Starting in 2017, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers and land managers are co-producing a network of restoration field trial sites on Department of Interior (DOI) and surrounding lands in the southwestern U.S. The network systematically tests restoration treatments across a broad range of landscape, soil, and climate conditions. Each site in the network is used to test suitable seed mixes and treatments that promote plant establishment and growth.
The treatments include ground modifications (e.g. soil amendments, physical alterations, mulching), seeding vs. outplanting seedlings from a greenhouse, timing of planting, herbicide treatments to suppress invasive species, and others.
Participation in RestoreNet contributes to a growing body of knowledge on cutting edge ecological restoration methods for use in the southwestern United States to benefit land managers, landowners, and restoration practitioners.
RestoreNet is a networked ecological experiment on the cutting-edge of restoration science. Restoration is the activity of improving the land based on any number of objectives, and often includes seeding or outplanting to improve habitat and soil conditions. Restoration in the arid southwest is challenging due to limited precipitation, wind, difficult soils, and herbivory to name a few. Understanding how simple tools used by land managers can act to increase germination and persistence of plants is important to reduce costs of treatments and reduce environmental hazards posed by degraded landscapes. Find out more about how RAMPS (Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest) supports land managers in the iconic landscapes of the American Southwest.
RestoreNet Benefits Land Managers:
- Knowledge Co-production: Ecologists and land managers work together to decide which treatments to test, interpret results, and explore new ideas.
- Demonstration Sites: Locations are used to show clear proof of concept and generate important conversations about ecosystem restoration.
- Low-Risk: Small test plots reduce cost and build understanding that later supports larger-scale projects.
RestoreNet Improves Restoration Outcomes:
- Improving seed mixes: providing insight on priority species for restoration based on the relative performances of species in different environmental conditions.
- Advancing the science of dryland ecology and restoration.
- Demonstrating alternative restoration actions.
- Defining how restoration feeds into ecosystem function
Adaptively Managing an Experiment
RestoreNet Version 1.0
RestoreNet works with partners to develop and test treatment to improve restoration effectiveness. In 2017, we installed mulch, pit, and ConMod treatments (see photo below).
Experimental Design and Monitoring (See figure below)
SPECIES: The experiment tests native grass, forb, and shrub species found within the garden’s ecoregion. There are two seed mixes, one adapted to hot/dry (red boxes) and one to cool/wet (blue boxes) conditions.
SEEDED PLOTS (top four rows): Seeds are broadcast with treatments to increase soil moisture (see green box on front of flyer).
OUTPLANTING (rows 5-8): Seedlings are planted from the greenhouse using the same species combinations above. There are single species (green boxes) and multiple species plots (multi-colored boxes). Black boxes show control plots.
LOCAL QUESTIONS (boxes with ‘?’): Each garden contains space for land managers to rigorously test locally-relevant restoration questions.
FUTURE EXPERIMENTS (bottom): Each garden contains space for future iterations of experiments that test restoration techniques on a small scale.
MONITORING: tracks plant establishment, growth, and survival, and effects on ecosystem properties (soil stability, nutrient availability, etc.).
RestoreNet Version 2.0
In 2022, we piloted a second round of treatments. The focus of these treatments is to understand if restoration outcomes can be enhanced by increasing beneficial soil microbial communities in degraded soils. For the experiment, we gathered soil at reference sites near seven of the RestoreNet experiment locations in undisturbed, intact plant communities. After gathering the soil, we enhanced the amount of beneficial soil microbes in the greenhouse before applying the soil at the RestoreNet locations and using it to form seed balls, which also contained seed and clay. The new treatments test these treatments, along with pitting (small depressions in the ground that capture soil moisture) that worked the best in RestoreNet Version 1.0. We are using a new seed mix that is a collection of the best performing species from the RestoreNet Version 1.0. Seven out of the 24 RestoreNet sites already received this new treatment, and six more sites will receive the treatment late this fall.
Benefits of a Networked Experiment
The RestoreNet field trial network is integrating knowledge of plant responses to the environment with their effects on recovery of ecosystem services, allowing us to scale-up understanding of seed and native plant performance to restoration treatments. Conducting experiments at this intermediate scale provides a low-risk, high-reward setting for land managers to evaluate different seed sources and restoration treatments across a broad range of environmental conditions. We are developing a network of field trial experiments across the Colorado Plateau, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave Deserts. RestoreNet is providing novel insights into potential modifications or additions to priority species lists for restoration based on anticipated changes in climate, the performance of different seed resources and restoration treatments across environmental conditions, and how the interactive effects of site conditions and species composition influence ecosystem services. RestoreNet is fulfilling dual-purpose research and management support goals, allowing both advances in restoration science and demonstrations for land managers to see on-the-ground variation in seeding success, restoration treatments, and resultant ecosystem services. Easily accessible demonstration sites are critical for buy-in from land managers and practitioners who may be wary of modifying or adopting new practices without clear proof of concept.
The Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) is providing coordination for network development and synthesis among collaborators, as well as organizing field trips and outreach activities to facilitate the transition from research to application.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Restoration and Ecosystem Recovery Dynamics in Arid and Semiarid Landscapes
New Approaches for Restoring Colorado Plateau Grasslands
RAMPS: Restoration Assessment & Monitoring Program for the Southwest
RestoreNet serves as a laboratory for researchers across the Southwest. Contact us if you are a researcher interested in using RestoreNet for your ecological inquiries.
Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwestern US restoration sites
Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwestern US restoration sites
Protocol for installing and monitoring a RestoreNet restoration field trial network site
Directional selection shifts trait distributions of planted species in dryland restoration
Does restoration of plant diversity trigger concomitant soil microbiome changes in dryland ecosystems?
Does restoration of plant diversity trigger concomitant soil microbiome changes in dryland ecosystems?
Ontogenetic trait shifts: Seedlings display high trait variability during early stages of development
RestoreNet: An emerging restoration network reveals controls on seeding success across dryland ecosystems
Updates on RestoreNet.
RESEARCH BRIEF: Lessons from five years of RestoreNet
RestoreNet is a networked ecological restoration experiment spanning drylands of the American Southwest to inform land management. Since 2017, we have investigated how different site preparation, seed mixes, soil modifications, and other treatments affect seeding and restoration success across environmental gradients. This article explores what we've learned over the past five years of RestoreNet.
RestoreNet is a network of many agencies, people and organizations advancing dryland restoration in the Southwestern U.S.
- Overview
Starting in 2017, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers and land managers are co-producing a network of restoration field trial sites on Department of Interior (DOI) and surrounding lands in the southwestern U.S. The network systematically tests restoration treatments across a broad range of landscape, soil, and climate conditions. Each site in the network is used to test suitable seed mixes and treatments that promote plant establishment and growth.
The treatments include ground modifications (e.g. soil amendments, physical alterations, mulching), seeding vs. outplanting seedlings from a greenhouse, timing of planting, herbicide treatments to suppress invasive species, and others.
Participation in RestoreNet contributes to a growing body of knowledge on cutting edge ecological restoration methods for use in the southwestern United States to benefit land managers, landowners, and restoration practitioners.
RestoreNet is a networked ecological experiment on the cutting-edge of restoration science. Restoration is the activity of improving the land based on any number of objectives, and often includes seeding or outplanting to improve habitat and soil conditions. Restoration in the arid southwest is challenging due to limited precipitation, wind, difficult soils, and herbivory to name a few. Understanding how simple tools used by land managers can act to increase germination and persistence of plants is important to reduce costs of treatments and reduce environmental hazards posed by degraded landscapes. Find out more about how RAMPS (Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest) supports land managers in the iconic landscapes of the American Southwest.
RestoreNet is a networked ecological restoration experiment spanning drylands of the American Southwest. It is engaging diverse partners to develop methods for successful revegetation projects that mitigate the effects of drought, invasion by non-native species, and land use practices. RestoreNet Benefits Land Managers:
- Knowledge Co-production: Ecologists and land managers work together to decide which treatments to test, interpret results, and explore new ideas.
- Demonstration Sites: Locations are used to show clear proof of concept and generate important conversations about ecosystem restoration.
- Low-Risk: Small test plots reduce cost and build understanding that later supports larger-scale projects.
RestoreNet Improves Restoration Outcomes:
- Improving seed mixes: providing insight on priority species for restoration based on the relative performances of species in different environmental conditions.
- Advancing the science of dryland ecology and restoration.
- Demonstrating alternative restoration actions.
- Defining how restoration feeds into ecosystem function
Adaptively Managing an Experiment
RestoreNet Version 1.0
RestoreNet works with partners to develop and test treatment to improve restoration effectiveness. In 2017, we installed mulch, pit, and ConMod treatments (see photo below).
Experimental Design and Monitoring (See figure below)
SPECIES: The experiment tests native grass, forb, and shrub species found within the garden’s ecoregion. There are two seed mixes, one adapted to hot/dry (red boxes) and one to cool/wet (blue boxes) conditions.
SEEDED PLOTS (top four rows): Seeds are broadcast with treatments to increase soil moisture (see green box on front of flyer).
