Optimizing coastal restoration with the stress gradient hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Restoration efforts have been escalating worldwide in response to widespread habitat degradation. However, coastal restoration attempts notoriously vary in their ability to establish resilient, high-functioning ecosystems. Conventional restoration attempts disperse transplants in competition-minimizing arrays, yet recent studies suggest that clumping transplants to maximize facilitative interactions may improve restoration success. Here, we modify the stress gradient hypothesis to generate predictions about where each restoration design will perform best across environmental stress gradients. We then test this conceptual model with field experiments manipulating transplant density and configuration across dune elevations and latitudes. In hurricane-damaged Georgia (USA) dunes, grass transp

SUBMITTER: Fischman HS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6939925 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature