Abstract Topsoil stockpiled for 4 years resulted in an accumulation of NH4-N at depths of 1m or more in mound, as measured by an ammonia gas-sensing electrode. When leached with water these soils were also found to contain high concentrations of dissolved organic C below lm. Both NH4-N and DOC were products of microbial mineralisation of soil organic matter that accumulated under anaerobic conditions. When these soils were restored a flush of decomposition took place, fuelled by labile organic matter and soluble nitrogen. Stockpiled soil which underwent an ammonium-rich perfusion regime in the laboratory indicated that in-mound soils rapidly attained greater nitrification potential than surface mound soils and also had greater potential for further mineralisation of organic matter to NH4-N. This further production was seen as a contribution from the bacterial flush, stimulated by the large labile-C pool already present. As the bulk of stored soil was anaerobic, restored soils were seen as potentially wasteful of their N-reserves; the fate of nitrogen and soluble carbon compounds in restored soils is discussed.

Abstract One technique used to combat the growing global species extinction crisis has been to create artificial refuges—human-made replacements for natural refuges destroyed during habitat modification. However, there is limited knowledge of how closely artificial refuges replicate the natural refuges they seek to replace. Mining threatens many species worldwide through large-scale habitat modification, and artificial refuges have been proposed as a method to offset the resulting habitat loss. Here, we examined the microclimatic, physical, and biotic characteristics of natural dens occupied by the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus)—an endangered marsupial threatened by habitat loss—and compared these to (a) superficially similar unoccupied crevices, and (b) artificial dens created by mining companies for northern quolls. Northern quolls occupied natural dens that were cooler and deeper than unoccupied crevices, likely to avoid lethal air temperatures as well as predators. Artificial dens provided similar thermal properties to occupied dens, but lacked key characteristics in having shallower den cavities, less complex surrounding habitat, increased feral cat visitation, and less small mammal prey compared to occupied dens. This study highlights the need to consider multiple facets when constructing artificial refuges, in order to avoid perverse outcomes, such as inadequate shelter, increased predation, and food shortages.

ABSTRACT Soil stockpiling is a necessary component of opencast coal mining and, because most of the soils involved have arable potential, this involves the possibility of serious soil degradation. A study at four mines on the Highveld of South Africa involved sampling a number of stockpiles of various ages and origins. Samples were also collected from unmined adjacent soils, as well as rehabilitated areas. Results of stockpiling showed a deterioration in all physical and chemical parameters studied. The soil profile texture gradient was disturbed, due to mixing of surface and subsurface materials. Stockpile bulk density rose by 4% from unmined soils and by a further 6% in rehabilitated areas, indicating continuing compaction problems. Cation exchange capacity values did not entirely correspond with the textural changes, suggesting increased leaching, whereas pH values decreased for many stockpiles, requiring post-mining liming to re-establish suitable environments. Organic carbon levels on stockpiles fell by 5%,

and by a further 35% to rehabilitated areas. Increasing age of stockpile did not seem to equate to a correspond- ing increase in degradation, except possibly for pH, which showed a weak correlation. Recommendations from

the study include the use of ‘cut and cover’ rehabilitation techniques; continuous soil specialist consultation, and limitations on stockpile height and duration.___

This rewinding group puts out videos on their progress

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/2967556

> I know I can send soil samples to my local university extension office for testing, but how do I test soil for glyphosate-based herbicides, lead, arsenic, and other contaminates? > > As a citizen scientist I'm about to get into composting more on my property and would like to know more.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1550666

