Abstract
Global declines in coastal foundation species highlight the importance of effective restoration. In this study, we examined the effects of source population identity and diversity (one vs. three sources per plot) on seagrass (Zostera marina) transplant success. The field experiment was replicated at two locations in Massachusetts with adjacent natural Zostera marina beds to test for local adaptation and source diversity effects on shoot density. We also collected morphological and genetic data to characterize variation within and among source populations, and evaluate whether they were related to performance. Transplants grew and expanded until six months post-transplantation, but then steadily declined at both sites. Prior to declines, we observed variation in performance among source populations at one site that was related to morphological traits: the populations with the longest leaves had the highest shoot densities, whereas the population with the shortest leaves performed the worst at six months post-transplantation. In addition, multiple source plots at this same transplant site consistently had similar or higher shoot densities than single source plots, and shoots from weak-performing populations showed improved performance in multiple source plots. We found no evidence for home site advantage or benefits of population-level genetic variation in early transplant performance at either site. Our results show limited effects of source population on early transplant performance and suggest that factors (e.g., morphology) other than home site advantage and population genetic variation serve a role. Based on our overall findings that transplant success varied among source populations and that population diversity at the plot level had positive but limited effects on individual and plot performance, we support planting shoots from multiple source sites in combination to enhance transplant success, particularly in the absence of detailed information on individual source characteristics.
Highlights
Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been damaged, degraded, or destroyed
We examined the effects of source identity and diversity on eelgrass transplant success over the course of one year
When we assessed performance of source populations in single source plots we found an interaction between source population and time on shoot density in EH: shoot density was similar across sources sites for all months except March and May, when source plots containing shoots from Nahant or EH and Nahant or PB, respectively, exhibited the greatest shoot densities and West Yarmouth the lowest (Table S3; Fig. 3)
Summary
Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been damaged, degraded, or destroyed. To mitigate for seagrass losses, considerable time and effort has been spent developing methodologies to improve restoration success rates, including models to facilitate the selection of transplant sites (e.g., Short et al, 2002; Biber, Gallegos & Kenworthy, 2008) and new planting techniques (e.g., Calumpong & Fonseca, 2001; Lee & Park, 2008; Zhou et al, 2014). Despite advances in these areas, restoration success rates are still low and variable (Fonseca, Kenworthy & Thayer, 1998; Cunha et al, 2012; Bayraktarov et al, 2016)
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