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Current grassland restoration strategies aim to recreate grassland vegetation communities, and often rely on high‐diversity native seeding to promote vegetation diversity. Questions remain concerning the influence of vegetation richness and diversity on grassland fauna. Small‐mammal communities are integral parts of grassland ecosystems, but their responses to restoration are often mixed or overlooked. During July 2014 to 2016, we used Sherman live traps to survey grassland small‐mammal communities of 24 study sites in northeastern South Dakota and southeastern North Dakota, USA, to better understand their responses to vegetation cover type, diversity, richness, and site‐specific vegetation structure. Sites represented a vegetation species richness gradient and 3 vegetation cover types including low‐diversity restorations planted with dense nesting cover (DNC) seed mix, high‐diversity seeded restorations, and unseeded reference grasslands. Small‐mammal abundance was highest at low‐diversity DNC restoration sites and lowest in reference grassland. Small‐mammal diversity was highest at high‐diversity restoration sites and lowest at low‐diversity DNC restoration sites. Models assessing the influence of vegetation structure on the abundance of focal taxa differed. Deer mice (Peromyscus spp.) were negatively influenced by percent native vegetation cover, and voles (Microtus spp.) showed yearly variation and were influenced positively by litter depth and negatively by vegetation richness. Small‐mammal communities of low‐diversity DNC restorations differed from reference sites, but high‐diversity restorations were not different from reference or low‐diversity DNC sites. Thirteen‐lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) abundance was higher at reference and high‐diversity restored sites, while low‐diversity DNC sites had higher deer mice abundance. Results indicate small mammals are unlikely to respond uniformly to vegetation characteristics, and diversity of seed mixes used in grassland restoration is likely to influence grassland small‐mammal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiarid savanna grasslands (SG) in India deliver enormous benefits to people and nature but are currently undergoing large‐scale degradation. Soil carbon stocks in degraded SGs vary in response to land use and land management changes. Although there is increasing support for restoring grasslands by planting native grass species, its impact on soil carbon recovery is largely unknown. In this study, we undertake a plot‐level investigation of soil and aboveground biomass carbon stocks to provide robust estimates of carbon densities across sites which have undergone restoration over the last 3 years. We compare these restored sites with a no‐intervention control using a space‐for‐time substitution framework and two reference old‐growth grassland sites. We find that SGs store significant amounts of carbon (11.57–26.76 tC/ha across 1‐ to 3‐year restoration sites, respectively), with most of the carbon stored in soils (7.29–15.67 tC/ha across 1‐ to 3‐year restoration sites, respectively). These estimates still remain well below the soil carbon stocks of the reference sites (range of 22.91–39.49 tC/ha). We demonstrate that soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks progressively increase with the age of grass plantings. The 3‐year site shows an increase of 35% in SOC stocks compared to the no‐intervention control and an increase of 30 and 21% in comparison to the 1‐ and 2‐year sites, respectively. Our study demonstrates a robust approach to estimate soil carbon stocks in these ecosystems and highlights that effective conservation and restoration can enable SGs in India to act as natural carbon sinks at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the establishment of plant species is important to inform management of restored grasslands and to preserve biodiversity in ancient grasslands. In grassland communities, plant species can establish from seeds arriving via spatial dispersal, from seeds in the soil seed bank or through vegetative spread from nearby source individuals. However, this colonization potential and the likelihood of species establishment can vary in grasslands with different land‐use history. We investigated the relative importance of local species recruitment sources, such as dispersal in space and time and species presence in adjacent grasslands, in determining establishment of plant species in eight grasslands with different land‐use history (paired ancient grasslands continuously managed as pasture vs. restored grasslands on former forest). At each grassland, we established plots (0.25 m2) to monitor seedling emergence from seed dispersal, seed bank, and recorded clonal growth over two growing periods. We found that the likelihood of species establishment was highest from local seed rain, and that species present in the local species pool were more able to germinate and establish in both type of grasslands. Species from the seed bank and clonal growth contributed to a lesser extent to species establishment, but represented a greater proportion of the recolonization and regeneration of species in ancient grasslands. These results demonstrate that surrounding grasslands serve as a source for colonizing species and that dispersal from the adjacent grasslands is the key process in regeneration and colonization of plants. These results imply that the recovery of grasslands depends heavily upon to links to species source in grasslands, especially in restored grasslands. Therefore, management plans should incorporate rotational livestock grazing and larger networks of grassland in restoration efforts, which will enable to desirable species to establish and persist in grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoring native grassland vegetation can substantially improve ecosystem service outcomes from agricultural watersheds, but profitable pathways are needed to incentivize conversion from conventional crops. Given growing demand for renewable energy, using grassy biomass to produce biofuels provides a potential solution. We assessed the techno‐economic feasibility and life cycle outcomes of a "grass‐to‐gas" pathway that includes harvesting grassy (lignocellulosic) biomass for renewable natural gas (RNG) production through anaerobic digestion (AD), expanding on previous research that quantified ecosystem service and landowner financial outcomes of simulated grassland restoration in the Grand River Basin of Iowa and Missouri, United States. We found that the amount of RNG produced through AD of grassy biomass ranged 0.12–45.04 million gigajoules (GJ), and the net present value (NPV) of the RNG ranged −$97 to $422 million, depending on the combination of land use, productivity, and environmental credit scenarios. Positive NPVs are achieved with environmental credits for replacement of synthetic agricultural inputs with digestate and clean fuel production (e.g., USEPA D3 Renewable Identification Number, California Low Carbon Fuel Standard). Producing RNG from grassy biomass emits 15.1 g CO2‐eq/MJ, which compares favorably to the fossil natural gas value of 61.1 g CO2‐eq/MJ and exceeds the US Environmental Protection Agency's requirement for cellulosic biofuel. Overall, this study demonstrates opportunities and limitations to using grassy biomass from restored grasslands for sustainable RNG production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal personality should be highly relevant to recovery of species following habitat restoration, but empirical evaluations remain scarce. In the Chihuahuan Desert of the southwestern United States and globally, grasslands are threatened with shrub encroachment, prompting landscape-scale restoration efforts to remove shrubs and improve habitat for grassland species. We examined the behavioural response of a keystone rodent of grasslands, banner-tailed kangaroo rats, Dipodomys spectabilis , to extensive shrub removal efforts in New Mexico, U.S.A. We captured individuals from replicated restoration and remnant grassland habitats and used standardized behavioural assays to determine whether D. spectabilis exhibits personality and whether it varies between restoration and remnant habitats. We also conducted a movement experiment using artificial shrubs to test whether personality mediates movement choices through shrub cover, which could be a mechanism contributing to the colonization dynamics of restoration sites. We found repeatable differences among individuals for multiple behaviours, including movements, providing evidence of personality. We also documented a syndrome in which bolder and more active individuals moved through movement trials quicker, indicating personality-dependent movement. Dipodomys spectabilis also exhibited personality-dependent movement through artificial shrub cover, suggesting the choice to move through shrublands may depend on personality. This result could have consequences for colonization dynamics of restoration sites if a subset of individuals is more likely to traverse low-quality shrublands and settle in habitats treated for shrub removal. Surprisingly, there was weak divergence in behavioural traits at the population level between restoration sites and remnant grasslands. This outcome could reflect personality-dependent colonization early in the restoration trajectory being eroded by subsequent gene flow and facilitation of alternative behavioural types. We hope our study will stimulate future research integrating animal personality with habitat restoration to benefit biodiversity in degraded ecosystems. • Multiple behaviours, including movements, were repeatable in kangaroo rats. • Kangaroo rats displayed a syndrome between personality and movement behaviour. • Behavioural traits only weakly diverged between remnant and restoration sites. • Links between animal personality and habitat restoration remain understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invertebrates account for over 90% of all described species and provide crucial ecosystem services. Land clearing, including the removal of abiotic habitat features, threatens invertebrate biodiversity, making environmental restoration crucial for conservation. However, little is known about the effects of abiotic restoration compared to the restoration of biotic features. To determine if rock addition increased invertebrate biodiversity, we introduced 120 t of rocks to 10 sites across five grassland reserves in the Australian Capital Territory in a before‐after‐control‐impact design. We sampled invertebrates using pitfall traps before treatment in 2016 and after rock addition in 2019 (during record‐breaking drought). We recorded 29,164 individual invertebrates from 19 orders and undertook a functional trait‐based analysis of rock effects on the invertebrate community. No effects of rock addition were observed on the probability of occurrence, richness, diversity, community similarity, or abundance of any taxonomic or functional group. The abundance of snare‐building spiders and large ants was higher in the control plots at the end of the experiment. These abundance responses in 2019 did not differ from the control or treatment plots in 2016. Thus, some combination of drought and rock addition appears to have neutralized a positive temporal change that was evident without rocks. Despite a regionwide, replicated restoration effort and an extensive functional analysis of invertebrate communities, very little positive response to rock addition was recorded. Rock addition did not have a negative effect on grassland invertebrate biodiversity and may still be beneficial to the long‐term conservation and restoration of vertebrate and invertebrate communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant species affect key ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling and overall ecosystem productivity through their litter. The outcome of litter effects is largely determined by its decomposability, which directly effects soil properties. If litter remains standing or unshed (i.e. marcescent), its final decomposability can be increased by photodegradation of recalcitrant structures (like lignin). If the litter is immediately shed, its decomposability largely depends on its original nutrient content. Moreover, plant species may affect soil also through other, more direct effects. It is however unknown whether marcescent and immediately shed litters affect soil, and by that plants, differently, whether direct effects of plants on soil interact with those of marcescent and shed litters, and whether these interactions are consistent under different soil conditions. We set up a pot experiment, where we tested the effects of originally marcescent and shed litters (both added on the soil surface of the pots) on three grassland species (Bromus erectus, Filipendula vulgaris and Plantago media) in contrasting soils from long‐term stable ancient grassland and grassland restored on arable land 20 years before. We also tested how litter types and plant species affect soil chemical properties and microbial community (characterised by PLFA markers). Marcescent litter contained a lower amount of nutrients, but still increased plant biomass more than shed litter, although only for F. vulgaris (likely due to mobilisation of soil nutrients). The effect of litter on soil chemical properties and microbial community was low. These were largely affected by the plant species growing in the pot. The effect of these species on the microbial community was stronger in the undisturbed soil of ancient grasslands, while plant species affected mainly chemical properties in disturbed soil of restored grasslands. B. erectus slowed down the decomposition of both litter types in restored grassland soil. The effect of marcescent litter on living plants was significant but species‐specific and depended on soil conditions. Marcescence seems to have a stronger effect on plants in disturbed soil, which indicates its importance for recovery of the ecosystem after disturbance. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Grazing exclusion is an efficient practice to restore degraded grassland ecosystems by eliminating external disturbances and improving ecosystems' self-healing capacities, which affects the ecological processes of soil-plant systems. Grassland degradation levels play a critical role in regulating these ecological processes. However, the effects of vegetation and soil states at different degradation stages on grassland ecosystem restoration are not fully understood. To better understand this, desert steppe at three levels of degradation (light, moderate, and heavy degradation) was fenced for 6 years in Inner Mongolia, China. Community characteristics were investigated, and nutrient concentrations of the soil (0–10 cm depth) and dominant plants were measured. Results: We found that grazing exclusion increased shoots' carbon (C) concentrations, C/N, and C/P, but significantly decreased shoots' nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations for Stipa breviflora and Cleistogenes songorica. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in nutrient concentrations of these two species among the three degraded desert steppes after grazing exclusion. After grazing exclusion, annual accumulation rates of aboveground C, N, and P pools in the heavily degraded area were the highest, but the aboveground nutrient pools were the lowest among the three degraded grasslands. Similarly, the annual recovery rates of community height, cover, and aboveground biomass in the heavily degraded desert steppe were the highest among the three degraded steppes after grazing exclusion. These results indicate that grazing exclusion is more effective for vegetation restoration in the heavily degraded desert steppe. The soil total carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available nitrogen, and available phosphorus concentrations in the moderately and heavily degraded desert steppes were significantly decreased after six years of grazing exclusion, whereas these were no changes in the lightly degraded desert steppe. Structural equation model analysis showed that the grassland degradation level mainly altered the community aboveground biomass and aboveground nutrient pool, driving the decrease in soil nutrient concentrations and accelerating nutrient transfer from soil to plant community, especially in the heavily degraded grassland. Conclusions: Our study emphasizes the importance of grassland degradation level in ecosystem restoration and provides theoretical guidance for scientific formulation of containment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To quantitatively analyze the impact of climate variability and human activities on grassland productivity of China's Qilian Mountain National Park, this study used Carnegic-Ames-Stanford Approach model (CASA) and Integrated Vegetation model improved by the Comprehensive and Sequential Classification System (CSCS) to assess the trends of grassland NPP from 2000 to 2015, the residual trend analysis method was used to quantify the impact of human activities and climate change on the grassland based on the NPP changes. The actual grassland NPP accumulation mainly occurred in June, July and August (autumn); the actual NPP showed a fluctuating upward trend with an average increase of 2.2 g C·m-2 a-1, while the potential NPP increase of 1.6 g C·m-2 a-1 and human-induced NPP decreased of 0.5 g C·m-2 a-1. The annual temperature showed a fluctuating upward trend with an average increase of 0.1°C 10a-1, but annual precipitation showed a fluctuating upward trend with an average annual increase of 1.3 mm a-1 from 2000 to 2015. The area and NPP of grassland degradation caused by climate variability was significantly greater than that caused by human activities and mainly distributed in the northwest and central regions, but area and NPP of grassland restored caused by human activities was significantly greater than that caused by climate variability and mainly distributed in the southeast regions. In conclusion, grassland in Qilian Mountain National Park showed a trend of degradation based on distribution area, but showed a trend of restoration based on actual NPP. Climate variability was the main cause of grassland degradation in the northwestern region of study area, and restoration of grassland in the eastern region was the result of the combined effects of human activities and climate variability. Under global climate change, the establishment of Qilian Mountain National Park was of great significance to the grassland's protection and the grasslands ecological restoration that have been affected by humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On grassland and savanna restoration sites, planted native C4 grasses can competitively exclude other co‐introduced plant functional groups, with negative implications for ecosystem functioning and restoration success. Previous studies have suggested that C4 grass competitive exclusion does not occur in longleaf pine savannas of the North American Coastal Plain; however these studies were primarily conducted on old growth xeric sites. We designed an experiment to test competitive interactions between C4 grasses and forbs introduced by seed to mesic savanna restoration sites. Research installations were established on three former bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) pastures in Florida, within which six different seed treatments were applied: (1) C4 grasses and forbs together in years 1 and 2, (2) C4 grasses alone in year 1 and forbs alone in year 2, (3) forbs alone in year 1 and C4 grasses alone in year 2, (4) C4 grasses alone in both years, (5) forbs alone in both years, and (6) an unplanted control. All plots were sampled 1 year after the second seeding event. We found that C4 grasses competitively excluded forbs, reducing cover of forbs arriving on the site at the same time, as well as those arriving in the second year. The highest forb species richness and cover was found in the three treatments that did not contain C4 grasses in year 1, and different C4 grass species exhibited different community associations. These findings suggest that restoration seed mixes for longleaf pine savannas should account for the competitive interactions of C4 grasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural intensification, afforestation and land abandonment are major drivers of biodiversity loss in semi‐natural grasslands across Europe. Reversing these losses requires the reinstatement of plant–animal interactions such as pollination. Here we assessed the differences in species composition and patterns of plant‐pollinator interactions in ancient and restored grasslands and how these patterns are influenced by landscape connectivity, across three European regions (Belgium, Germany and Sweden).We evaluated the differences in pollinator community assemblage, abundance and interaction network structure between 24 ancient and restored grasslands. We then assessed the effect of surrounding landscape functional connectivity (i.e. green infrastructure, GI) on these variables and tested possible consequences on the reproduction of two model plants, Lotus corniculatus and Salvia pratensis.Neither pollinator richness nor species composition differed between ancient and restored grasslands. A high turnover of interactions across grasslands was detected but was mainly due to replacement of pollinator and plant species. The impact of grassland restoration was consistent across various pollinator functional groups, whereas the surrounding GI had differential effects. Notably, bees, butterflies, beetles, and dipterans (excluding hoverflies) exhibited the most significant responses to GI variations. Interestingly, networks in restored grasslands were more specialised (i.e. less functionally redundant) than in ancient ones and also showed a higher number of insect visits to habitat‐generalist plant species. Landscape connectivity had a similar effect, with habitat‐specialist plant species receiving fewer visits at higher GI values.Fruit set in S. pratensis and L. corniculatus was unaffected by grassland type or GI. However, the fruit set in the specialist S. pratensis increased with the number of pollinator visits, indicating a positive correlation between pollinator activity and reproductive success in this particular species.Synthesis and applications. Our findings provide evidence of the necessity to enhance ecosystem functions while avoiding biotic homogenisation. Restoration programs should aim at increasing landscape connectivity which influences plant communities, pollinator assemblages and their interaction patterns. To avoid generalist species taking over from specialists in restored grasslands, we suggest reinforcing the presence of specialist species in the latter, for instance by means of introductions, as well as increasing the connectivity to source populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature reserve of Bec du Feyi near Wibrin has been the object of protection and nature conservation management measures for over 30 years to ensure its perennity. The reserve consists mainly of a mosaic of hay meadows, marshes, ponds, aquatic environments and old clear-cuts in the process of recolonization. The manager shares his thoughts on the evolution of nature through the various environments and habitats that make up this natural site, based on the impact of management actions, but also based on the influence of the numerous factors affecting the local environment and, more broadly, climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, restoration on former grassland sites has been widely encouraged globally, aiming to address the