> "A century ago, small birds dominated around Sydney, not the large birds of today," ornithologist Tim Low wrote in his 2014 bestseller Where Song Began. > > The superb fairywren - Australia's 2021 bird of the year - is the poster child for two projects aiming to bring the small birds back to city life in both Sydney and Melbourne. > > "These much-loved birds are usually found in suburbs that have corridors of native bushland close by so their rapid disappearance, along with a number of other small bush birds, is cause for grave concern," BirdLife Australia said in a 2021 statement, adding that the probable cause was a loss of rich and diverse habitat due to urban sprawl and infill development. > > In Melbourne, the plan to stop this loss is surprisingly simple: Boost ecological connectivity by revegetating the beautiful Royal Park, band some fairywrens for identification, and harness social media and citizen science to find out exactly where the birds live in the city - and how many there are. > > In November 2022, local volunteers spent 15 minutes each in 50 locations, entering sightings of fairywrens and other small birds into BioCollect, a citizen science app. > > "We're just waiting to see the extent to which those small birds can travel along the habitat corridors. We haven't noticed a huge shift yet, but that is our goal." > > If possible, revegetate your own property for small birds, especially if you're near remnant habitat.

I joined McKay's popular Indigenous forest stewardship class expecting to master the use of prescribed burns to defend the forest.

Pepperwood has provided a model of how combining science with local Indigenous research, knowledge and practices can restore forest health and resiliency while mitigating the growing frequency and severity of fires.

While growing up, every trip to the forest offered McKay a lesson in where each plant loved to live, what it needed to thrive and how humans could read them to know if the land was out of balance.

He is the principal investigator of the UC-Berkeley Blodgett Forest Research Station, which led a two-decade study evaluating various forest treatments.

Hanson, who holds a doctorate in forest ecology from University of California, Davis, and his wife, Rachel Fazio, an attorney and co-lead of the John Muir Project, have filed dozens of suits against the U.S. Forest Service to block various plans to remove trees deemed a fire hazard.

Since 2017, Eisenberg, who also directs the university's Traditional Knowledge Lab, has been working with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to help public agencies strengthen partnerships with tribal nations on forest restoration projects.

As people gather their tools and begin to leave, I linger, asking for this oak's continued guidance on how to pay closer attention to its needs and the well-being of the entire forest community.

Organic amendments have been used to restore productivity to disturbed soils such as those on abandoned oil and natural gas wellsites. A study was conducted on three abandoned well- sites in southern Alberta, Canada to examine the effects of one-time applications of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) hay or beef cattle (Bos taurus) feedlot manure compost on soil properties under continuous wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The base amendment rate (1×) [dry wt.] was 5.3 Mg ha−1 for compost and 3.1 Mg ha−1 for alfalfa. The fi ve amendment rates of 0, 1×, 2×, 4×, and 8× were soil-incorporated at the wellsites. Although approximately twice as much C was applied with alfalfa than with compost, fi nal SOC content was similar for the two amendment treatments, indicating the greater stability of compost-derived C. Nitrate N content in the 0- to 60-cm depth was not affected by compost rate (mean 213 kg ha−1) but increased by 7.78 kg ha−1 for each Mg ha−1 increase in alfalfa rate. This result refl ects the greater stability of compost-N compared with alfalfa-N and suggests a lower risk of NO3–N leaching with compost application. Compost rates >20 Mg ha−1 resulted in excessive extract- able P build-up in the topsoil (up to 95.7 mg kg−1), which may pose environmental risk to surface water. We recommend amending wellsites with up to 12 Mg ha−1 of alfalfa or <20 Mg ha−1 of compost during reclamation to improve C storage and nutrient cycling while minimizing nutrient loss to water systems.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1450297

> On Eurardy Reserve, Nanda Country, Western Australia, a project began four years ago to plant one million trees and shrubs. > > This winter alone, around a quarter of a million seedlings were planted over a 5-week period. > The planter, which has two seats for people to sit on, is pulled by a tractor. > > For its size, the project is the first of its kind with such a high level of biodiversity, helping to set a new standard. > > “Many carbon projects plant a handful of species, but this one has planted 62 to date,” Fiamma says. > > Last summer, Bush Heritage staff, volunteers, and professional collectors from APACE WA Nursery, braved Eurardy’s heat and flies to collect the seed used to raise seedlings in nurseries ready for this year’s planting.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1448853