OUTPLANTING (rows 5-8): Seedlings are planted from the greenhouse using the same species combinations above. There are single species (green boxes) and multiple species plots (multi-colored boxes). Black boxes show control plots.
LOCAL QUESTIONS (boxes with ‘?’): Each garden contains space for land managers to rigorously test locally-relevant restoration questions.
FUTURE EXPERIMENTS (bottom): Each garden contains space for future iterations of experiments that test restoration techniques on a small scale.
MONITORING: tracks plant establishment, growth, and survival, and effects on ecosystem properties (soil stability, nutrient availability, etc.).RestoreNet Version 2.0
Newly installed RestoreNet 2.0 treatments of seedball innoculated with healthy soil along with a pit. In 2022, we piloted a second round of treatments. The focus of these treatments is to understand if restoration outcomes can be enhanced by increasing beneficial soil microbial communities in degraded soils. For the experiment, we gathered soil at reference sites near seven of the RestoreNet experiment locations in undisturbed, intact plant communities. After gathering the soil, we enhanced the amount of beneficial soil microbes in the greenhouse before applying the soil at the RestoreNet locations and using it to form seed balls, which also contained seed and clay. The new treatments test these treatments, along with pitting (small depressions in the ground that capture soil moisture) that worked the best in RestoreNet Version 1.0. We are using a new seed mix that is a collection of the best performing species from the RestoreNet Version 1.0. Seven out of the 24 RestoreNet sites already received this new treatment, and six more sites will receive the treatment late this fall.
Benefits of a Networked Experiment
RestoreNet plots in full bloom. The RestoreNet field trial network is integrating knowledge of plant responses to the environment with their effects on recovery of ecosystem services, allowing us to scale-up understanding of seed and native plant performance to restoration treatments. Conducting experiments at this intermediate scale provides a low-risk, high-reward setting for land managers to evaluate different seed sources and restoration treatments across a broad range of environmental conditions. We are developing a network of field trial experiments across the Colorado Plateau, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave Deserts. RestoreNet is providing novel insights into potential modifications or additions to priority species lists for restoration based on anticipated changes in climate, the performance of different seed resources and restoration treatments across environmental conditions, and how the interactive effects of site conditions and species composition influence ecosystem services. RestoreNet is fulfilling dual-purpose research and management support goals, allowing both advances in restoration science and demonstrations for land managers to see on-the-ground variation in seeding success, restoration treatments, and resultant ecosystem services. Easily accessible demonstration sites are critical for buy-in from land managers and practitioners who may be wary of modifying or adopting new practices without clear proof of concept.
The Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) is providing coordination for network development and synthesis among collaborators, as well as organizing field trips and outreach activities to facilitate the transition from research to application.
The USGS RAMPS program's RestoreNet experiment works to strengthen land treatment, restoration, and reclamation activity across the Southwestern Deserts. Here, UGSS scientists and Northern Arizona University students install a garden on the Colorado Plateau in Arizona. The RestoreNet project is an example of co-produced science, where land managers and scientists work together to design the experiment, interpret results, and create science delivery products that are useful for land managers working to improve the condition of the land. - Science
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Restoration and Ecosystem Recovery Dynamics in Arid and Semiarid Landscapes
Dryland regions have been degraded by invasive species, wildfire, overgrazing, agricultural conversion, energy development, recreational activity, and urban growth. These disturbances and others are accelerated by one of the fastest growing human populations in the country and a pressing background of decreasing water availability due to drought and elevated temperatures that are projected to...New Approaches for Restoring Colorado Plateau Grasslands
Historic over-grazing of arid grasslands in the Intermountain West has led to widespread soil erosion, loss of plant diversity, and invasion by exotic species. Degraded grassland conditions can be very persistent, even after livestock use has ceased. For example, in national parks on the Colorado Plateau, livestock have been excluded for decades, but soil and native plants have not recovered on...RAMPS: Restoration Assessment & Monitoring Program for the Southwest
The Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) seeks to assist U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other land management agencies in developing successful techniques for improving land condition in dryland ecosystems of the southwestern United States. Invasion by non-native species, wildfire, drought, and other disturbances are growing rapidly in extent and... - Publications
RestoreNet serves as a laboratory for researchers across the Southwest. Contact us if you are a researcher interested in using RestoreNet for your ecological inquiries.
