RestoreNet: Distributed Field Trial Network for Dryland Restoration
RestoreNet Improves Land Condition
RestoreNet gardens are located in iconic Southwestern landscapes.
RestoreNet is Collaborative Science
Each garden location is affiliated with a land manager interested in implementing the results at a larger scale.
Revegetation in Arid Lands is Challenging
RestoreNet is working with managers to find cost-effective solutions.
Starting in 2017, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers and land managers are co-producing a network of restoration field trial sites on Department of Interior (DOI) and surrounding lands in the southwestern U.S. The network systematically tests restoration treatments across a broad range of environmental gradients. Each site in the network is used to test suitable seed mixes and treatments that promote plant establishment and growth.
The treatments include comparing seed mixes, soil surface modifications (e.g. soil pits, mulching), seeding vs. outplanting seedlings from a greenhouse, seeding vs. seedballs, site-specific topsoil inoculation, and targeted livestock grazing.
Participation in RestoreNet contributes to a growing body of knowledge on cutting edge ecological restoration methods for use in the southwestern United States to benefit land managers, landowners, and restoration practitioners.
Research Brief: Lessons from five years of RestoreNet
This article explores what we've learned over the past five years of RestoreNet.
RestoreNet is a networked ecological experiment on the cutting-edge of restoration science. Restoration is the activity of improving the land based on any number of objectives, and often includes seeding or outplanting to improve habitat and soil conditions. Restoration in the arid southwest is challenging due to limited precipitation, wind, difficult soils, and herbivory to name a few. Understanding how simple tools used by land managers can act to increase germination and persistence of plants is important to reduce costs of treatments and reduce environmental hazards posed by degraded landscapes. Find out more about how RAMPS (Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest) supports land managers in the iconic landscapes of the American Southwest.
RestoreNet Benefits Land Managers:
- Knowledge Co-production: Ecologists and land managers work together to decide which treatments to test, interpret results, and explore new ideas.
- Demonstration Sites: Locations are used to show clear proof of concept and generate important conversations about ecosystem restoration.
- Low-Risk: Small test plots reduce cost and build understanding that later supports larger-scale projects.
RestoreNet Improves Restoration Outcomes:
- Improving seed mixes: providing insight on priority species for restoration based on the relative performances of species in different environmental conditions.
- Advancing the science of dryland ecology and restoration.
- Demonstrating alternative restoration actions.
- Defining how restoration feeds into ecosystem function
Adaptively Managing an Experiment
RestoreNet Version 1.0
RestoreNet works with partners to develop and test treatment to improve restoration effectiveness. In 2017, we began exploring two methods of revegetation: seeding two seed mixes with soil surface treatments designed to increase soil moisture including mulch, pits, and ConMods and outplanting greenhouse-grown seedlings (see photos and figures below).
Seeding treatments were crossed with mulch, pits, and ConMods.
Left: Outplants of greenhouse-grown seedlings, right: seeding treatments crossed with soil surface treatments.
Experimental Design and Monitoring (See figure below)
SPECIES: The experiment tests native grass, forb, and shrub species found within the garden’s ecoregion. There were two seed mixes, one adapted to hot/dry (red boxes) and one to cool/wet (blue boxes) conditions.
SEEDED PLOTS (top four rows): Seeds are broadcast with treatments to increase soil moisture (mulch, pits, and ConMods, see photo above).
OUTPLANTING (rows 5-8): Seedlings are planted from the greenhouse using the same species combinations above. There are single species (green boxes) and multiple species plots (multi-colored boxes). Black boxes show control plots.
LOCAL QUESTIONS (boxes with ‘?’): Each garden contains space for land managers to rigorously test locally-relevant restoration questions.
FUTURE EXPERIMENTS (bottom): Each garden contains space for future iterations of experiments that test restoration techniques on a small scale.
MONITORING: tracks plant establishment, growth, and survival, and effects on ecosystem properties (soil stability, nutrient availability, etc.).