> Kangaroo Island is the last refuge for the South Australian subspecies of glossy black-cockatoo - which is smaller but has a bigger bill than glossies in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. > > In 1995 the subspecies was heading towards extinction with fewer than 200 SA glossies left on Kangaroo Island. > > The fires highlighted an urgent need to reestablish habitat for glossies on the Fleurieu Peninsula, just across from Kangaroo Island. > > "First we identified high priority locations to restore sheoak woodland on the Fleurieu, based on the needs and preferences of glossies and the proximity to Kangaroo Island." > > "There is plenty of opportunity for South Australia to do better. Restoring enough habitat to bring glossies back to the mainland would be a big start," said Mr Sanders.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1448749

> There is a longstanding conservation debate on the benefits that protected areas such as national parks have for biodiversity. > > We recruited an international team of scientists to conduct a comprehensive analysis of bird and mammal diversity inside and outside parks across South-East Asia. > > To be honest, we were surprised mammal diversity was higher outside large parks. > > It's common to see hunters both inside and outside parks in many countries. > > We expected hunters' removal of game animals would reduce diversity outside parks. > > Specifically, when comparing unprotected areas near large reserves to unprotected areas that didn't border large reserves, we found large reserves boosted mammal diversity in unprotected areas by up to 194%. However, a sad note from our study was the finding that only larger parks significantly enhanced mammal diversity, casting doubt on the effectiveness of smaller parks for mammal conservation. > > Recent work in the region suggests many large mammals persist in small parks, but our study shows the presence of a few resilient animals in small parks doesn't scale up to higher biodiversity overall.

Abstract Tomorrow’s forests face extreme pressures from contemporary climate change, invasive pests, and anthropogenic demands for other land uses. These pressures, collectively, demand land managers to reassess current and potential forest management practices. We discuss three considerations, functional restoration, assisted migration, and bioengineering, which are currently being debated in the literature and have the potential to be applied independently or concurrently across a variety of scales. The emphasis of functional restoration is to reestablish or maintain functions provided by the forest ecosystem, such as water quality, wildlife habitat, or carbon sequestration. Maintaining function may call upon actions such as assisted migration—moving tree populations within a species current range to aid adaptation to climate change or moving a species far outside its current range to avoid extinction—and we attempt to synthesize an array of assisted migration terminology. In addition, maintenance of species and the functions they provide may also require new technologies, such as genetic engineering, which, compared with traditional approaches to breeding for pest resistance, may be accomplished more rapidly to meet and overcome the challenges of invasive insect and disease pests. As managers develop holistic adaptive strategies to current and future anthropogenic stresses, functional restoration, assisted migration, and bioengineering, either separately or in combinations, deserve consideration, but must be addressed within the context of the restoration goal.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1364534

> Increasing the diversity of native plants in a single urban green space resulted in a sevenfold increase in the number of insect species after three years, Australian researchers have found. > > Researchers measured baseline insect numbers the year before greening began, when 12 indigenous plant species were introduced to the space, and subsequently conducted insect surveys for the following three years. > > The researchers estimated that by the final year of the study there were about 7.3 times more insect species than originally present, even though only nine plant species remained. > > The researchers concluded that the study contributed a "Critical evidence base to support future greening projects and the practice, policy and decision-making for protecting nature in urban environments". > > "We really need to do a better job valuing small, isolated green spaces," said Prof Dieter Hochuli of the University of Sydney, who was not involved in the study. > > Other research in urban green spaces has linked sites with flowering plants to greater insect biodiversity compared to sites with non-flowering plants. > > Increasing access to green and blue spaces and ensuring biodiversity-inclusive urban planning was agreed as one of the targets of the Cop15 summit last year.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1334246

> Seed production areas could be the solution to Australia's native seed supply gap. > > Establishing bigger and better native seed production areas has been identified as a potential practical solution to problems such as the low diversity of available species, seasonal variability in the amount of seed available, and genetic bottlenecking. > > Native seed production areas, like this one being developed in Western Australia, can be set up to grow genetically diverse native seed suitable for revegetation and restoration projects. > > Historically, the contribution of SPAs to the national seed market has been small, but this is growing, with the Australian Native Seed Survey Report 2020 estimating that 33% of seed purchasers source seed from SPAs. > > Whether it is getting the amount of seed required to improve biodiversity outcomes, mitigate climate change through environmental carbon plantings, or assist the recovery of communities from disasters such as fire and flood - native seed production areas can play an important role in improving seed supply chains.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1327356