Soil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwestern US restoration sites
Restoration in dryland ecosystems often has poor success due to low and variable water availability, degraded soil conditions, and slow plant community recovery rates. Restoration treatments can mitigate these constraints but, because treatments and subsequent monitoring are typically limited in space and time, our understanding of their applicability across broader environmental gradients remainsAuthorsHannah Lucia Farrell, Seth M. Munson, Bradley J. Butterfield, Michael C. Duniway, Aksasha M Faist, Elise S Gornish, Caroline Havrilla, Loralee Larios, Sasha C. Reed, Helen I Rowe, Katherine M. Laushman, Molly L. McCormickSoil surface treatments and precipitation timing determine seedling development across southwestern US restoration sites
Restoration in dryland ecosystems often has poor success due to low and variable water availability, degraded soil conditions, and slow plant community recovery rates. Restoration treatments can mitigate these constraints but, because treatments and subsequent monitoring are typically limited in space and time, our understanding of their applicability across broader environmental gradients remainsAuthorsHannah Lucia Farrell, Seth M. Munson, Bradley J. Butterfield, Michael C. Duniway, Aksasha M Faist, Elise S Gornish, Caroline Havrilla, Loralee Larios, Sasha C. Reed, Helen I Rowe, Katherine M. Laushman, Molly L. McCormickProtocol for installing and monitoring a RestoreNet restoration field trial network site
RestoreNet is an ecological restoration experiment that is networked across multiple sites, spanning dryland ecosystems in the southwestern United States. The experiment is organized and led by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS). This protocol functions to provide guidance to additional partners on how to set up a RestoreNet site anAuthorsKatherine M. Laushman, Molly L. McCormick, Seth M. Munson, Kathleen R. Balazs, Bradley J. ButterfieldDirectional selection shifts trait distributions of planted species in dryland restoration
The match between species trait values and local abiotic filters can restrict community membership. An often-implicit assumption of this relationship is that abiotic filters select for a single locally optimal strategy, though difficulty in isolating effects of the abiotic environment from those of dispersal limitation and biotic interactions has resulted in few empirical tests of this assumption.AuthorsKathleen R. Balazs, Seth M. Munson, Caroline Ann Havrilla, Bradley J. ButterfieldDoes restoration of plant diversity trigger concomitant soil microbiome changes in dryland ecosystems?
Drylands are highly vulnerable to land degradation, and despite increasing efforts, restoration success remains low. Although often ignored in the design and deployment of management strategies, soil microbial communities might be critical for dryland restoration due to their central role in promoting soil stability, nutrient cycling and plant establishment.We collected soil samples from eight dryAuthorsBen Yang, Kathleen R. Balazs, Bradley J. Butterfield, Katherine M. Laushman, Seth M. Munson, Elise S. Gornish, Albert BarberánDoes restoration of plant diversity trigger concomitant soil microbiome changes in dryland ecosystems?
Drylands are highly vulnerable to land degradation, and despite increasing efforts, restoration success remains low. Although often ignored in the design and deployment of management strategies, soil microbial communities might be critical for dryland restoration due to their central role in promoting soil stability, nutrient cycling and plant establishment.We collected soil samples from eight dryAuthorsBen Yang, Kathleen R. Balazs, Bradley J. Butterfield, Katherine M. Laushman, Seth M. Munson, Elise S. Gornish, Albert BarberánOntogenetic trait shifts: Seedlings display high trait variability during early stages of development
Characterizing variation in plant functional traits is often key to understanding community-level processes and predicting ecosystem responses to environmental change. Trait-based ecology has focused on interspecific trait variation, but sources and consequences of within-species ontogenetic trait variation, particularly during early stages of development, remain understudied.Using a manipulativeAuthorsCaroline Ann Havrilla, Seth M. Munson, Charles Yackulic, Bradley J. ButterfieldRestoreNet: An emerging restoration network reveals controls on seeding success across dryland ecosystems
Drylands are Earth's largest terrestrial biome and support one‐third of the global population. However, they are also highly vulnerable to land degradation. Despite widespread demand for dryland restoration and rehabilitation, little information is available to help land managers effectively re‐establish native perennial vegetation across drylands.RestoreNet is an emerging dryland restoration netwAuthorsCaroline Ann Havrilla, Seth M. Munson, Molly L. McCormick, Katherine M. Laushman, Kathleen R. Balazs, Bradley J. Butterfield - News
Updates on RestoreNet.
RESEARCH BRIEF: Lessons from five years of RestoreNet
RestoreNet is a networked ecological restoration experiment spanning drylands of the American Southwest to inform land management. Since 2017, we have investigated how different site preparation, seed mixes, soil modifications, and other treatments affect seeding and restoration success across environmental gradients. This article explores what we've learned over the past five years of RestoreNet.
- Partners
RestoreNet is a network of many agencies, people and organizations advancing dryland restoration in the Southwestern U.S.
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