Top-down and sideways: Herbivory and cross-ecosystem connectivity shape restoration success at the salt marsh-upland ecotone.

ABSTRACT: Wetland restoration provides remarkable opportunities to understand vegetation dynamics and to inform success of future projects through rigorous restoration experiments. Salt marsh restoration typically focuses on physical factors such as sediment dynamics and elevation. Despite many demonstrations of strong top-down effects on salt marshes, the potential for consumers to affect salt marsh restoration projects has rarely been quantified. Recently, major restoration projects at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in central California, USA provided an opportunity to examine how herbivory influences restoration success. We quantified the strength of consumer effects by comparing caged to uncaged plantings, and compared effects among plant species and sites. We used camera

SUBMITTER: Wasson K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7899356 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature