Recovery of plant communities after ecological restoration of forestry-drained peatlands.

ABSTRACT: Ecological restoration is expected to reverse the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Due to the low number of well-replicated field studies, the extent to which restoration recovers plant communities, and the factors underlying possible shortcomings, are not well understood even in medium term. We compared the plant community composition of 38 sites comprising pristine, forestry-drained, and 5 or 10 years ago restored peatlands in southern Finland, with special interest in understanding spatial variation within studied sites, as well as the development of the numbers and the abundances of target species. Our results indicated a recovery of community composition 5-10 years after restoration, but there was significant heterogeneity in recovery. Plant communities farthest away from

SUBMITTER: Haapalehto T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5632633 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature