Climate Smart Restoration: Establishing Baselines and Developing Adaptive Management Approaches

In Hawaiʻi, a large percentage of historically forested areas have been lost, driven in part by changes in land use, such as the conversion of forests into pastures for livestock. This transformation has not only resulted in widespread loss of native biodiversity and important ecosystem functions but has also increased the risk of fire on the landscape. Though targeted restoration efforts have the potential to increase the abundance of native forests and to return important functions, a few key obstacles remain. First, existing restoration knowledge is often experiential and thus inaccessible. Second, restoration efforts face the challenges of a changing climate that is increasing temperatures and the occurrence of drought events in Hawaiʻi.



This project brings together a multi-disciplinary team that will engage in both knowledge synthesis and experimental approaches to develop tools and strategies to support restoration practitioners. Building upon the foundation laid by the existing Hawaiʻi Forest Restoration Synthesis project, the project team will facilitate engagement between researchers and practitioners and develop accessible resources to support adaptive management. To complement these goals, the project team will also conduct an experiment to explore the key question of whether native plants sourced from drier areas fare better than those sourced from wetter areas when exposed to conditions that simulate drought and competition from invasive grasses.



By synthesizing existing knowledge, developing practical tools and strategies, and conducting experiments with native plants, this project can help practitioners better plan for the restoration of Hawaiian ecosystems in a changing climate and share knowledge with local students and communities.