How and to what extent have degraded grasslands recovered after ecological restoration in China: A meta-analysis?

A range of measures for restoration have been tested on degraded grasslands in China. However, the factors controlling recovery to natural grassland conditions and the overall effectiveness of restoration remain unclear.
We synthesized data from 365 studies for 103 grassland sites, with 21 variables related to plant community and soil properties. We used meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of ecological restoration and the influence of restoration approach, grassland type, soil depth, climatic conditions, and the duration of restoration programmes.
Ecological restoration showed larger enhancements on plant community structure and biomass compared with plant diversity and soil properties, and the recovery of soil properties was substantially slower than the recovery of vegetation. Specifically, aboveground biomass showed faster recovery than belowground biomass, but plant species richness did not achieve full recovery to natural conditions. Soil water content, soil carbon ...