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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:bold"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-weight:400;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);display:inline !important">Nancy Shackleford
et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, July 22, 2021</span></strong></span></p>
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<strong style="color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; box-sizing: border-box;">Consider seeding at a higher rate and including plant traits
when selecting species for restoration</strong><br>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:bold">New study of dryland restoration across the globe reveals insights for successful seed-based restoration</strong></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u style="box-sizing:border-box">ABSTRACT</u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">: Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed
to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been
questioned as overly ambitious, but without a global evaluation of successes and failures it is impossible to gauge feasibility. Here we examine restoration seeding outcomes across 174 sites on six continents, encompassing 594,065 observations of 671 plant
species. Our findings suggest reasons for optimism. Seeding had a positive impact on species presence: in almost a third of all treatments, 100% of species seeded were growing at first monitoring. However, dryland restoration is risky: 17% of projects failed,
with no establishment of any seeded species, and consistent declines were found in seeded species as projects matured. Across projects, higher seeding rates and larger seed sizes resulted in a greater probability of recruitment, with further influences on
species success including site aridity, taxonomic identity and species life form. Our findings suggest that investigations examining these predictive factors will yield more effective and informed restoration decision-making.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u style="box-sizing:border-box">CITATION</u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">: Shackleford, N., Paterno, G.B., </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:bold">Winkler,
D.E.,</strong></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Erickson, T.E., Leger, E.A., Svejcar, L.N., Breed, M.F., Faist, A.M., Harrison, P.A., Curran, M.F., Guo, Q., Kirmer, A., Law, D.J., Mganga, K.Z., </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:bold">Munson,
S.M.,</strong></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> and others, 2021, Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts: Nature Ecology and Evolution, online, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01510-3</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">. </span></p>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">This research summary can be found in the latest USGS </span><span style="margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Restoration
Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/ramps-newsletter-summer-2021-edition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" title="https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/ramps-newsletter-summer-2021-edition" data-linkindex="2" style="margin:0px"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">newsletter</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">.
For more information about this and other dryland restoration research, visit the RAMPS website at</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">www.usgs.gov/sbsc/ramps</span></div>
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