> The findings emphasize the importance of appropriately sized and located fire exclusion areas in conservation management. > > Harry Butler Institute researcher Leticia Povh led the study and said understanding how animals use their space after prescribed burning is crucial for effective conservation management, particularly for threatened species like the quokka. > > "The key results revealed a remarkable shift in the behavior of six quokkas that had previously resided in areas subjected to prescribed burns," Povh said.

https://www.murdoch.edu.au/news/articles/quokkas-adapt-to-prescribed-burns

• Home-range area calculations and behavioural change point analysis were conducted to study the space use of quokkas.
• The study found that appropriately sized and located fire exclusion areas are important for the long-term viability of quokka populations and other species with similar habitat requirements.
• Quokkas spent no more than 2% of their time in burn areas, indicating their avoidance of these areas.
• Quokkas in fire exclusion and control sites did not show any changes in their space use.
• It was found that quokkas actively avoided burn areas for an average of three months.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1279205

> The discovery of thousands of eastern freshwater cod spawn inside a specially designed nesting box was the culmination of years of work by NSW Local Land Services and the Department of Primary Industries. > > While evidence of cod breeding was found in only one box, Mr Morris said that one success will make a significant difference to the wild population of which there is thought to be less than 250 adult cod. > > The eastern freshwater cod is one of four freshwater cod species in Australia listed as either vulnerable or endangered by the federal government. > > Mr Morris is confident the recent success in breeding wild eastern freshwater cod could help efforts to save the other species. > > "Any benefit that we get to the breeding outcomes of eastern freshwater cod will extend to Murray cod, trout cod, and hopefully Mary River cod as well," Mr Morris said.

Interesting piece about a intentionally-protected animal losing its own ability to protect itself.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1254379

> Natasha Harrison is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia who has dedicated her research to woylie conservation. > > Her recent study looked at whether anti-predator strategies used by woylies changed after being havened. > > Surprisingly, across the span of only 10 years, the havened woylies had lost much of their anti-predator strategies. > > With their protective instincts gone, the havened woylies would be less suitable for reintroduction into the wild - a crucial step in successful conservation. > > Natasha's future research will examine if woylies can relearn anti-predator strategies. > > In the meantime, Natasha suggests conservation managers should expose havened woylies to a controlled level of predators. >

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/1443350

> https://web.archive.org/web/20230816012031/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/science/redwood-trees-logging-california.html

Harvesting trees severs the critical flow of resources belowground, directly reducing the abundance and diversity of soil life.

Forest harvesting practices that retain a portion of the living trees, such as continuous cover forestry and retention forestry can help keep the soil alive in harvested forests.

Soil biodiversity can be promoted by establishing forests with more than one tree species.

In particular, forests that contain broadleaf tree species and tree species with nitrogen-fixing microbial associates promote soil biodiversity and replenishment of soil organic matter.

Soil organisms contribute half of the biodiversity of forests and regulate the processes that govern soil fertility, water retention and greenhouse gas emissions.

The vital role of inputs from living roots for sustaining soil organic matter and belowground life has been recognized in agriculture and is a central principle of regenerative agriculture, a suite of practices that actively restore soil quality, biodiversity, ecosystems health and water quality while producing sufficient food of high nutritional quality.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1080394

> Building artificial habitat structures for wildlife comes with risks and rewards, according to new research out of Murdoch University—and those creating them must use rigorous science to underpin their use, or risk doing more harm than good. > > "But artificial habitat structures can be a double-edged sword," Duncan said. > > "Many of the world's natural environments are irreparably modified and damaged, so species have lost critical habitat components that they need to survive. > > They also need to support the conservation of wildlife populations over the long term and should be monitored.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1080320

> - Dr. Grey Coupland's citizen science outreach program in Western Australia has been listed on the UNESCO Green Citizens platform. > - The program involves students getting involved in a circular economy and learning about the benefits of sustainability. > - Students participate in activities such as setting up compost systems using food waste and planting pocket forests. > - The program aims to empower students to become citizen scientists and make a positive impact on the environment. > - Dr. Coupland plans to expand the program by planting more forests across Perth and regional areas in 2022.

