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Biology
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Ecological Restoration of Plant Community
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Ecological Restoration of Plant Community

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 5573

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Denggao Fu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Yunnan Key Laboratory for Plateau Mountain Ecology and Restoration of Degraded Environments, School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Interests: restoration ecology; community assembly; functional diversity; soil nutrients
Prof. Dr. Zhen Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Rhizosphere Ecology Processes and Management, College of Resource and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
Interests: community ecology; ecological engineer

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Community ecology is frequently invoked as complementary to and useful for guiding ecological restoration. Considering the growing appreciation for the benefits of species and biodiversity for ecosystem functioning and services, ecological restoration of plant community increasingly focuses on reinstating compositionally and functionally diverse biological communities in disturbed terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems.

Ecological restoration of plant community often aims to overcome ecological thresholds in order to transition communities to alternate states via natural drives or artificial methods. For example, limitations of abiotic/biotic factors may be alleviated by adjustment of community structure or introduction of new species (plants, animals, or microbes), or seed/seedling treatments may be implemented to help species to overcome dispersal. Meanwhile, many restoration strategies have integrated many theories in community ecology (such as community assembly, community succession, functional traits framework, coexistence), and political, socioeconomic, and methodological aspects have been used to upscale restoration in different ecological regions.

This Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews that cover all aspects of ecological restoration of plant community, with an emphasis on studies improving our understanding of community processes in support of community establishment, assembly, and biodiversity maintenance and management. Short communications of preliminary, but significant, results will also be considered. This Special Issue also welcomes research on diagnosis, monitoring, and application in processes of plant community restoration design.

Dr. Denggao Fu
Prof. Dr. Zhen Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • ecological factors
  • species and functional diversity
  • diversity maintenance
  • ecological restoration technology
  • community assembly
  • community theory
  • genetic procedures and approaches for ecological restoration of plant community

