Authors
Nancy Shackelford, Gustavo B Paterno, Daniel E Winkler, Todd E Erickson, Elizabeth A Leger, Lauren N Svejcar, Martin F Breed, Akasha M Faist, Peter A Harrison, Michael F Curran, Qinfeng Guo, Anita Kirmer, Darin J Law, Kevin Z Mganga, Seth M Munson, Lauren M Porensky, R Emiliano Quiroga, Péter Török, Claire E Wainwright, Ali Abdullahi, Matt A Bahm, Elizabeth A Ballenger, Nichole Barger, Owen W Baughman, Carina Becker, Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja, Chad S Boyd, Carla M Burton, Philip J Burton, Eman Calleja, Peter J Carrick, Alex Caruana, Charlie D Clements, Kirk W Davies, Balázs Deák, Jessica Drake, Sandra Dullau, Joshua Eldridge, Erin Espeland, Hannah L Farrell, Stephen E Fick, Magda Garbowski, Enrique G De la Riva, Peter J Golos, Penelope A Grey, Barry Heydenrych, Patricia M Holmes, Jeremy J James, Jayne Jonas-Bratten, Réka Kiss, Andrea T Kramer, Julie E Larson, Juan Lorite, C Ellery Mayence, Luis Merino-Martín, Tamás Miglécz, Suanne Jane Milton, Thomas A Monaco, Arlee M Montalvo, Jose A Navarro-Cano, Mark W Paschke, Pablo Luis Peri, Monica L Pokorny, Matthew J Rinella, Nelmarie Saayman, Merilynn C Schantz, Tina Parkhurst, Eric W Seabloom, Katharine L Stuble, Shauna M Uselman, Orsolya Valkó, Kari Veblen, Scott Wilson, Megan Wong, Zhiwei Xu, Katharine L Suding
Publication date
2021/9
Journal
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Volume
5
Issue
9
Pages
1283-1290
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK
Description
Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but without a global evaluation of successes and failures it is impossible to gauge feasibility. Here we examine restoration seeding outcomes across 174 sites on six continents, encompassing 594,065 observations of 671 plant species. Our findings suggest reasons for optimism. Seeding had a positive impact on species presence: in almost a third of all treatments, 100% of species seeded were growing at first monitoring. However, dryland restoration is risky: 17% of projects failed, with no establishment of any seeded species, and consistent declines were found in seeded …
Total citations
Scholar articles
N Shackelford, GB Paterno, DE Winkler, TE Erickson… - Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2021