Abstract
Large resources are invested in habitat restoration in Sweden each year, e.g. for grasslands. Surprisingly, strategies for directing restoration efforts underpinned by thorough ecological knowledge are largely lacking. Little is known about how efficient these restoration efforts actually are to enhance biodiversity and functioning. Landscape level restoration of habitat networks have, although discussed, not been developed and implemented. We will investigate how species community reassembly and reconstruction of ecosystem functioning following habitat restoration are linked to the structure of the surrounding landscape. We focus on plant and insect communities, and on pollination which is an important ecosystem function provided by the insects. We will compare the community reassembly patterns to our current information on the order of disassembly after habitat loss and fragmentation, and assess if the species traits that predict re-colonization success are the same that predict extinction risk. This project will contribute to our general understanding of colonization and extinction processes in fragmented and restored landscapes. In collaboration with key stakeholders (at e.g. regional boards and SJV) we will provide a knowledge base for designing restoration strategies at the landscape scale, an approach will become increasingly important for managing ecosystems that can buffer against multiple stressors such as land use conversion, invasive species and climate change.
Sweden