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Forest restoration is increasingly heralded as a global strategy to conserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change, yet long-term studies that compare the effects of different restoration strategies on tree recruit demographics are lacking. We measured tree recruit survival and growth annually in three restoration treatments—natural regeneration, applied nucleation and tree plantations—replicated at 13 sites in southern Costa Rica—and evaluated the changes over a decade. Early-successional seedlings had 14% higher survival probability in the applied nucleation than natural regeneration treatments. Early-successional sapling growth rates were initially 227% faster in natural regeneration and 127% faster in applied nucleation than plantation plots but converged across restoration treatments over time. Later-successional seedling and sapling survival were similar across treatments but later-successional sapling growth rates were 39% faster in applied nucleation than in plantation treatments. Results indicate that applied nucleation was equally or more effective in enhancing survival and growth of naturally recruited trees than the more resource-intensive plantation treatment, highlighting its promise as a restoration strategy. Finally, tree recruit dynamics changed quickly over the 10-year period, underscoring the importance of multi-year studies to compare restoration interventions and guide ambitious forest restoration efforts planned for the coming decades. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’.
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This content will become publicly available on November 19, 2025
Active restoration increases tree species richness and recruitment of large‐seeded taxa after 16–18 years
Abstract Tropical forest restoration presents a potential lifeline to mitigate climate change and biodiversity crises in the Anthropocene. Yet, the extent to which human interventions, such as tree planting, accelerate the recovery of mature functioning ecosystems or redirect successional trajectories toward novel states remains uncertain due to a lack of long‐term experiments. In 2004–2006, we established three 0.25‐ha plots at 10 sites in southern Costa Rica to test three forest restoration approaches: natural regeneration (no planting), applied nucleation (planting in patches), and plantation (full planting). In a comprehensive survey after 16–18 years of recovery, we censused >80,000 seedlings, saplings, and trees from at least 255 species across 26 restoration plots (nine natural regeneration, nine applied nucleation, eight plantation) and six adjacent reference forests to evaluate treatment effects on recruitment patterns and community composition. Both applied nucleation and plantation treatments resulted in significantly elevated seedling and sapling establishment and more predictable community composition compared with natural regeneration. Similarity of vegetation composition to reference forest tended to scale positively with treatment planting intensity. Later‐successional species with seeds ≥5 mm had significantly greater seedling and sapling abundance in the two planted treatments, and plantation showed similar recruitment densities of large‐seeded (≥10 mm) species to reference forest. Plantation tended toward a lower abundance of early‐successional recruits than applied nucleation. Trees (≥5 cm dbh) in all restoration treatments continued to be dominated by a few early‐successional species and originally transplanted individuals. Seedling recruits of planted taxa were more abundant in applied nucleation than the other treatments though few transitioned into the sapling layer. Overall, our findings show that active tree planting accelerates the establishment of later‐successional trees compared with natural regeneration after nearly two decades. While the apparent advantages of higher density tree planting on dispersal and understory establishment of larger seeded, later‐successional species recruitment is notable, more time is needed to assess whether these differences will persist and transition to the more rapid development of a mature later‐successional canopy. Our results underscore the need for ecological restoration planning and monitoring that targets biodiversity recovery over multiple decades.
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- PAR ID:
- 10576626
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ecological Applications
- Volume:
- 35
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1051-0761
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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