historical loss of 90% of ancient species‐rich grasslands, and to mitigate the associated threat to grassland biodiversity. The objective of our study was to investigate on a small‐scale how plant species spontaneously colonize restored grasslands. We inventoried 275 permanent plots twice (in 2019 and 2021) in a restored grassland, following the removal of a conifer plantation. Species richness and vegetation cover in surveyed plots were dependent on grazing activity and distance to adjacent grassland. Plant species associated with forest habitats declined, while the occurrence of generalist species together with a few grassland specialists generally increased. However, not all grassland specialists gained occurrence and the colonization pattern was not consistent over time, possibly due to the lack of continuous seed arrival and low livestock activity and hence lack of disturbance. These results suggest that successful colonization of plant species benefits from links to species‐rich sites adjacent to the restoration target, with spatial dispersal and improved conditions for species establishment being key to species occurrence. Both dispersal and establishment potential are likely facilitated through the presence of grazing livestock with access to both species‐rich grasslands and restoration targets. However, the shift towards a more typical grassland community takes place gradually, with vulnerable populations of early colonizing grassland species prone to local extinction in short‐term. As a result, continued functional connectivity provided by grazing animals is necessary to improve the diversity of the restored site and ensure the establishment of grassland specialists and to maintain the plant community composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the desertification of grasslands has increased due to various factors, including both global warming and human activities. It is an essential basis for grassland degradation monitoring to monitor the dynamic change of desert grassland vegetation communities and distribution statistics. Although unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing images have allowed us to achieve dynamic real-time grassland monitoring, the distribution of desert grassland ground objects can be random and narrow, thus increasing the difficulty of sample labelling of remote sensing imagery. Therefore, to reduce the number of samples required for the model, this research proposes a convolutional transformer attention network (CTAN) to identify desert grassland ground objects and validate it on a self-collected desert grassland dataset. The network utilizes the transformer model to enhance its learning of global pixels so that it suppresses the transmission of background pixels within the network. Furthermore, the edge convolution module is designed to strengthen the network's learning for edge pixels, improving its identification effect. The results show that the network provides 97.22% of overall accuracy (OA), 94.35% of average accuracy (AA), and 0.9398 of Kappa for ground object recognition in desert grassland. The model improves OA by 2.36–9.85% points compared to methods in the same field and 0.8–6.35% points compared to methods in hyperspectral imagery classification. The experimental results show the superior performance of the CTAN model for recognizing desert grassland objects, which helps the management and restoration of desert grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated different techniques of grassland restoration to overcome dispersal or establishment limitation, which are key processes influencing early‐successional plant community assembly. A fully randomized in situ experiment was set up in a former arable land in a floodplain along the Garonne river (south‐western France) to test for the effect of (1) the type and completeness of the biological input (any biological material—seed, hay, and soil—transferred to the site under restoration), (2) soil disturbance by deep tillage, and (3) their interaction on plant community dynamics for 5 years. All inputs influenced the plant community structure and composition. The effects depended on the type of the input but not necessarily in link with its completeness. High density and diversity seed mixture led to high levels of richness and relative abundance of target species like soil blocks, the input considered as the most complete. During the first year, hay transfer mostly influenced community assembly through negative litter effects. Delayed germination of several species contributed to buffer these early effects. This study supports the importance of dispersal limitation during early succession in degraded grassland ecosystems whereas soil disturbance had only subtle effects on the seed bank and standing plant community, indicating that competition and establishment limitation were of secondary importance in our study system. Our results suggest that even low‐frequency immigration events (e.g. when a few seeds are transferred within hay) can be of great importance providing that a sufficiently long time period is considered for grassland restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpine meadows are key ecosystems that are facing increasing degradation due to climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. Despite tremendous efforts in ecological restoration and diverse communities rebuilding in alpine regions, restoration of extremely degraded alpine meadows (which have lost mattic epipedon) remains a major challenge for land managers. Here, we performed a field restoration experiment that combined seeding three grass species commonly (Elymus nutans, Poa annua, and Festuca sinensis) used in alpine meadow restoration with the application of grass clippings as mulch (bare land without mulching, 50% mulch cover, and 100% mulch cover) to ameliorate the soil surface conditions of degraded bare land. Soils covered with 50% and 100% mulching increased soil moisture, seedling density, plant cover, plant density, aboveground biomass, and belowground biomass, and reduced soil temperature during strong radiation days and insulated at night. In the three grass species seeding plots, mulching with grass clippings also improved seedling density, plant cover, plant density, and biomass. Moreover, 100% mulching had stronger restoration effect than 50% mulching. We further demonstrated that the improvement of surface microclimate in degraded alpine meadows by grass clipping mulching, that is, increasing soil moisture and regulating soil temperature, is an important reason for the success of grassland restoration. Mulching with grass clippings simulates the original mattic epipedon, improving the surface hydrothermal conditions and promoting ecological restoration facilitation. We encourage the application of locally available grass clippings after seeding as this can be an efficient, low‐cost, and sustainable approach for restoring extremely degraded high‐elevation alpine grassland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ecological restoration, seed sourcing is often among the first and most critical steps in achieving restored populations that establish and reproduce successfully, while also having the genetic capacity to adapt to future change. Many approaches have been proposed to guide seed sourcing for restoration, including a strong focus on local seed sources, the use of assisted gene flow or assisted migration, and regional admixture provenancing. The goal of this research was to evaluate these issues in the context of grassland restoration. We collected seed of Chamaecrista fasciculata, an annual native to the prairies of North America, from four locations along a latitudinal gradient. We generated inter‐ and intrapopulation crosses and grew them in two common gardens located in restored prairies in southeast Minnesota. We found that northern populations tended to flower and fruit earlier than southern populations, while hybrids generally had intermediate phenologies. There were strong fitness benefits of hybridization, particularly among the local crosses. However, the plants grown from our southernmost seed source produced few mature seed pods in the common gardens before the advent of fall frost, suggesting that translocating populations across significant latitudinal distances may be problematic. Taken together, our findings support a regional admixture provenancing approach while indicating that assisted migration and assisted gene flow across latitudinal distances of three degrees or more compromises fitness in this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The external environment in the transitional zone of the ecological barrier is fragile, and economic growth has resulted in a series of land degradation issues, significantly impacting regional economic development and the ecological environment. Therefore, monitoring, assessing, and predicting land use changes are crucial for ecological security and sustainable development. This study developed an integrated model comprising convolutional neural network, cellular automata, and Markov chain to forecast the land use status of western Jilin, located in the transitional zone of the ecological barrier, by the year 2030. Additionally, the study evaluated the role of land use policies in the context of land use changes in western Jilin. The findings demonstrate that the coupled modeling approach exhibits excellent predictive performance for land use prediction in western Jilin, yielding a Kappa coefficient of 93.26%. Policy drivers play a significant role in shaping land use patterns in western Jilin, as evidenced by the declining farmland accompanied by improved land utilization, the sustained high levels of forest aligning with sustainable development strategies, the ongoing restoration of waters and grassland, which are expected to show positive growth by 2030, and the steady growth in built-up areas. This study contributes to understanding the dynamics of land use in the transitional zone of the ecological barrier, thereby promoting sustainable development and ecological resilience in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the largest contributors to grassland restoration projects in the United States is the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a program that converts marginal farmlands to perennial grassland, resulting in grassland restoration in an agricultural landscape matrix. Invasive weeds are a particular challenge of restoration in this context due to an abundance of propagule sources and pathways, high levels of soil disturbance, elevated nutrients, and legacies of past agricultural activities. Using edge-of-field surveys, we examined the prevalence of two invasive weedy species, Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary-grass) and Pastinaca sativa (wild parsnip), and related their prevalence to CRP contract parameters and vegetation factors to understand which factors improve biotic resistance to invasion during grassland restoration. We found the strongest correlates of weed presence were related to plant cover. High grass cover and forb cover were both strongly correlated with reduced P. arundinacea presence, and high forb cover was correlated to reduced P. sativa presence. High grass species richness was also correlated with lower P. arundinacea presence, but grass and forb richness were not significantly correlated with P. sativa presence. CRP contract parameters were not strong predictors of invasive presence; P. arundinacea was more frequent and P. sativa was less frequent in Wetland Conservation Practices, likely due to hydrology and soil moisture. Grassland restoration age was not a significant predictor for either species. We recommend practices that rapidly increase native plant cover during grassland restoration as a means to improve biotic resistance to weed invasion in an agricultural landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large parts of biodiversity in protected areas (PAs) and their ecosystem services have been deteriorated due to land cover change over time. To reverse these effects, analysis of land cover change is essential. One of the protected areas, Hallaydeghe Asebot Proposed National Park (HAPNP), was assumed its land cover change and was undergone from one habitat type to others during the last three decades. As a result, wildlife species particularly Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi) in HAPNP are facing conservation challenges. Here, we aimed to examine the land cover changes of HAPNP for the period of 1990–2021 and assess Grevy's zebra conservation challenges so as to improve the protection of the park and conservation of the species. Landsat images for the years 1990, 2006, and 2021 were generated to analyze land cover change of the study area. In addition, ground control points and information from elder and knowledgeable informants were collected to substantiate the result. Household survey, key informant interviews, and field observation checklist were utilized to collect data on conservation challenges. To generate land cover change maps, the satellite image for each period was classified using supervised classification. Content analysis was used to analyze conservation challenges of the species. The findings of this study revealed that 12.2% of grassland cover lost from 1990 to 2021 (i.e., an estimated annual average loss 0.4%). The remaining grassland cover in the HAPNP was aggregated in a small land area. On the other hand, the size of bushland increased by 26.4% during the same year (i.e., an estimated annual average gain 0.9%). These findings have implications for conservation and management of grazers. Major drivers for conservation challenges of Grevy's zebra were habitat degradation, unintegrated development, and poor law enforcement practices. Grassland restoration program and species conservation challenges' intervention strategy should be designed and implemented to safeguard the natural habitat and the species that occur in the HAPNP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant populations are limited by resource availability and exhibit physiological trade‐offs in resource acquisition strategies. These trade‐offs may constrain the ability of populations to exhibit fast growth rates under water limitation and high cover of neighbours. However, traits that confer drought tolerance may also confer resistance to competition. It remains unclear how fitness responses to these abiotic conditions and biotic interactions combine to structure grassland communities and how this relationship may change along a gradient of water availability.To address these knowledge gaps, we estimated the low‐density growth rates of populations in drought conditions with low neighbour cover and in ambient conditions with average neighbour cover for 82 species in six grassland communities across the Central Plains and Southwestern United States. We assessed the relationship between population tolerance to drought and resistance to competition and determined if this relationship was consistent across a precipitation gradient. We also tested whether population growth rates could be predicted using plant functional traits.Across six sites, we observed a positive correlation between low‐density population growth rates in drought and in the presence of interspecific neighbours. This positive relationship was particularly strong in the grasslands of the northern Great Plains but weak in the most xeric grasslands. High leaf dry matter content and a low (more negative) leaf turgor loss point were associated with high population growth rates in drought and with neighbours in most grassland communities.Synthesis: A better understanding of how both biotic and abiotic factors impact population fitness provides valuable insights into how grasslands will respond to extreme drought. Our results advance plant strategy theory by suggesting that drought tolerance increases population resistance to interspecific competition in grassland communities. However, this relationship is not evident in the driest grasslands, where above‐ground competition is likely less important. Leaf dry matter content and turgor loss point may help predict which populations will establish and persist based on local water availability and neighbour cover, and these predictions can be used to guide the conservation and restoration of biodiversity in grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasslands in northern China serve the country as both an ecological barrier and a livestock production base. There, installing enclosures has been becoming the major grassland restoration measure adopted by many local governments. However, the effects of restoration on both ecological and production benefits of grassland remain unclear for implemented grassland restoration policies. Therefore, a representative rangeland in northern China, the Maodeng pasture in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was selected as the study area, and remote sensing monitoring analyses were carried out to quantify the ecological benefits and economic benefits from 2015 to 2021. The results showed that: 1) in terms of ecological benefits, the grassland area with a grassland coverage rate of more than 60% accounts for 32.3% of the regional area, and 86.4% of its grassland grew significantly better than the same period in 2015, showing a significant improvement in grassland growth. Using the average amount of carbon per unit area as the ecological benefit evaluation index, it increased by 27.1% to 32.48Tg C/yr from 2015 to 2021. 2) In terms of economic benefits, both theoretical grass production and livestock carrying capacity increased from 2015 to 2021. Compared to 2015, the theoretical grass production in 2021 increased by 24.8% to 71 900 t. The livestock carrying capacity reached 52 100 sheep units in 2021, nearly 11 000 sheep units more than that in 2015. During the study period, multiple economic indicators (on a per capita basis of permanent residents) for the pastoral area of Xilin Hot City to which the Maodeng pasture belongs, have grown steadily. Per capita total income rose from 29 630 yuan (RMB) in 2015 to 62 859 yuan (RMB) in 2021. Relying on grassland resources to develop the pastoral ecology also broadens the potential economic development space. Overall, the establishment of the reserve and the experiment of implanting an enclosure policy have had a significant and positive impact on Maodeng pasture's development from both an ecological and economic perspective. With the support of scientific evidence, enclosure policy can be extended to more than 110 000 km2 of grasslands in northern China with similar precipitation and temperature conditions, enhancing the productive and ecological potential of grasslands. The above research results will contribute to the scientific formulation of grassland pasture quality improvement plans in northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root hemiparasites infiltrate the vascular tissue of host roots to acquire water and nutrients, which often reduces host growth. Hemiparasites are postulated to be keystone species in grassland communities if they suppress dominant species and increase plant community biodiversity, and ecosystem engineers if they increase nutrient accessibility for surrounding species. We examined keystone effects by evaluating species richness and evenness in 1 m2 plots in a recent prairie restoration where Castilleja sessiliflora was naturally present or absent, and in a longer-established prairie restoration with or without Pedicularis canadensis. We examined ecosystem engineer effects by determining nitrate and phosphate concentrations under, 25 cm from, and 50 cm from hemiparasites, and in the center of hemiparasite-free plots. On the C. sessiliflora site, plots with the hemiparasites had higher species richness due to more forbs and higher floristic quality, consistent with the keystone species hypothesis. Soil phosphate levels were also greater in plots with C. sessiliflora present, consistent with the hypothesis of ecosystem engineering by this hemiparasite. In contrast, plots with/without P. canadensis showed no associations of any community metrics with the hemiparasite, and no correspondence between the presence of hemiparasites and soil nutrients. Although hemiparasites can increase grassland community heterogeneity, the effect is not universal, and the direction and strength of effects likely depends on local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current land use and extensive modifications of natural ecosystems across the state of Louisiana are generally similar to those across the southeastern USA where rainfall supports forest ecosystems. Both intentional and unintentional consequences of ecosystem modifications from the scales of water and sediment movement across a field edge to state-wide loss of functional grasslands are legacies from previous development across the state. While major investments and large-scale, long-term plans are aspects of some continuing ecological issues across the state, small-scale, volunteer-led restoration of native grassland plant communities in the Louisiana Coastal Prairie illustrates the value associated with the restoration of natural ecosystem function in drastically disturbed environments. As is now becoming increasingly recognized, Louisiana grasslands represent less obvious components of forest, woodland, and wetland landscapes across the state, where they have contributed essential wildlife habitat, and ecosystem functions. These are now largely missing from many landscapes across the state and region. The strategic restoration of grassland functions combining novel native grass pastures and fully functional native grassland plant communities as landscape components could provide both economic and ecosystem benefits. Specific native grassland seed resources are needed for various restoration activities to enhance ecosystem function at a range of scales across the state and region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In responding to global ecosystem conservation and sustainable social development, numerous ecological restoration projects have been performed in ecologically vulnerable areas around the world, especially in semi-arid areas. Affected by local hydrothermal conditions, whether ecological restoration projects can achieve goals of balanced water-carbon enhancement as well as sustainable development in semi-arid areas is controversial. It is uncertain that to what extent the land use change caused by ecological restoration projects will affect the water-carbon imbalance. This research takes the Bashang Plateau Protection Zone (BPZ), a typical semi-arid area in Hebei Province of China, as a porotype to discover the spatial water-carbon changes and their contributing factors under ecological projects during 2000 to 2020 through root mean square deviation and random forest analysis. Results show: (1) In the past two decades, carbon sequestration in BPZ continued to improve while water conservation decreased significantly. The water-carbon imbalance regions in BPZ increased nearly 6.80 folds, from 338.60 km2 to 2642.38 km2. (2) Precipitation and temperature exerted the most significant impact on the formation of water-carbon imbalance regions, whereas the contribution of land use change could reach 40%, demonstrating that human activities were also strongly responsible for water-carbon imbalance. (3) Ecological restoration pattern of limiting afforestation and agricultural land expansion with priority restoration of grassland is beneficial to achieving water-carbon balance and sustainable goals of ecological restoration in semi-arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian temperate grasslands are among its most threatened plant communities. In agricultural landscapes, major barriers to their recovery are high soil nutrient levels that favour the growth of exotic pasture and other non-native species, high standing weed biomass creating fierce aboveground competition, and rich weed seed and bud banks providing dense emergent seedling competition. Therefore, the return of grasslands to arable landscapes through restoration must rely on overcoming these challenges, ideally by reducing soil nutrients and mitigating the effects of weeds. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of topsoil removal for restoring diverse native grassy communities by direct seeding on sites with a legacy of elevated soil nutrients and competitive exotic vegetation. Conversely, it showed that repeated shallow cultivation (four times over 12 months) to stimulate weed emergence, followed each time by herbicide application, failed to achieve this outcome, at least in the short term (three years). Grassy community restoration is imperative in Australia, but importantly, it must utilise restoration protocols that are as effective as possible so that limited time, money, and resources are not wasted. In this light, the technique of topsoil manipulation may take us one step closer to achieving this goal in agricultural locations, where their loss is most pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecologists have explored community assembly through the framework of ecological filters, which predicts that species must overcome a series of challenges (i.e. pass through "filters") to successfully establish in a given community. In the context of restoration, these filters (dispersal, abiotic, and biotic) can be manipulated to alter the resulting plant community by favoring native species or disadvantaging non‐native invasive species. We conducted two studies manipulating assembly filters at two California grassland sites previously dominated by non‐native species. At Site 1, we explored how variations in sequential seeding of native grasses and forbs (to overcome dispersal and biotic filters caused by priority effects) influenced the resulting community. At Site 2, we explored how thatch removal (to overcome the abiotic filter of light limitation) and herbicide‐based weed control (to overcome the biotic filter of competition from non‐native species) influenced the addition of native forbs into a partially restored grassland. Native forbs at Site 1 did not suffer from arriving after grasses, but native grasses benefited when given 1 year priority over forbs. At Site 2, dethatching increased native forb cover in a high rainfall year. Herbicide application reduced non‐native grass cover in dethatched plots without negatively affecting native cover. Native forb and grass cover were significant predictors of non‐native grass cover. However, they accounted for only 29% of the variation observed, suggesting there are other influential factors not considered in this study. Our results suggest that forbs can be incorporated into established native grasslands more successfully after dethatching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greece is a European hotspot for Orthoptera (378 species), yet it has been scarcely explored. We investigated the diversity patterns of Orthoptera and the ecological mechanisms shaping them by sampling 15 sites (30 plots of 1ha) across five habitats in Mount Mitsikeli, a Natura 2000 site. The mountain is deemed rich (0.4 species/km2), hosting 34 species, including a species of European interest (Paracaloptenus caloptenoides). The grassy openings in the beech–fir forest and rural mosaics were found to be important habitats for Orthoptera, while the mountain grasslands were poorer but hosted a greater abundance of grasshoppers. The three main environmental factors shaping diversity patterns (with an explained variance of 51.34%) were grass height, the cover of woody vegetation and the cover of bare ground. Beta diversity was high (with a Bray–Curtis of index 0.45 among habitats). Species turnover prevailed among all sites and within agricultural land, beech–fir forest and Mediterranean scrub, while nested patterns prevailed within mountain grasslands and mixed thermophilous forest. Conservation actions should target sites in ecosystems driven by species turnover, but primarily the most species-rich sites are driven by nestedness. Such actions should include the implementation of biodiversity-inclusive grazing schemes to hamper forest encroachment and the restoration of mountain grassland quality from cattle overgrazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland has great potential for carbon sequestration; however, the relationship between carbon storage (CS) and greenhouse gas (GHG) budget and their influencing factors in the natural restoration process in grassland mining areas are rarely studied. In this study, taking Zhalainuoer mining area in Inner Mongolia as an example, the subsidence soil for 1-, 2-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year and non-subsidence soil were selected as the research objects to explore the relationship between CS and the GHG budget and their influencing factors. The results show that there is a significant negative correlation between CS and the GHG budget. Soil organic carbon storage accounts for 99% of CS. CS is positively correlated with SOM and AP, and with the bacteria Entotheonellaeota. The GHG budget is mainly affected by CO2 emission, which is positively correlated with subsidence time, plant biomass, and coverage, negatively correlated with the bacteria Actinobacteriota and Deinococcota, and positively correlated with Cyanobacteria. In summary, soil plays a major role in storing carbon. Carbon sequestration is a physiological process produced by plants and organisms. Subsidence affects soil CS by changing soil properties and thus affecting its aboveground vegetation and soil microorganisms. This study investigates the changes in soil carbon storage following subsidence caused by mining activities. The findings contribute to our understanding of the impact of mining subsidence on soil CS and can inform the development of low-carbon remediation technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems have garnered significant attention both domestically and internationally. Grassland restoration techniques are widely considered a principal measure to promote the sustainable utilization of grasslands, with soil nutrient content being a core indicator for assessing the effectiveness of restoration in degraded grasslands. This study aims to explore the differential impacts of various grassland restoration methods on soil nutrient distribution in degraded Stipa grandis grasslands. Three major restoration methods, i.e., root cutting, enclosure, and fertilization, were applied in the study area. The soil nutrient content was measured and analyzed under the different restoration methods and at varying depths. The results revealed that under all three restoration methods and at different soil depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, 20–30 cm), the organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable phosphorus, and available potassium contents were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Furthermore, as soil depth increased, the contents of organic matter and all nutrients gradually decreased. Specifically, regarding the contents of different nutrients, the order of organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, and available phosphorus was as follows: fertilization > enclosure > root cutting > control, while the contents of total potassium and available potassium followed the sequence: fertilization > enclosure > control > root cutting. Additionally, based on the canonical correlation analysis (R2 = 0.88), the total phosphorus content in soil had the greatest impact on soil nutrients, while vegetation cover and plant height contributed the most to vegetation characteristics. In grassland restoration, the increase in soil total phosphorus led to higher vegetation cover and height, mildly influenced plant diversity and density, and simultaneously promoted biomass accumulation. These research findings provide a solid theoretical foundation for the application of grassland restoration techniques, contributing to the sustainable development of grassland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural grasslands, one of the main ecosystems worldwide, are under threat and native species are desired when addressing restoration issues. The main processes for grasslands restoration success are plant establishment and seed addition in the soil. Thus, it requires overcoming barriers that prevent germination and seed dispersal strategies. This study aimed to assess the germination potential, treatments to overcome seed dormancy and endozoochory dispersal of forage native species by cattle. Seeds from 21 native species from the four most common botanical families (Poaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Cyperaceae) were collected in a natural grassland area (Pampa Biome) and used in the experiments. Experiment I: germination under controlled conditions of all species was carried out and compared to commercial forage (Paspalum notatum cv. "Pensacola"). Experiment II: three treatments to overcome seed dormancy (mechanical and chemical scarification; priming agent) were tested in six species. Experiment III: the recovery, viability and germination of native P. notatum Flüggé and Desmodium incanum DC seeds from cattle faeces were evaluated. The results show that Paspalum umbrosum Trin. and Saccharum angustifolium Nees have high germination potential when compared to commercial forage. The treatments to overcome seed dormancy increased the germination of D. incanum, Paspalum plicatulum Michx. and Paspalum dilatatum Poir. Total seed recovery of 15% (P. notatum) and 26% (D. incanum), without affecting seed viability, show that cattle are able to supply the soil seed bank with native species. Germination potential, treatments to overcome seed dormancy and endozoochory dispersal of forage native species may be exploited in natural grassland restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation plays a vital role in the global carbon cycle, a function of particular significance in regulating carbon dioxide fluxes within tropical ecosystems. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance the precision of carbon dioxide flux estimates for tropical vegetation and to explore the determinants influencing carbon sequestration. In this study, Landsat series images and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument satellite data were used to invert vegetation biophysical parameters, thereby improving the timeliness and resolution of state variables from the boreal ecosystem productivity simulator (BEPS). The BEPS model at a 30 m resolution was developed to accurately capture tropical vegetation carbon dioxide fluxes across Hainan Island (HN) over the preceding two decades. The impacts of climate variations and anthropogenic activities on the carbon dioxide fluxes of tropical vegetation were further quantified using quantile regression models and a land-use transfer matrix. Results indicate significant increases in both net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in HN during the period 2000–2020, by 5.81 and 4.29 g C/m2 year, respectively. Spatial trends in vegetation carbon dioxide fluxes exhibited a consistent decline from inland regions to coastal zones. Anthropogenic activities were the dominant factor in the reduced stability of coastal NPP, while the post-2005 vegetation restoration promoted the southward expansion of high NPP (>1200 g C/m2) in the central part of HN. NPP in this tropical island was more sensitive to temperature than to precipitation, with a 1 °C temperature increase resulting in 4.1 g C/m2 reduction in dry-season NPP compared to wet-season NPP. Upgrades of cropland quality and grassland restoration have improved NPP yields, and land use transfers have resulted in a 0.301 Tg C net increase in NPP. This study provides new insight into the improvement of the carbon dioxide flux model at a finer scale for tropical vegetation and highlights ecological construction as an adaptation strategy to enhance the carbon sinks of tropical vegetation under negative climate change conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Grasslands cover one-third of the world's land area and play a significant role in agriculture and ecological security. However, due to recent changes in precipitation patterns and land use, the coverage of grasslands is decreasing. The Hulunbuir steppe, one of the four major grasslands in the world, is also undergoing desertification caused by climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. To characterize the eco-functional diversity of plants in recently restored sites after the introduction of woody plants in natural grasslands, the competitor, stress tolerator, and ruderal (CSR) ecological strategies of plants were analyzed. As a result, the CSR ecological strategy in the temperate typical steppe was CSR and that in the woodland steppe was S/SR. The restored sites differed depending on the life-form of the introduced woody plants. The CSR ecological strategies observed over time in a restored site after the introduction of woody plants varied depending on the life-form of the introduced woody plants. This suggests the importance of selecting the life-form of woody plants for the success of ecological restoration in damaged grasslands. To reveal the changes in the life history characteristics of grassland plants due to vegetation restoration, plant species and communities were analyzed for their competitor, stress tolerator, and ruderal (CSR) ecological strategies after the introduction of woody plants in the damaged steppe grassland and were compared with those in reference sites in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia. As a result, it was found that the introduction of the woody plants (Corethrodeneron fruticosum, Caragana microphylla, Populus canadensis, and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) into the damaged land greatly increased the plant species diversity and CSR eco-functional diversity as the succession progressed. The plant strategies of the temperate typical steppe (TTS) and woodland steppe (WS) in this Asian steppe are CSR and S/SR, respectively, which means that the plants are adapted to disturbances or stress. As the restoration time elapsed in the damaged lands exhibiting (R/CR) (Corispermum hyssopifolium), the ecological strategies were predicted to change in two ways: (1) →R/CSR (Cynanchum thesioides, Astragalus laxmannii, etc.) → CSR in places (TSS) (Galium verum var. asiaticum, Saussurea japonica, etc.) where only shrubs were introduced, and (2) → S/SR (Allium mongolicum, Ulmus pumila, etc.) → S/SR in sites (WS) (Ulmus pumila, Thalictrum squarrosum, etc.) where trees and shrubs were planted simultaneously. The results mean that the driving force that causes succession in the restoration of temperate grasslands is determined by the life-form (trees/shrubs) of the introduced woody plants. This means that for the restoration of these grasslands to be successful, it is necessary to introduce woody tree species at an early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the effects of global climate change and altered human land-use patterns, typical shrub encroachment in grasslands has become one of the most prominent ecological problems in grassland ecosystems. Shrub coverage can quantitatively indicate the degree of shrub encroachment in grasslands; therefore, real-time and accurate monitoring of shrub coverage in large areas has important scientific significance for the protection and restoration of grassland ecosystems. As shrub-encroached grasslands (SEGs) are a type of grassland with continuous and alternating growth of shrubs and grasses, estimating shrub coverage is different from estimating vegetation coverage. It is not only necessary to consider the differences in the characteristics of vegetation and non-vegetation variables but also the differences in characteristics of shrubs and herbs, which can be a challenging estimation. There is a scientific need to estimate shrub coverage in SEGs to improve our understanding of the process of shrub encroachment in grasslands. This article discusses the spectral differences between herbs and shrubs and further points out the possibility of distinguishing between herbs and shrubs. We use Sentinel-2 and Gao Fen-6 (GF-6) Wide Field of View (WFV) as data sources to build a linear spectral mixture model and a random forest (RF) model via space–air–ground collaboration and investigate the effectiveness of different data sources, features and methods in estimating shrub coverage in SEGs, which provide promising ways to monitor the dynamics of SEGs. The results showed that (1) the linear spectral mixture model can hardly distinguish between shrubs and herbs from medium-resolution images in the SEG. (2) The RF model showed high estimation accuracy for shrub coverage in the SEG; the estimation accuracy (R2) of the Sentinel-2 image was 0.81, and the root-mean-square error (RMSE) was 0.03. The R2 of the GF6-WFV image was 0.72, and the RMSE was 0.03. (3) Texture feature introduced in RF models are helpful to estimate shrub coverage in SEGs. (4) Regardless of the linear spectral mixture model or the RF model being employed, the Sentinel-2 image presented a better estimation than the GF6-WFV image; thus, this data has great potential to monitor shrub encroachment in grasslands. This research aims to provide a scientific basis and reference for remote sensing-based monitoring of SEGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground‐nesting wild bees provide essential pollination services in agroecosystems, but they are jeopardized by intensive agricultural management. To mitigate such negative impacts, agri‐environment schemes have been implemented. While the success of enhancing floral food resources is relatively well studied, the role of agri‐environmental schemes in providing suitable nesting habitat remains underexplored.We studied the effectiveness of meadow extensification according to the Swiss agri‐environment scheme in promoting nesting of ground‐nesting bees. Using a paired design, we quantified their nests during four rounds (March–June) in pairs of nine randomly selected extensively (i.e. no fertilizer input, postponed first mowing) and nine intensively managed meadows with similar soil properties, slope, exposure and landscape context. Nest numbers and vegetation characteristics were surveyed in areas of 250 m2. Vegetation properties were also assessed in 0.5 × 0.5 m plots around nest locations and randomly selected locations without nests within each meadow to assess their role as drivers of nesting incidence (nest presence/absence) at this plot scale.We found substantially higher nest numbers of ground‐nesting bees in extensively (mean ± SE per sampling round = 46.8 ± 14.2) compared to intensively managed meadows (0.8 ± 0.3; no nests in three of nine intensively managed meadows). Extensively managed meadows harboured nests of several dominant crop pollinator species, including aggregations of, for example, Lasioglossum malachurum contributing to high nest densities in some of them. Number of nests was negatively related to grass cover and vegetation height, which were lower in extensively compared to intensively managed meadows. Plot‐level nesting incidence increased with bare ground and moss cover, and decreased with grass cover.Synthesis and applications. Our study shows that extensively managed meadows are better nesting habitats for ground‐nesting bees than intensively managed meadows, if reduced management intensity is associated with altered vegetation characteristics such as reduced grass cover and vegetation height, and small‐scale availability of bare ground, driving these effects. This highlights that maintaining and promoting extensive management of meadows can promote ground‐nesting wild bees, including dominant crop pollinators, not only by enhancing floral resources but also by improving nesting opportunities in agroecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disturbances such as grazing, fire, and burrowing are historically important in North American grasslands, and plans for restoring disturbance regimes are often required for successful restoration. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has become the dominant grassland restoration mechanism in many areas, and requires planned disturbances known as mid-contract management (MCM). We recorded evidence of MCM in CRP fields across a 14-state region of the western and central United States, then revisited fields after one to five years to characterize bare ground and vegetative cover and composition using edge-of-road visual surveys. We found a reduced cover of grasses up to five years after MCM, and a concomitant increased cover of flowering forbs and diversity of pollinator-friendly forbs. There was little measurable change in overall plant cover or bare ground cover between one and five years after MCM, though bare soil cover did increase slightly. Baseline tree and shrub covers were very low on average but highly variable due to outliers with high woody cover. After MCM, the presence of woody vegetation remained low and relatively constant. Grazing and haying resulted in a lower probability of noxious grass presence than mowing or disking, but haying and disking were better for inhibiting the presence of noxious forbs. These results show that MCM can be a useful tool for maintaining vegetation quality. The results also point to an important need to understand factors that influence the effects of MCM, including disturbance technique, disturbance frequency, drought, and climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the significant ecological damage caused by unsustainable mining practices in the Qilian Mountains, ecological restoration projects have been undertaken in recent years. Analyzing the changes in soil microbial communities during the restoration process of mine meadows helps to reveal the mechanism of the restoration process in alpine mining areas. To explore the characteristics of soil microbial community distribution and their relationships with soil environmental factors during the restoration of alpine grasslands in the Qilian Mountains, we conducted surveys and analyses in two restoration levels low restoration (LR) and high restoration (HR) in the eastern Qilian Mountains, along with an undisturbed natural grassland control (NG). We found that as the degree of high-altitude mining area recovery increases, there were significant increases in vegetation cover, vegetation height, above-ground biomass, vegetation Shannon–Wiener index, soil organic carbon (SOC), soil water content (SWC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), available phosphorus (AP), and available nitrogen (AN). Conversely, soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC) significantly decreased, with soil pH decreasing from 6.93 to 4.13. Restoration of high-altitude mining area grasslands significantly alters the distribution and composition of soil bacteria and fungi, while the impact on soil microbial community changes was not significant. Notably, with increasing recovery level, the dominant bacterial phyla are Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria, while the dominant fungal phyla are Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. These results indicate that changes in vegetation and soil properties both affect the composition of soil microbial communities, with soil properties having a greater