Build it and they will come, but not all of them in fragmented Atlantic Forest landscapes

Abstract

Ecological restoration interventions, in most cases, aim to restore habitat structure and plant community composition, thus re‐establishing ecosystem functioning as similar as possible to that of the pre‐existing natural ecosystem. However, given the difficulty of cultivating many species, that goal seems unattainable, unless “if you build it, they will come.” Here we addressed the Field of Dreams hypothesis in the context of trees and shrubs of the seasonal tropical forest in southeastern Brazil. We aimed to verify if the species from the regional pool have been able to colonize the restoration forests and if functional patterns exist behind successful and unsuccessful colonization. We categorized each species by dispersal syndrome, seed traits, growth rate, shade tolerance, and rarity in the communities. Most, but not all, species from the regional pool are colonizing forest patches undergoing restoration. Successful colonizers are mostly zoochorous, dispersed by birds or bats, shade tolerant, of moderate or fast growth. By partially confirming the Field of Dreams hypothesis, our study implies that it is not necessary to reintroduce a large proportion of the regional pool in tropical forest restoration projects, given that many species will later spontaneously arrive, even in fragmented landscapes. However, the existence of a particular functional profile (slow‐growing species, dispersed by gravity or large mammals) that will rarely colonize the restoration forests should not be disregarded. Even though these are a minority, such species will likely be confined to the remaining natural fragments if they are not included in the restoration projects.