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3240 KiB  
Article
Endangered Forest Communities in Central Europe: Mapping Current and Potential Distributions of Euro-Siberian Steppic Woods with Quercus spp. in South Slovak Basin
by Peter Oravec, Lukáš Wittlinger and František Máliš
Biology 2023, 12(7), 910; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12070910 - 25 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1229
Abstract
In this article we focus on the issue of determining the presence and status of the priority habitat 91I0* Euro-Siberian steppic woods with Quercus spp. in the South Slovak basin. As part of the issue, we try to verify the correctness of the [...] Read more.
In this article we focus on the issue of determining the presence and status of the priority habitat 91I0* Euro-Siberian steppic woods with Quercus spp. in the South Slovak basin. As part of the issue, we try to verify the correctness of the procedure of the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic in the search for potential habitats and areas of European importance by converting the typological map to a map of habitats. Habitat 91I0* occurs in Slovakia in the form of three subtypes, namely Thermophilous and supra-Mediterranean oak woods (Carpineto-Quercetum and Betuleto-Quercetum), Acidophilous oak forests (Quercetum), while the last-named subtype is divided into two subunits: Medio-European acidophilous oak forests—part A and Pannonic hairy greenweed sessile oak woods—part B. Due to the current unsatisfactory state of the mentioned habitats, the requirement of the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic is to find and add new areas with the occurrence of habitat 91I0* in the south of Central Slovakia. During the mapping in the Lučenecká and Rimavská basins, greater emphasis was placed on the occurrence of the subtype Thermophilic Pontic-Pannonian oak forests on loess and sand, but its presence has not been confirmed. Subsequently, we focused on the search and identification of habitats in the model area, which is the area of European importance SKUEV0957 Uderinky. The result is a map of habitats in this area, which we then compare with a typological map, which determines the reliability of the converter used by the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Restoration of Plant Community)
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10 pages, 707 KiB  
Article
Plant Traits Guide Species Selection in Vegetation Restoration for Soil and Water Conservation
by Denggao Fu, Xiaoni Wu, Lianyu Hu, Xudong Ma, Chunjie Shen, Huaye Shang, Gongning Huang, Yongjian He and Changqun Duan
Biology 2023, 12(4), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12040618 - 19 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2091
Abstract
Great efforts have been made to improve the soil and water conservation capacity by restoring plant communities in different climatic and land-use types. However, how to select suitable species from local species pools that not only adapt to different site environments, but also [...] Read more.
Great efforts have been made to improve the soil and water conservation capacity by restoring plant communities in different climatic and land-use types. However, how to select suitable species from local species pools that not only adapt to different site environments, but also achieve certain soil and water conservation capacities is a great challenge in vegetation restoration for practitioners and scientists. So far, little attention has been paid to plant functional response and effect traits related to environment resource and ecosystem functions. In this study, together with soil properties and ecohydrological functions, we measured the seven plant functional traits for the most common species in different restoration communities in a subtropical mountain ecosystem. Multivariate optimization analyses were performed to identify the functional effect types and functional response types based on specific plant traits. We found that the community-weighted means of traits differed significantly among the four community types, and the plant functional traits were strongly linked with soil physicochemical properties and ecohydrological functions. Based on three optimal effect traits (specific leaf area, leaf size, and specific root length) and two response traits (specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen concentration), seven functional effect types in relation to the soil and water conservation capacity (interception of canopy and stemflow, maximum water-holding capacity of litter, maximum water-holding capacity of soil, soil surface runoff, and soil erosion) and two plant functional response types to soil physicochemical properties were identified. The redundancy analysis showed that the sum of all canonical eigenvalues only accounted for 21.6% of the variation in functional response types, which suggests that community effects on soil and water conservation cannot explain the overall structure of community responses related to soil resources. The eight overlapping species between the plant functional response types and functional effect types were ultimately selected as the key species for vegetation restoration. Based on the above results, we offer an ecological basis for choosing the appropriate species based on functional traits, which may be very helpful for practitioners involved in ecological restoration and management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Restoration of Plant Community)
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10 pages, 1348 KiB  
Article
Soil Moisture and Available Phosphorus as the Factors Driving Variation in Functional Characteristics across Different Restoration Communities in a Subtropical Mountain Ecosystem
by Xiaoni Wu, Chunjie Shen, Xudong Ma, Lianyu Hu, Yongjian He, Huaye Shang and Denggao Fu
Biology 2023, 12(3), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12030427 - 10 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1442
Abstract
Functional characteristics are increasingly used to evaluate the success of different vegetation restoration. Community functional diversity (FD) and the community-weighted mean (CWM), as two main complementary components, are closely linked to site environment and ecosystem functions. However, the patterns and driving factors of [...] Read more.
Functional characteristics are increasingly used to evaluate the success of different vegetation restoration. Community functional diversity (FD) and the community-weighted mean (CWM), as two main complementary components, are closely linked to site environment and ecosystem functions. However, the patterns and driving factors of functional characteristics are still not clear in different vegetation restoration types. Here, four community restoration types (secondary shrubland, SL; Pinus yunnanensis forest, PF; mixed needle–broad-leaved forest, MF; natural secondary forest, NSF) were selected to investigate species diversity, FD, CWM, and soil physicochemical properties. The relative effects of species diversity and soil abiotic features on variation in functional characteristics were then evaluated. We found that different restoration communities altered most community structures and functional properties in terms of species diversity, FD, and CWM. CWM values and FD in different communities presented different distribution patterns depending on certain traits and parameters. Significant correlations between functional traits were found at the species and community scales, suggesting a potential covariation between these selected traits in communities. The results of redundancy analysis and variation partitioning showed that most of the variation in functional characteristics, especially CWM, was explained by soil moisture and available phosphorus, indicating that habitat filters regulate the functional characteristics of plant communities mainly by changing the dominant species composition and functional traits of species. Therefore, the selection of restoration species adapted to low soil moisture and available phosphorus and the construction of communities based on selected species as the dominant species can effectively drive community assembly and ecosystem functions in the vegetation restoration process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Restoration of Plant Community)
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