RestoreNet Version 2.0
In 2022, we piloted a second round of treatments. The focus of these treatments is to understand if restoration outcomes can be enhanced by increasing beneficial soil microbial communities in degraded soils. For the experiment, we gathered soil at reference sites near a subset of the RestoreNet experiment locations in undisturbed, intact plant communities. After gathering the soil, we enhanced the amount of beneficial soil microbes in the greenhouse before applying the soil at the RestoreNet locations and using it to form seed balls, which also contained seed and clay. We are testing these new treatments along with the pits (small depressions in the ground that capture soil moisture) that worked the best in RestoreNet Version 1.0. We are using a new seed mix that is a collection of the best performing species from the RestoreNet Version 1.0. At a subset of sites, we also implemented targeted livestock treatments aimed to create microtopography, increase seed-soil contact, and add nutrients.
Left: A plot with seedballs and a soil pit, right: a plot with a live topsoil inoculation treatment and direct seeding.
RestoreNet Version 2.0 is testing targeted livestock treatments at a subset of sites.
Benefits of a Networked Experiment
The RestoreNet field trial network is integrating knowledge of plant responses to the environment with their effects on recovery of ecosystem services, allowing us to scale-up understanding of seed and native plant performance to restoration treatments. Conducting experiments at this intermediate scale provides a low-risk, high-reward setting for land managers to evaluate different seed sources and restoration treatments across a broad range of environmental conditions. We are developing a network of field trial experiments across the Colorado Plateau, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave Deserts. RestoreNet is providing novel insights into potential modifications or additions to priority species lists for restoration based the performance of different seed resources and restoration treatments across environmental conditions, and how the interactive effects of site conditions and species composition influence ecosystem services. RestoreNet is fulfilling dual-purpose research and management support goals, allowing both advances in restoration science and demonstrations for land managers to see on-the-ground variation in seeding success, restoration treatments, and resultant ecosystem services. Easily accessible demonstration sites are critical for buy-in from land managers and practitioners who may be wary of modifying or adopting new practices without clear proof of concept.
The Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) is providing coordination for network development and synthesis among collaborators, as well as organizing field trips and outreach activities to facilitate the transition from research to application.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
USGS Science Supports Management of Invasive Species
RAMPS: Restoration Assessment & Monitoring Program for the Southwest
Restoration and Ecosystem Recovery Dynamics in Arid and Semiarid Landscapes
New Approaches for Restoring Colorado Plateau Grasslands
Starting in 2017, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers and land managers are co-producing a network of restoration field trial sites on Department of Interior (DOI) and surrounding lands in the southwestern U.S. The network systematically tests restoration treatments across a broad range of environmental gradients. Each site in the network is used to test suitable seed mixes and treatments that promote plant establishment and growth.
The treatments include comparing seed mixes, soil surface modifications (e.g. soil pits, mulching), seeding vs. outplanting seedlings from a greenhouse, seeding vs. seedballs, site-specific topsoil inoculation, and targeted livestock grazing.
Participation in RestoreNet contributes to a growing body of knowledge on cutting edge ecological restoration methods for use in the southwestern United States to benefit land managers, landowners, and restoration practitioners.
Research Brief: Lessons from five years of RestoreNet
This article explores what we've learned over the past five years of RestoreNet.
RestoreNet is a networked ecological experiment on the cutting-edge of restoration science. Restoration is the activity of improving the land based on any number of objectives, and often includes seeding or outplanting to improve habitat and soil conditions. Restoration in the arid southwest is challenging due to limited precipitation, wind, difficult soils, and herbivory to name a few. Understanding how simple tools used by land managers can act to increase germination and persistence of plants is important to reduce costs of treatments and reduce environmental hazards posed by degraded landscapes. Find out more about how RAMPS (Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest) supports land managers in the iconic landscapes of the American Southwest.
RestoreNet Benefits Land Managers:
- Knowledge Co-production: Ecologists and land managers work together to decide which treatments to test, interpret results, and explore new ideas.
- Demonstration Sites: Locations are used to show clear proof of concept and generate important conversations about ecosystem restoration.
