Evaluating the success of functional restoration after reintroduction of a lost avian pollinator.

ABSTRACT: Conservation translocation is a common method for species recovery, for which one increasingly frequent objective is restoring lost ecological functions to promote ecosystem recovery. However, few conservation translocation programs explicitly state or monitor function as an objective, limiting the ability to test assumptions, learn from past efforts, and improve management. We evaluated whether translocations of hihi (Notiomystis cincta), a threatened New Zealand passerine, achieved their implicit objective of restoring lost pollination function. Through a pollinator-exclusion experiment, we quantified, with log response ratios (lnR), the effects of birds on fruit set and seed quality in hangehange (Geniostoma ligustrifolium), a native flowering shrub. We isolated the contributions of hih

SUBMITTER: Andrews CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9545379 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature