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The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the most endangered biodiversity hotspots in the world and restinga ecosystems are exposed to intense degradation. The restoration of these ecosystems is challenging as there is a lack of understanding, among other aspects, of how plants interact with pollinators. Ecological networks are useful for assessing restoration outcomes as they provide data on the reestablishment of interactions. Here, we evaluated the restoration success of pollination interactions in a restinga in Brazil, by comparing structure, complexity, and robustness of plant–flower visitor networks in newly planted sites (restoration) with target reference sites (control). In the restoration area, more species and interactions were recorded (120 insect species, 25 plant species, and 1,361 interactions) compared to the control area (74, 19, and 471, respectively), mainly due to the high abundance of common insect species. The majority of the interactions in restoration sites (81.1%) occurred with naturally arriving pioneers (68% of plant species visited). While network robustness was significantly higher in restoration sites, as a result of a high number of generalist species, interaction evenness was significantly lower, indicating less uniformity in interaction frequencies compared to control sites. Interaction turnover was high, driven by differences in the composition of plants and insects between sites. Our results demonstrate that pollinating insects do reestablish interactions with herbaceous species, enabling their interaction with later flowering target plants in the most advanced stages of restoration. These results should be taken into consideration when proposing measures to attract and retain pollinators in areas under restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation efficiency of Protected Areas (PA) is influenced by the health and characteristics of the surrounding landscape matrix. Fragmentation of adjacent lands interrupts ecological flows within PAs and will decrease the ability of species to shift their distribution as climate changes. For five periods across the 21st century, we assessed changes to the extent of primary land, secondary land, pasture and crop land projected to occur within 50 km buffers surrounding IUCN-designated PAs. Four scenarios of land-use were obtained from the Land-Use Harmonization Project, developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). The scenarios project the continued decline of primary lands within buffers surrounding PAs. Substantial losses are projected to occur across buffer regions in the tropical forest biomes of Indo-Malayan and the Temperate Broadleaf forests of the Nearctic. A number of buffer regions are projected to have negligible primary land remaining by 2100, including those in the Afrotropic's Tropical/Subtropical Grassland/Savanna/Shrubland. From 2010-2050, secondary land is projected to increase within most buffer regions, although, as with pasture and crops within tropical and temperate forests, projections from the four land- use scenarios may diverge substantially in magnitude and direction of change. These scenarios demonstrate a range of alternate futures, and show that although effective mitigation strategies may reduce pressure on land surrounding PAs, these areas will contain an increasingly heterogeneous matrix of primary and human-modified landscapes. Successful management of buffer regions will be imperative to ensure effectiveness of PAs and to facilitate climate-induced shifts in species ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]