A Global Synthesis Reveals Gaps in Coastal Habitat Restoration Research

SMITH, CARTER; DALEO, PEDRO; ZHANG, Y.; SILLIMAN, BRIAN.; HEYWOOD, ELEANOR; CIOFFI, WILLIAM; HOYT, CARMEN; COPE, REBECCA

Sustainability

MDPI

Año: 2018 vol. 10 p. 1040 - 1040

Coastal ecosystems have drastically declined in coverage and condition across the globe.To combat these losses, marine conservation has recently employed habitat restoration as a strategyto enhance depleted coastal ecosystems. For restoration to be a successful enterprise, however, it isnecessary to identify and address potential knowledge gaps and review whether the field has trackedscientific advances regarding best practices. This enables managers, researchers, and practitionersalike to more readily establish restoration priorities and goals. We synthesized the peer-reviewed,published literature on habitat restoration research in salt marshes, oyster reefs, and seagrasses toaddress three questions related to restoration efforts: (i) How frequent is cross-sector authorship incoastal restoration research? (ii) What is the geographic distribution of coastal restoration research?and (iii) Are abiotic and biotic factors equally emphasized in the literature, and how does thisvary with time? Our vote-count survey indicated that one-third of the journal-published studieslisted authors from at least two sectors, and 6% listed authors from all three sectors. Across allhabitat types, there was a dearth of studies from Africa, Asia, and South America. Finally, despitemany experimental studies demonstrating that species interactions can greatly affect the recovery andpersistence of coastal foundation species, only one-fourth of the studies we examined discussed theireffects on restoration. Combined, our results reveal gaps and discrepancies in restoration researchthat should be addressed in order to further propel coastal restoration science.