over the long term, such as coastal sand dunes. Do different indicators provide complementary information to evaluate restoration success? How successful is sand dune restoration after 30 years?LocationBrittany (France).MethodsWe report changes in the plant community over a period of 30 years following restoration using trampling protection and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) planting in four sites that were highly degraded by sand extraction and over‐frequentation. We used several indicator types (geomorphological, taxonomic, functional) at different spatial scales (alpha, beta, gamma) to assess recovery since restoration in four sites of the northern coast of Brittany and undertook comparison with reference sites.ResultsOur results indicate that over the 30 years after restoration the gamma richness of typical species and overall vegetation conservation status increased. We also found that restoration induces the recovery of zonation in plant communities, which become organized along the typical sea–inland gradient. We showed that use of functional traits and diversity indices is effective to compare restored communities with reference data from the literature. Based on this approach, we demonstrated that, according to most functional indicators, restored communities converge over time with the patterns found in reference data.ConclusionsWe demonstrated that restoration of coastal dunes after 30 years induced the recovery of sand accumulation, typical species cover, sea–inland plant community zonation and community functional characteristics. Despite these positive results, which indicated overall success and confirmed interest in such restoration projects, we found an important discrepancy in restoration success among study sites (e.g., level of recovery of typical species cover, functional diversity). Finally, our study confirms the interest of functional composition and functional diversity as restoration success metrics.
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Nature and Landscape Conservation,Ecology
Reference72 articles.
1. Are there habitats that contribute best to plant species diversity in coastal dunes?
2. Valuing the storm protection service of estuarine and coastal ecosystems
3. Baselga A. Orme D. Villeger S. Bortoli J.D. Leprieur F. Logez M. &Henriques‐Silva R.2018.Betapart: Partitioning Beta diversity into turnover and Nestedness components.
4. Enhancement of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by Ecological Restoration: A Meta-Analysis
5. Bensettiti F. Gaudillat V.&Haury J.(2002)« Cahiers d'habitats » Natura 2000. Connaissance et gestion des habitats et des espèces d'intérêt communautaire. Tome 2 – Habitats côtiers.
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献