FAPESP - Restoring Neotropical dry ecosystems - is plant functional composition the key to success?

尽管TDFS具有全球重要性且保护不力，但其研究远少于其他热带森林生态系统，特别是正在恢复的TDFS地区。我们的目标是解决这个最近发现的知识差距，目的是提高TDFS恢复的成功率。该项目将首次评估现有和恢复的TDFS对不断变化的气候和极端气候的适应能力，通过对恢复的TDFS站点确定植物用水，碳生产和营养使用策略的特性进行全面的社区规模评估。该项目产生的信息将逐步改变我们目前对恢复和自然TDFS网站功能的理解，促进最先进的植被模型的发展，以改善气候预测，并通过与负责创建和实施巴西恢复战略的关键利益相关者整合，创建新的恢复政策。我们的主要目标是：目标1：评估使用不同策略恢复的TDFS地点的生态系统功能。目标2：了解气候变化和极端气候对TDFS的压力。目标3：改进政策和恢复战略，热带干旱森林和热带稀树草原（TDFS）占巴西陆地面积的34%，占巴西国土面积的50%以上。巴西的植物种类。超过1亿人生活在巴西的TDFS地区，其中许多人来自农村脆弱社区，他们依赖TDFS提供的基本生态系统服务。这些服务包括：1.巴西农业前沿的供水、荫凉和传粉者; 2.国家水安全，亚马逊河以外43%的地表水落入TDFS，并供应巴西三大河流流域的含水层; 3.木材和食物的来源; 4.为减缓气候变化而储存碳; 5.自然风景区，广泛用于旅游; 6。一个超过4500种木本植物的活种子库，其中许多是地方性的。尽管如此，TDFS的保护仍然很差，只有1.2%的干燥森林和7.5%的稀树草原在保护区，巴西的干燥森林和稀树草原的不到10%和不到20%保持完好。认识到目前TDFS损失率的社会，经济和环境影响，巴西政府承诺到2030年恢复12万平方公里（约为英国面积的一半）的自然生态系统，重点是TDFS。巴西环境部（ICMBio）和农业部（EMBRAPA）已开始实施这一恢复计划。然而，恢复TDFS地区的成功率仍然很低，与不同的恢复策略的地区之间的高变异性。成功率低和战略之间差异大的原因仍然不明，妨碍了目前实现国家恢复目标的能力。到目前为止，所有的TDFS恢复策略都集中在重新创建在自然，未受干扰的TDFS栖息地观察到的物种组成。这一重点假定物种多样性是最大限度地提高生态系统生产力和抵抗气候变化的同义词，但它忽视了这些物种对它们在退化景观中经历的新的干燥和受干扰环境的适应性。对热带雨林的最新研究表明，仅仅关注物种多样性过于狭隘。相反，植物资源利用策略，特别是水力功能性状可能是决定生态系统规模的功能和TDFS生态系统对当前和未来气候变化的抵抗力和恢复力的关键。为了成功地保护和恢复TDFS，因此，目前缺乏对TDFS的生态系统功能和植物资源利用策略的理解是至关重要的。

Despite their global importance and poor protection, TDFS have been studied far less than other tropical forest ecosystems, particularly TDFS areas undergoing restoration. We aim to address this recently identified knowledge gap with the aim of improving the success of TDFS restoration. This project will provide the first assessment of the resilience of existing and restored TDFS to changing climate and climate extremes, through undertaking a comprehensive, community-scale assessment of traits which determine plant water-use, carbon production and nutrient-use strategies across restored TDFS sites. The information generated in this project will create a step-change in our current understanding of the function of restored and natural TDFS sites, facilitating development of state-of-the art vegetation models to improve climate prediction and the creation of new restoration policy through integrating with key stakeholders responsible for the creation and implementation of restoration strategies for Brazil. Our key aims are:Aim 1: Evaluate ecosystem function in TDFS sites restored using different strategies.Aim 2: Understand the pressures on TDFS from climate-change and climate extremes.Aim 3: Improve policy and restoration strategies for the restoration of, and long-term resilience of TDFS in collaboration with the Brazilian government.Tropical dry forests and savannas (TDFS) make up 34% of Brazil's land area and contain >50% of Brazil's plant species. More than 100 million people live in TDFS regions of Brazil and many of these people are from rural vulnerable communities who rely on essential ecosystem services TDFS provide. These services include: 1. water supply, shade and pollinators for Brazil's agricultural frontier; 2. national water security, with 43% of the surface water outside the Amazon falling in TDFS and supplying the aquifers which feed Brazil's three largest river basins; 3. a source of timber and food; 4. carbon storage for climate change mitigation; 5. areas of natural beauty, used extensively for tourism; 6. a living seed bank for >4500 woody plant species, many of which are endemic. Despite this, TDFS remain poorly protected with only 1.2% of dry forests and 7.5% of savannas in protected reserves and <10% of Brazil's dry forest and <20% of its savannahs remaining intact. Recognising the social, economic and environmental implications of the current rates of loss of TDFS, the Brazilian government has responded by committing to restoring 120,000 km2 (an area about half the UK) of natural ecosystems by 2030, with a focus on TDFS. Brazil's Ministry for the Environment (ICMBio) and Ministry for Agriculture (EMBRAPA) have started implementing this restoration plan. However, success rates of restored TDFS areas remains very low, with high variability between areas subjected to varying restoration strategies. The reasons for low success and high variability between strategies remains unknown, hampering current ability to meet national restoration targets. Until now, all TDFS restoration strategies have focused on re-creating the species composition observed in natural, undisturbed TDFS habitats. This focus has assumed that species diversity is synonymous with maximizing ecosystem productivity and resistance to climate variability, yet it ignores the suitability of these species to the new drier and disturbed environment they experience in degraded landscapes. The latest research from tropical rainforests broadly suggests that focusing only on species' diversity is too narrow. Instead, plant resource use strategies, and particularly hydraulic functional traits are likely to be the key to determining ecosystem-scale function and the resistance and resilience of TDFS ecosystems to current and future climate variability. To successfully protect and restore TDFS it is therefore vital that the current lack of understanding about ecosystem function and plant resource-use strategies in TDFS is addressed.