Data from: Priorities and motivations of marine coastal restoration research

Active restoration is becoming an increasingly important conservation
intervention to counteract the degradation of marine coastal ecosystems.
Understanding what has motivated the scientific community to research the
restoration of marine coastal ecosystems and how restoration research
projects are funded is essential if we want to scale-up restoration
interventions to meaningful extents.Here, we systematically review and
synthesize data to understand the motivations for research on the
restoration of coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves, saltmarsh, and oyster
reefs. We base this analysis off a published database of marine
restoration studies, originally designed to estimate the cost and
feasibility of marine coastal restoration, derived from mostly scientific
studies published in peer-reviewed and some grey literature. For the
present study, the database was updated with fields aimed at assessing the
motivations, outcomes, and funding sources for each project. We classify
restoration motivations into five categories: biotic, experimental,
idealistic, legislative, and pragmatic. Moreover, we evaluate the
variables measured and outcomes reported by the researchers and evaluate
whether projects adhered to the Society for Ecological Restoration’s (SER)
standards for the practice of ecological restoration. The most common
motivation of the scientific community to study restoration in marine
coastal ecosystems was experimental i.e. to seek experimental data to
answer ecological research questions or improve restoration approach, as
expected since mostly peer-reviewed literature was evaluated here. There
were differences in motivations among the five coastal ecosystems. For
instance, biodiversity enhancement was the most common case for a biotic
motivation in mangrove restoration projects. The most common metrics
evaluated were growth/productivity, survivorship, habitat function,
physical attributes and reproduction. For most ecosystems, ecological
outcomes were frequently reported, with socio-economic implications of the
restoration rarely mentioned, except for mangroves. Projects were largely
funded by governmental grants with some investment from private donations,
non-governmental organizations, and the involvement of volunteers. Our
findings and database provide critical data to align future research of
the scientific community with the real social, economic and policy needs
required to scale-up marine coastal restoration projects.