Studying long-term, large-scale grassland restoration outcomes to improve seeding methods and reveal knowledge gaps

Studies are increasingly investigating effects of large-scale management activities on grassland restoration outcomes. These studies are providing useful comparisons among currently used management strategies, but not the novel strategies needed to rapidly improve restoration efforts. Here we illustrate how managing restoration projects adaptively can allow promising management innovations to be identified and tested.
We studied 327 Great Plains fields seeded after coal mining. We modelled plant responses to management strategies to identify the most effective previously used strategies for constraining weeds and establishing desired plants. Then, we used the model to predict responses to new strategies our analysis identified as potentially more effective.
Where established, the weed crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum L.) increased through time, indicating a need to manage establishment of this grass. Seeding particular grasses reduced annual weed cover, and because these grasse...