influence. Soil fertility and nutrient levels emerge as the primary drivers influencing soil microbial composition communities and the degree of high-altitude mining area grassland recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasslands across arid and semi‐arid regions are predicted to experience reductions in precipitation frequency. Besides, grassland degradation has become a serious problem in many of these areas. Despite increasing evidence suggesting compound effects of these synchronous alterations on biotic and abiotic ecosystem constituents, we still do not know how they will impact the coupling among ecosystem constituents and its consequences on ecosystem functioning.Here, we assessed the effects of decreased precipitation frequency and grassland degradation on ecosystem coupling, quantified based on the mean strength of pairwise correlations among multispecies communities and their physicochemical environment, individual functions and ecosystem multifunctionality, and reported their relationships within a mechanistic plant–nematode–micro‐organism–soil interactions framework.Decreased precipitation frequency led to poorly coupled ecosystems, and reduced aboveground plant biomass, soil water content, soil nutrient levels, soil biota abundance and multifunctionality. By contrast, belowground plant biomass and soil potential enzyme activities increased under decreased precipitation frequency treatment. Severe degradation resulted in decoupled ecosystems and suppressed most of individual functions and multifunctionality. Using structural equation modelling, we showed that coupling had a strong direct positive effect on multifunctionality (standardized total effect: 0.74), while multifunctionality was weakened by greater soil water variation (−0.54) and higher soil pH (−0.53).The great sensitivity of ecosystem coupling to altered precipitation regimes and degradation highlights the importance of considering interactions among biotic and abiotic components when predicting early ecological impacts under changing environments. Moreover, the positive relationship between ecosystem coupling and functioning suggests that restoration of degraded grasslands may be achieved by intensifying ecological interactions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration advocates for the use of local seed in restoration, but theory suggests that diverse seed sources may enhance genetic diversity and longer term evolutionary potential within restored communities. However, few empirical studies have evaluated whether species and genetic diversity within species impacts plant community composition following restoration. The goal of this research is to compare the effects of single and multi‐sourced seed mix treatments on plant community diversity following restoration. Species establishment, abundance, and diversity were compared following two restoration seed mix treatments created to include 14 species commonly used in grassland restoration. We compared the application of seed mixes designed using a single population per species with those containing five populations per species across sites in Minnesota and South Dakota, United States. Early plant establishment and richness mostly reflected non‐seeded species across both sites, although seeded species established at a slightly higher rate in year two following restoration. At the South Dakota site, community composition largely reflected changes associated with establishment across the growing season as opposed to seed mix treatment. This contrasted with the Minnesota site, where community composition appeared to be strongly influenced by seed mix treatment. While there is some evidence seed mix treatment may be influencing the emergent community across sites, spatial heterogeneity across the Minnesota restoration site likely influenced diversity in early emergence over that of seed mix treatment. Indeed, varying land‐use history across both sites likely contributed to differences in species composition observed at this early stage of the restoration. This suggests that seed mix treatment may have limited impact on early post‐restoration emergence diversity relative to the importance of land‐use history. However, future monitoring will be needed to evaluate whether the impact of seed mix treatment on community composition changes over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restricting seed collecting to local populations is a common practice in restoration because it is assumed that most plants are adapted to local environmental conditions. However, there is still considerable debate about whether local seed collection should be the default seed‐provenancing strategy as the effects of climate change are increasingly considered in restoration planning. It is especially important to explore whether local seed provenance is necessary for dominant species used in restoration because the success of these projects often rests on these species. Stipa pulchra is one such species that is commonly used in grassland restoration projects in California. To explore how different seed‐provenancing strategies affected the establishment and growth of S. pulchra, we established three common garden experiments distributed across a latitudinal gradient in California. We collected seeds from seven wild populations, germinated seeds in a common greenhouse, then planted all populations at the three common gardens. We assessed growth and reproduction for 2 years. We found limited evidence that restricting seed sourcing to local populations increased the establishment of S. pulchra compared to seeds from more distant populations. Instead, we found evidence to support the use of regional admixture seed sourcing to increase resiliency to environmental variation. In particular, we found being sourced from a dry location during the dry 2018 season was a benefit, highlighting the importance of including dry‐adapted populations to increase climate resilience. Our experiment highlights the importance of exploring multiple seed‐provenancing methods when designing a project to improve long‐term success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration of grassland ecosystems is essential for mitigating global losses of biodiversity and is typically initiated to foster persistent, long‐term increases in biodiversity. Yet, evaluating long‐term impacts of restoration on biodiversity is rare, especially across sites restored using consistent methods. Evaluation of restoration outcomes is particularly important for increasing predictive capacity in restoration ecology to determine the level of restoration effort that is required to achieve both short‐ and long‐term restoration goals. We conducted a multisite study that explicitly compared the impacts of no intervention ("passive" or "natural" recovery), low intervention (seeding native plants), and moderate intervention (seeding native plants and using fire management) at 32 restored prairies differing in the age of restoration (3–23 years). Grasslands with natural recovery have equivalent native plant species richness compared to sites with low and moderate restoration intervention, however, they have significantly lower‐quality vegetation, as measured by Floristic Quality (mean C). We found that managing restored prairies with fire maintains native plant richness over time and is correlated with higher vegetation quality and presence of seeded species. Seed mixes with a high mean C score are positively correlated with plant community quality. However, seed mixes with more species are negatively correlated with the proportion of seeded species present. We found that while the degree of restoration intervention has no effect on the number of native plant species, greater levels of assisted recovery are required to produce restored prairies that resemble high‐quality remnant vegetation and, especially, to maintain these successes over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the restoration of natural grasslands is an urgent task, but finding the appropriate green restoration approach still faces many challenges. In this study, experimental plots were set up in a degraded alpine meadow with different fertilization treatments, i.e., chemical fertilizer (F), microbial fertilizer (M) (i.e., Rhizobium indicum strain JKLM 13E), and unfertilized (CK). Grass yields, soil properties, and the rhizospheric and bulk soil microbial communities (including both prokaryotes and eukaryotes) were measured to evaluate grassland productivity and soil sustainability. Both microbial and chemical fertilizers could significantly increase grassland biomass, as well as the biotic interactions of the inorganic nitrogen-related prokaryotic communities. We evaluated the biomass and productivity of the aboveground vegetation in response to the fertilization treatments. Our results demonstrated that both chemical and microbial fertilizers significantly increased the yield of grassland vegetation, with the effect of chemical fertilizer treatment being the most prominent (P <0.05). Moreover, chemical fertilizer mainly increased the concentration of NO3--N by reshaping the bulk soil microbial community, while microbial fertilizer mainly increased the concentration of NH4+-N by reshaping the rhizospheric microbial community. Both the chemical and microbial fertilizers could significantly increase the predation of Cercozoa to the inorganic nitrogen-related prokaryotic community, thus improving the soil resistance to pathogenic bacteria. In conclusion, our results suggest that microbial fertilizer treatment shows potential as an alternative or complementary approach to chemical fertilizer, potentially reducing the environmental impact associated with chemical fertilizers. While the chemical fertilizer treatment demonstrated higher biomass production in our experiment, further investigations combining the two types of fertilization may provide insights into the synergistic effects and potential for optimizing grassland restoration strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Asia is one of the most sensitive regions to climate changes in the world and the grassland degradation of this region has attracted considerable concern. Quantifying the driving force of grassland degradation is important for understanding the effects of climate variation and human activities on grassland. In this study, net primary productivity (NPP) was selected as an indicator to quantitatively evaluate the relative role of climate variation and human activities in Central Asia from 2000 to 2020. This study used the global NPP product MOD17A3 as actual NPP and estimated the potential NPP using the Thornthwaite memorial model. The potential NPP and the difference between the potential NPP and actual NPP were used to represent the influence of climate variation and human activities. The grassland degradation or restoration can be demonstrated by the slope of actual NPP (SA). A positive slope value (SA) suggested that restoration occurs, whereas a negative slope value suggested that degradation occurred. The results showed that 23.08% of the total grassland area experienced grassland degradation, whereas 2.51% of the whole grassland underwent grassland restoration. Furthermore, 53.8% of the degraded grassland areas were influenced by climate variation, and 14.5% were caused by human activities. By contrast, the relative roles of climate variation and human activities in grassland restoration were 25% and 47.9%, respectively. The NPP variation also could be calculated by assessing the effects of these factors and the results showed that 55.7% of the NPP decrease was caused by climate variation, whereas 9.6% was a result of human activities. On the contrary, climate variation and human activities resulted in 19.8% and 37.3% of grassland restoration, respectively. Therefore, climate variation was the dominant factor of grassland degradation, and