Forest restoration often includes thinning to reduce tree density and improve ecosystem processes and function while also reducing the risk of wildfire or insect and disease outbreaks. However, one drawback of these restoration treatments is that slash is often burned in piles that may damage the soil and require further restoration activities. Pile burning is currently used on many forest site...

Floodplains have been intensively altered in industrialized countries, but are now increasingly being restored. It is therefore important to assess the effect of these restoration projects on the aquatic and terrestrial components of ecosystems. However, despite being functionally crucial components of terrestrial ecosystems, soils are generally overlooked in floodplain restoration assessments....

δ(15)N signals in plant and soil material integrate over a number of biogeochemical processes related to nitrogen (N) and therefore provide information on net effects of multiple processes on N dynamics. In general little is known in many grassland restoration projects on soil-plant N dynamics in relation to the restoration treatments. In particular, δ(15)N signals may be a useful tool to asses...

Revegetation and soil restoration efforts, often associated with erosion control measures on disturbed soils, are rarely monitored or otherwise evaluated in terms of improved hydrologic, much less, ecologic function and longer term sustainability. As in many watersheds, sediment is a key parameter of concern in the Tahoe Basin, particularly fine sediments less than about ten microns. Numerous e...

BACKGROUND Management regimes for vegetation restoration of degraded grasslands can significantly affect the process of ecological succession. However, few studies have focused on variation in the soil seed bank during vegetation restoration under different management regimes, especially in saline-alkaline grassland habitats. Our aim was to provide insights into the ecological effects of grassl...

Soil moisture plays a key role in vegetation restoration and ecosystem stability in arid and semiarid regions. The response of soil moisture to rainfall pulses is an important hydrological process, which is strongly influenced by land use during the implementation of vegetation restoration. In this study, vertical soil moisture variations of woodland (Pinus tabulaeformis), native grassland (Sti...

In the effort to determine if hydrologic restoration in Knuthsen Meadow affects root abundance and soil moisture, we gathered preliminary data to determine the optimal experimental design and sample size necessary to detect a 25% increase in root biomass and soil moisture following restoration. We found high variability in root biomass, with upstream meadow reaches having substantially greater ...

8 Both structural and functional approaches to restoration of eastern deciduous forests are becoming more common as recognition of the altered state of these ecosystems grows. In our study, structural restoration involves mechanically . modifying the woody plant assemblage to a species composition, density, and community structure specified by the restoration goals. Functional restoration invol...

Large-scale vegetation restoration in China’s Loess Plateau has been initiated by the central government for controlling soil andwater losses in the past three decades. However, there is virtually no guidance for plant species selection for the restoration purpose. We investigated the effects of planting trees and shrubs, land-use conversions from croplands to pastures and native grasslands on ...