Great paper on how plants use P and how diversity can improve P use.

Another article on a familiar story.

Two decades ago Knepp was a debt-ridden, subsidy-dependent farm.

The UK government-funded research found that the rewilded soil absorbed up to 4.8 tonnes more carbon dioxide per hectare per year than soils in a conventional farm close by.

Knepp's soil data is the first to show that rewilding a farm can lead to statistically robust carbon sequestration in soils.

"It's wonderful to have projects like Knepp producing the credible evidence that can help to convince policymakers that this is a viable way forward," says Alister Scott , director of the Global Rewilding Alliance.

Tree hopes the research will help secure a seat for rewilding at the carbon market table, as so far there are no investment products or market mechanisms that support rewilding.

Rewilding has the potential to address both the climate and biodiversity crises, according to Scott with Global Rewilding Alliance.

Galán Díaz and colleagues found that invasive species had other advantages.

Coloniser species displayed longer bloom periods, allowing them to be receptive to visitors at times that didn't only match pollinator activity in their home ranges.

These coloniser species brought novel traits into the recipient communities, such as annual life cycles and efficient resource-use strategies, highly beneficial in a context of farming, intense herbivory, long drought periods and high soil disturbance.

Both types of colonisers - invasive and naturalised - exhibit similar levels of climatic richness, but invasive species show a greater level of climatic diversity.

The botanists noticed some critical differences between coloniser and non-coloniser species regarding specific characteristics.

Using a kind of statistical analysis called 'random forest modelling', Galán Díaz and colleagues were able to predict whether a species is a non-coloniser or coloniser with an accuracy of over 73%. Variables, including climatic niche richness and the number of seed-dispersal mechanisms, were crucial to these predictions.

They conclude: "The knowledge derived from such studies may allow us to improve prediction models, identifying key species to monitor; this could prevent potential harmful impacts from coloniser species in invaded communities and reduce the investment necessary to target eradication measures."

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/989078

> Groundwater impacts vegetation and the atmosphere via the soil-plant-atmosphere pathway. > > Groundwater therefore contributes to the flows of water, energy and carbon between the land and the lower atmosphere and can influence local and regional air temperature and perhaps precipitation. > > Understanding the potential impact of groundwater dynamics on climate extremes is an urgent topic of research given projections of more heatwaves and droughts in the future. > > During heatwaves, groundwater reduces forest canopy temperatures by up to 5°C, where groundwater is shallow. However, the cooling effect is limited to the first two years of the multi-year droughts. The groundwater cools the forest canopy in heatwaves only 0.1~0.3 °C at the end droughts. >

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/989457

> This person posts about native plantings and animals on their property. They do a lot of work and the photos are helpful in seeing the changes. The blog is recommended. > > Summary of the latest post: > > Over the last year, I did not record any new amphibians, reptiles or mammals on our property, and a brief visit by a Zebra Finch constituted the only new bird. > > Throughout the year, we didn't receive a single rain event large enough to generate runoff to fill our creek and dam. > > Due to the dry summer and autumn, I only managed to get 295 new trees planted this year. > > Over the seven years, I have planted a total of 3,350 trees, shrubs and vines, comprising 208 species of locally indigenous plants. > > Last year's plantings were highly successful, courtesy of the wet autumn and winter of 2022. > > Without any additional watering from me, I achieved a survival rate of 91.1%, which is the second highest of the seven years. > > Some attendees had visited the property one or two years previously, so were more cognisant than I of the changes over time

