Abstract
Tropical dry forests (TDFs) have been widely transformed by human activities worldwide and the ecosystem services they provide are diminishing. There has been an urgent call for conservation and restoration of the degraded lands previously occupied by TDFs. Restoration experiences aim to recover species diversity and ecological functions. Different restoration strategies have been used to maximize plant performance including weeding, planting or using artificial mulching. In this investigation, we evaluated whether different restoration practices influence animal arrival and the reestablishment of biotic interactions. We particularly evaluated lepidopteran larvae diversity and caterpillar predation on plants established under different restoration treatments (mulching, weeding and control) in the Pacific West Coast of México. This study corroborated the importance of plant host identity for lepidopteran presence in a particular area. Lepidopteran diversity and herbivory rates were not affected by the restoration treatment but they were related to tree species. In contrast, caterpillar predation marks were affected by restoration treatment, with a greater number of predation marks in control plots, while caterpillar predation marks among plant species were not significantly different. This study highlights the importance of considering the introduction of high plant species diversity when planning TDF restoration to maximize lepidopteran diversity and ecosystem functioning.
Highlights
Ecological restoration aims to recover species diversity and ecological functions (Society for Ecological Restoration, 2007; Howe & Martınez-Garza, 2014)
With the aim of understanding the relative contributions of different restoration treatments for biodiversity and ecological function recovery, in this paper we investigated whether different restoration treatments in the Tropical dry forests (TDFs): (1) have differential impacts on lepidopteran communities associated with introduced plants; (2) lead to differences in herbivory rates; and (3) have differential impacts on predation rates on model lepidopteran larvae
Lepidopteran abundance and richness are not affected by the restoration treatment (F(2,42) = 1.22, P = 0.3) but were related to the particular tree species sampled (F(10,42) = 2.6, P = 0.01), regardless of the restoration treatment (plant species vs. restoration treatment interaction: F(18,42) = 0.67, P = 0.81)
Summary
Ecological restoration aims to recover species diversity and ecological functions (Society for Ecological Restoration, 2007; Howe & Martınez-Garza, 2014). Different restoration strategies have been used to maximize plant survival and performance including. Treatments that enhance soil water content and minimize competition with background vegetation are the ones showing better results for plant performance (Chalker-Scott, 2007; Barajas-Guzman & Barradas, 2011). When considering other aspects for restoring ecological functions such as the arrival of primary and secondary consumers, very few investigations have evaluated different restoration treatments. The recovery of animal populations is fundamental for restoring ecological functions (Noreika et al, 2015; Jones & Davidson, 2016). There is a need to understand if differences in vegetation performance due to different restoration treatments are translated into animal communities and further into ecological functioning
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