- Low-Risk: Small test plots reduce cost and build understanding that later supports larger-scale projects.
RestoreNet Improves Restoration Outcomes:
- Improving seed mixes: providing insight on priority species for restoration based on the relative performances of species in different environmental conditions.
- Advancing the science of dryland ecology and restoration.
- Demonstrating alternative restoration actions.
- Defining how restoration feeds into ecosystem function
Adaptively Managing an Experiment
RestoreNet Version 1.0
RestoreNet works with partners to develop and test treatment to improve restoration effectiveness. In 2017, we began exploring two methods of revegetation: seeding two seed mixes with soil surface treatments designed to increase soil moisture including mulch, pits, and ConMods and outplanting greenhouse-grown seedlings (see photos and figures below).
Seeding treatments were crossed with mulch, pits, and ConMods.
Left: Outplants of greenhouse-grown seedlings, right: seeding treatments crossed with soil surface treatments.
Experimental Design and Monitoring (See figure below)
SPECIES: The experiment tests native grass, forb, and shrub species found within the garden’s ecoregion. There were two seed mixes, one adapted to hot/dry (red boxes) and one to cool/wet (blue boxes) conditions.
SEEDED PLOTS (top four rows): Seeds are broadcast with treatments to increase soil moisture (mulch, pits, and ConMods, see photo above).
OUTPLANTING (rows 5-8): Seedlings are planted from the greenhouse using the same species combinations above. There are single species (green boxes) and multiple species plots (multi-colored boxes). Black boxes show control plots.
LOCAL QUESTIONS (boxes with ‘?’): Each garden contains space for land managers to rigorously test locally-relevant restoration questions.
FUTURE EXPERIMENTS (bottom): Each garden contains space for future iterations of experiments that test restoration techniques on a small scale.
MONITORING: tracks plant establishment, growth, and survival, and effects on ecosystem properties (soil stability, nutrient availability, etc.).
RestoreNet Version 2.0
In 2022, we piloted a second round of treatments. The focus of these treatments is to understand if restoration outcomes can be enhanced by increasing beneficial soil microbial communities in degraded soils. For the experiment, we gathered soil at reference sites near a subset of the RestoreNet experiment locations in undisturbed, intact plant communities. After gathering the soil, we enhanced the amount of beneficial soil microbes in the greenhouse before applying the soil at the RestoreNet locations and using it to form seed balls, which also contained seed and clay. We are testing these new treatments along with the pits (small depressions in the ground that capture soil moisture) that worked the best in RestoreNet Version 1.0. We are using a new seed mix that is a collection of the best performing species from the RestoreNet Version 1.0. At a subset of sites, we also implemented targeted livestock treatments aimed to create microtopography, increase seed-soil contact, and add nutrients.
Left: A plot with seedballs and a soil pit, right: a plot with a live topsoil inoculation treatment and direct seeding.
RestoreNet Version 2.0 is testing targeted livestock treatments at a subset of sites.
Benefits of a Networked Experiment
The RestoreNet field trial network is integrating knowledge of plant responses to the environment with their effects on recovery of ecosystem services, allowing us to scale-up understanding of seed and native plant performance to restoration treatments. Conducting experiments at this intermediate scale provides a low-risk, high-reward setting for land managers to evaluate different seed sources and restoration treatments across a broad range of environmental conditions. We are developing a network of field trial experiments across the Colorado Plateau, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave Deserts. RestoreNet is providing novel insights into potential modifications or additions to priority species lists for restoration based the performance of different seed resources and restoration treatments across environmental conditions, and how the interactive effects of site conditions and species composition influence ecosystem services. RestoreNet is fulfilling dual-purpose research and management support goals, allowing both advances in restoration science and demonstrations for land managers to see on-the-ground variation in seeding success, restoration treatments, and resultant ecosystem services. Easily accessible demonstration sites are critical for buy-in from land managers and practitioners who may be wary of modifying or adopting new practices without clear proof of concept.
The Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) is providing coordination for network development and synthesis among collaborators, as well as organizing field trips and outreach activities to facilitate the transition from research to application.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.