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/989239

> With value measured in cows, we would struggle to make a living from Thiaki even though rainforest was among the most biologically valuable pieces of land in the country. > > The nearest town is Malanda, 15km to the north by road. While it hadn't been easy to turn lush tropical rainforest into paddocks - some individual settlers worked at it for decades - how could you turn paddocks back into rainforest? Local efforts on the Atherton Tablelands to restore degraded land back to rainforest were heroic but ad hoc. > > Work commenced apace to design the reforestation research plan for the foundations of a brand-new rainforest that uses different mixes and numbers of native species with different planting densities. > > On 28 January 2011, a bunch of academics and a crack team of planters with dirt under their fingernails and dreadlocks like flowing lianas, assembled to build the foundations of a rainforest with 30,000 plants, and to create the conditions for a phoenix to rise once more from the ashes. > > The clearing frenzy of the first 20 years of the 20th century brought about the near extinction of the upland rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands. > > https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479723004334 > > - Reforestation success can be improved by enhancing tree planting methods > - Low sapling survival rates lead to high replacement costs and can hinder reforestation efforts > - Damage to fibrous roots during handling affects sapling survival > - Initial soil properties and conditions have a greater impact on sapling survival than adult traits > - Careful planting methods result in better sapling survival rates in the longer term > - Factors such as seedling survival, root growth, and seedling quality play a significant role in tree establishment > - Non-native grass removal and shade increase soil moisture and seedling performance during forest restoration

Four years ago, we put down a first instalment on half a hectare of pasture in Altamira which had been degraded by fire and years of grazing cattle.

Unlike the vast majority of settlers in this region, we prefer living in semi-forest rather than cleared land because the trees provide shade, we think it is more beautiful and it feels healthier.

By the second year, the plot looked more like a head-high shrubbery, speckled with bright red seed pods.

An investor in a reforestation scheme needs to know that trees will be left to do what comes naturally without human interference.

I will nurture those solutions like my plants, more in hope than expectation, with one eye on the weather and one eye on the news.

Giant tortoises reintroduced to Galapagos' Española Island are engineering the ecosystem by reducing trees, aiding cactus regeneration, and creating nesting grounds for the waved albatross.

A new study published in Conservation Letters by Tapia Aguilera & Gibbs provides evidence that reintroducing giant tortoises to Española Island in the Galapagos archipelago is transforming the island's plant communities.

They've since been a conservation success story, with over two thousand tortoises reared and released on the island, but what effect are they having on their habitat?

The study's findings suggest that trophic rewilding programs involving megaherbivores like tortoises could help restore critical ecosystem functions on islands where native species have been severely reduced.

"Tortoises consumed virtually every cladode that fell to the substrate. This would effectively eliminate vegetative reproduction in cactus Similarly, tortoises consumed almost all cactus fruits deposited, which would greatly expand the scope for seed dispersal away from the parent plant, where bird predation on seeds is most intense. We expect that seed dispersal by tortoises provides a critical vector for sexual reproduction in cacti, resulting in more cactus recruits in the larger landscape, whereas intense consumption of cactus parts by tortoises renders asexual reproduction by cactus inviable."

Tapia Aguilera & Gibbs conclude that, for Española Island, rewilding with Giant Tortoises has been a success, but caution against assuming that the circumstances here apply everywhere.

The soil particles become so closely packed together, the soil can't absorb water."

"A single teaspoon of healthy garden soil can hold up to one billion bacteria, several yards of fungal filaments and hundreds to thousands of microscopic lifeforms such as protozoa and nematodes," says Akshit Puri, also of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC. Earthworms and arthropods add nutrients to the soil through their waste.

Soil microorganisms are physiologically active in moist soil but dormant in dry soil.

It will take time for the boulevard soil to be revived to the point that it's equal to healthy garden soil.

The Soil Science Society of America notes that it takes hundreds of years for soil to naturally form and become fertile.

Is Semlacher making progress? No longer beige and ecru in hue, the boulevard soil is now that dark milk-chocolate colour quintessential to living soil.

Or maybe, like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I was drawn back to childhood, where with a little imagination, nothing's impossible, even restoring the most precious commodity of all - soil.