human activities were the main driver of grassland restoration in Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common practice used to restore and maintain biodiversity in grasslands is to stop or decrease the use of fertilizers as they are a major cause of biodiversity loss. This practice is problematic for farmers who need fertilizers to increase forage and meet the nutritional needs of livestock. Evidence is needed that helps identify optimal fertilizer regimes that could benefit biodiversity and livestock production simultaneously over the long-term. Here, we evaluated the impact of different fertilizer regimes on indicators related to both biodiversity (plant, pollinator, leaf miners and parasitoid Shannon-Weiner diversity, bumblebee abundance, nectar productivity and forb species richness), and forage production (ash, crude protein, ruminant metabolizable energy and dry matter). To this end, we used data from a grassland restoration experiment managed under four nutrient inputs schemes for 27 years: farmyard manure (FYM; 72 kg N ha-1 yr-1), artificial nitrogen-phosphorus and potassium (NPK; 25 kg N ha-1 yr-1), FYM + NPK (97 kg N ha-1 yr-1) and no-fertilizer. Results showed strong trade-offs between biodiversity and forage production under all treatments even in applications lower than the critical load in the EU. Overall, farmyard manure was the fertilizer that optimized production and biodiversity while 97 kg N ha-1 yr-1 of fertilizer addition (FYM+NPK) had the most negative impact on biodiversity. Finally, forage from places where no fertilizer has been added for 27 years did not meet the nutritional requirements of cattle, but it did for sheep. Rethinking typical approaches of nutrient addition could lead to land management solutions suitable for biological conservation and agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Soil salinization is a widespread problem, causing soil degradation and limiting agricultural productivity worldwide. However, the protection and restoration of halophyte species communities can effectively help improve and reconstruct saline–alkali land. We collected seeds of Suaeda salsa (Linn.) Pall., a highly salt-tolerant and widely distributed halophytic species, from seven different saline–alkali habitats, numbered S1–S7, of Songnen Plain, China, and tested their germination and seedling growth responses to saline–alkali stress. Results showed a strong saline–alkali tolerance in S. salsa seeds, but the germination characteristics and saline–alkali tolerance varied across provenances, highlighting the geographical variations in germination responses. The saline–alkali tolerance of S1 and S7 locations was significantly higher than that of others. Suaeda salsa has important applications in the restoration of saline–alkali soil. However, the seeds from appropriate provenances must be screened to ensure the best saline-alkaline tolerant variety. The germplasm materials from the selected varieties can also be used as high-quality sources to study the mechanism of saline–alkali tolerance in halophytes. These seeds can also serve as excellent germplasm resources for the restoration of saline–alkali soil. Salinity is a pressing and widespread abiotic stress, adversely affecting agriculture productivity and plant growth worldwide. Seed germination is the most critical stage to seedling growth and establishing plant species in harsh environments, including saline stress. However, seed germination characteristics and stress tolerance may vary among geographical locations, such as various provenances. Suaeda salsa (Linn.) Pall. (S. salsa) is a halophytic plant that exhibits high salt tolerance and is often considered a pioneer species for the restoration of grasslands. Understanding the germination characteristics and stress tolerance of the species could be helpful in the vegetation restoration of saline–alkali land. In this study, we collected S. salsa seeds from seven different saline–alkali habitats (S1–S7) in the Songnen Plain region to assess the germination and seedling growth responses to NaCl, Na2CO3, and NaHCO3, and to observe the recovery of seed germination after relieving the salt stress. We observed significant differences in germination and seedling growth under three salt stresses and among seven provenances. Resistance to Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 stress was considerably higher during seedling growth than seed germination, while the opposite responses were observed for NaCl resistance. Seeds from S1 and S7 showed the highest tolerance to all three salt stress treatments, while S6 exhibited the lowest tolerance. Seeds from S2 exhibited low germination under control conditions, while low NaCl concentration and pretreatment improved germination. Ungerminated seeds under high salt concentrations germinated after relieving the salt stress. Germination of ungerminated seeds after the abatement of salt stress is an important adaptation strategy for black S. salsa seeds. While seeds from most provenances regerminated under NaCl, under Na2CO3 and NaHCO3, only seeds from S4 and S7 regerminated. These findings highlight the importance of soil salinity in the maternal environment for successful seed germination and seedling growth under various salinity-alkali stresses. Therefore, seed sources and provenance should be considered for vegetation restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate, land-use, and invasive plants are among the important drivers of ecosystem functions through the changes in functional composition. In this study, we studied the effects of climate (drought), land-use (Biochar application), and the presence of invasive species on the productivity and performance of invaded experimental grasslands. We ran a greenhouse experiment under controlled conditions, in which we grew a combination of the three native species Silene gallica, Brassica nigra and Phalaris minor and the invasive species Avena fatua, being subjected to four different treatments: Biochar+drought, Biochar, drought, and control. We measured the productivity of native and invasive species as total biomass and root to shoot ratio (RSR) and the performance by measuring several plant functional traits (plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf nitrogen content (Nmass), leaf carbon content (Cmass) and total chlorophyll (Chltotal) of all individuals occurring in each plot. The study showed that invasive species were more productive (higher total biomass and lower RSR) and performed better (taller plants, higher SLA, Nmass, Cmass and Chltotal and lower LDMC) than the native species under drought conditions as well as with Biochar application. Accordingly, in contrast to our expectations, the lower productivity and performance of native compared to invasive species under drought were not mitigated by Biochar application. These results provided a deeper understanding of the interplay between climate, land-use, and biological invasion, which is crucial for predicting the consequences of changes in functional composition on ecosystem functions and consequently restoration of grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The restoration of unused urban‐industrial areas has great conservation potential as it can sometimes create a win‐win situation in terms of nature conservation and economic benefits. Financial data of restoration projects are rarely published. To close this gap, we report the cost–benefit analysis of different landscaping methods used in the greening of the outskirts of a factory industrial area. Location: The study area is located in a factory area in Nyíregyháza, Nyírség, Hungary. Methods: In this study, we compare the costs of the implementation and maintenance of three different types of grasslands (intensively and extensively managed park lawns and semi‐natural grassland, called eco area) and the ecological benefits in terms of vegetation and potential for pollinators. Results: The implementation and maintenance costs of the extensively managed park lawn were more than ten‐fold higher than that of the eco area, despite the higher price of native plant material. The construction of the extensive park lawn is the cheapest, but the eco area pays off in ca. 1.5 years compared to it, taking into account the lower maintenance costs. Seven years after implementation, the eco area is the most species‐rich, hosting the highest number of natural constituent species, but with similar vegetation cover as in the intensively managed park lawn without costly maintenance. The cover and species richness of legumes and forbs are also higher in the eco area, ensuring a food source for pollinators. Conclusions: Our results support that introducing species‐rich and diverse grasslands with native, habitat specialist species as an alternative to traditional landscaping in urban‐industrial areas can be economically and ecologically rewarding. The higher costs of planning, plant material, and implementation pay off in a short time due to low maintenance costs and can lead to a win‐win situation for nature as well as for the local economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The influence of priority effects on plant community succession is increasingly discussed in community ecology. However, most grassland restoration approaches involving seed addition transfer all target species at the same time. Our objective was to tackle the question: does the order of arrival influence the establishment of restored communities? Location: La‐Bâtie‐Neuve, Southern Alps, France. Methods: We applied sequential sowing using two groups, one set of dominant species and one set of subordinate species, each comprising three different perennial plant species. We tested four sowing treatments: control (without any sowing), two sequential sowing treatments (dominants first or subordinates first) and synchronous sowing. We analysed plant cover each year for three years after sowing and calculated priority and earliness indices (the third year) for each group and each sown species. Results: Manipulating the order of arrival shaped community composition and trajectories. Some species of both groups were positively affected by being sown first compared to being sown synchronously. However, dominant and subordinate groups differed in their earliness index, showing a significant benefit for subordinates to be sown first. The subordinate species Onobrychis viciifolia and Plantago lanceolata established only when they were sown first, while Festuca cinerea showed greater establishment when sown first and simultaneously, compared to late sowing. The dominant Anthyllis vulneraria was not affected by date or type of sowing. However, the cover of the most dominant Bromopsis erecta was lower when being sown second, allowing a control of its dominance by delayed sowing. Conclusion: The strength of priority effects differs between species, which may depend on niche characteristics or microenvironment, influencing (negatively or positively) the establishment of late‐arriving species and affecting their competitive abilities. Our study provides evidence that plant community assembly was influenced by the order of arrival, but demonstrated a strong species‐specific response to priority effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first, the ecological restoration technology of abandoned mines is summarized, and the paths and models of mine ecological restoration in Zoige grassland area under the background of carbon neutrality are analyzed. Moreover, the problems and deficiencies in the current research on mine ecological restoration in Zoige grassland area are initially identified, and the future research trend is prospected to provide a reference for the path of carbon reduction by mine ecological restoration in Zoige grassland area and other alpine grassland areas in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]