Ecosystem services through restoration: Improving restoration outcomes through trait-based modelling

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Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) appear to be among the ecosystems that are most at risk to multiple global change factors (e.g. biotic exchange, nitrogen deposition, climate), which are likely to exacerbate the contemporary decline of ecosystem services (ES). Ecosystem restoration projects increasingly aim at improving multiple ES. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of the link between ecosystem composition, related functions and ES, and influencing environmental drivers is required. Plant traits have been recognised as a quantifiable link between ecosystem composition and ecosystem functions, which provide the base for the provision of ES. Trait-based research, however, that addresses trade-offs among multiple ES under the impact of multiple environmental factors to reliably support future restoration outcomes is still missing. The project aims at assessing the linkage between plant traits and the provision of ES and trade-offs among them under the impact of environmental change to improve future restoration outcomes in MTEs. To this end, a trait-based simulation model will be developed in close cooperation with researchers from study sites in MTEs world-wide. The model will simulate ecosystem processes dependent on trait composition and several environmental factors, and will assess the resulting ecosystem functions and services. The model will build on published approaches and will link nutrient, water and vegetation dynamics taking into account specific characteristics of each MTE. For model parametrisation and adaptation for each site, data from ongoing experiments and measurements at MTEs in Australia, Chile, France and Spain will be made available by collaboration partners of the project. The ecosystem model will be used to detect species assemblages, that minimise trade-offs among ES under global change, and that are therefore of direct interest for restoration projects. By integrating findings from different MTEs, similarities and dissimilarities between ES provision and their trade-offs will be detected, which will assist to develop a general theory on the linkage between traits and multiple ES in MTEs.