A Griffith University-led project is working with Soloman Island communities to test different ways of restoring forests to benefit local residents and revitalise ecosystems.

The Livelihoods in Forest Ecosystem Recovery project is helmed by Griffith's Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security Director Professor Helen Wallace for ACIAR, who said there was a critical need to find ways to restore the forests in Solomon Islands.

LIFER is a six-year project that began in January 2023, building on a pilot project funded by the US Forest Service on Kolombangara Island.

• Treatment 1 will serve as the control, with protection but no active effort to restore the forest.
• Treatment 2 is ‘assisted natural regeneration’ where weeding and thinning, for instance, will be used to help valuable species re-establish themselves.
• Treatment 3 is ‘enrichment’ and includes management activities and replanting trees that communities have identified as important for future use.
• Treatment 4 is a more intensive ‘agroforestry’ approach, with substantial planting of timber species, along with other useful tree and food crops.

Professor Wallace said the first steps involved talking to communities about how they use their forests and what they want and need from future forests.

The LIFER project will fund participating communities to maintain the trial sites during the life of the project and to help monitor tree growth, biodiversity and livelihood benefits.

"We really want to empower local women and give them a voice in forest management and promote leadership in forest governance. This will include working with the National Council of Women," Professor Wallace said.

"We found that there's a strong link between the species diversity of tree habitats and the population density of the spiders that live in them," said Karin Burghardt, senior author of the study and assistant professor of entomology at UMD. "Spiders really like complex habitats, so having a large variety of tree species with different structural features like height, canopy cover and foliage density will help increase spider abundance and also the natural pest regulation they provide."

"There have been some large-scale tree diversity experiments conducted in Europe and Asia, but our study is one of only a handful of experiments of its kind in temperate North America," Burghardt said.

On the plots, the researchers planted the same tree species or four or 12 different tree species.

After repeatedly sampling 540 trees in these plots by counting the number of spiders found in each tree, Burghardt and her team found that plots with higher tree species diversity also hosted greater spider populations.

By the end of the project in 2021, plots containing four or 12 different tree species supported approximately 23% to 50% more spiders than single species plots, due to their cooler, shadier conditions.

"Plots with more variation in tree species tend to have more canopy cover than plots with only a single tree species," Burghardt explained.

The researchers found the strongest relationship between tree diversity and spider populations during the late summer months when average temperatures were at their highest.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/683314

> In a multi-generation experiment, researchers from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants' cries for help. > > To learn how microbes help plants deal with drought, Ricks established live soil communities in pots with or without plants. > > He again grew plants in soil from phase one and kept the same watering treatments, but some plants were now experiencing drought in soils that had been well-watered for generations, and vice versa. > > He expected soil microbes from historically dry pots would have adapted to those conditions, helping plants withstand drought more than microbes from historically wet pots. > > Ricks said soil microbes are involved in many processes that could help plants withstand stress.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/683320

> Tree planting is a central plank in Britain's net zero strategy. > > An inability to get new woodland established means the UK will almost certainly not meet carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation targets. > > The environmental audit committee report identifies several failings and bottlenecks to progress with woodland creation. > > One way of reducing complexity would be to give greater autonomy to tree and woodland professionals. > > Giving chartered arboriculturists and chartered foresters greater independence, supported with a simpler funding model, could help incentivise and liberate tree and woodland professionals to do what they do best, which is create and manage the UK's valuable woodlands for both people and nature.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/640043

> More consideration should be given to animals in ecosystem restoration assessments and a new CDU study shows how this can be done. > According to CDU Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods ecologist and lead author of the study, Professor Alan Andersen, specific standards are required for assessing how well animal communities have been restored. > > “It is important to include a wide variety of animals, not just because of their intrinsic biodiversity value but also because of the many ecological roles they play in restoration processes. > > However, up until now there has been no framework for doing this.” > But Professor Andersen said the assessment framework can be applied to any ecosystem worldwide. > > “Specific standards of evaluating returning animal populations can be set to suit any level of restoration, no matter where it is,” he said.