Abstract
BackgroundEcological restoration is a process that helps the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed. The success of restoration actions depend on the understanding of the processes, mechanisms and factors that guide vegetation dynamics. The restoration of plant communities can be made by unassisted (passive restoration, where the community recover by itself) and assisted (active restoration) ecological succession. It is imperative to know the scope of both types of activities to guide future restoration actions by evaluating the properties and functioning of the intervened communities.MethodsVariance analysis of the carbon (C) stocks, basal area, canopy area, Shannon–Weaver index values, specific richness and abundance of three Tamaulipan thornscrub communities (assisted natural succession area, unassisted natural succession area and control area) was performed. Furthermore, a similarity analysis between the sampling areas using the floristic composition (abundance) was performed.ResultsIn total, 11 families, 17 genera and 20 species of vascular plants were registered. The richness of species and abundance ranked as follows per area: assisted ecological natural succession > control > unassisted ecological natural succession. The species composition between sampling areas showed a low number of common species between plant communities.ConclusionsThe values of species richness, diversity, abundance, basal area, and canopy area of the assisted natural succession vegetal community was statistical similar to the control plan community. The values of C stocks showed that assisted ecological succession could recover not only structure and composition attributes but also this key ecosystem property.
Highlights
Ecological restoration is a process that helps the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed
Ecosystem ecological restoration can be classified into two types according to the strategy used: passive restoration where the ecosystem recovery by itself, like unassisted natural succession, and active restoration, where restoration activities are undertaken to accelerate the recovery of the ecosystem, like planting species to accelerate recovery in an assisted natural succession [12, 42, 61]
The objective of this study is to evaluate the structure and composition such as species richness, diversity, abundance, basal area, canopy area and carbon (C) stocks of woody plant communities of the Tamaulipan thornscrub and to compare the differences in these ecosystem attributes between assisted/unassisted ecological succession and control areas
Summary
The restoration of plant communities can be made by unassisted (passive restoration, where the community recover by itself ) and assisted (active restoration) ecological succession. Ecological restoration is a process that helps the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed [61]. The unassisted ecological succession (passive restoration) can achieve good results in certain cases, but usually takes decades or centuries and generally does not guarantee a composition of species like the original state [1]. Regardless of the restoration chosen, it is imperative to carry out studies and actions that help ecological recovery in regions whose biological and ecosystem biodiversity is strongly threatened [32, 57, 58]
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