Assessing rainforest restoration: the value of buffer strips for the recovery of rainforest remnants in Australia?s Wet Tropics

摘要: Throughout the tropics, forest remnants are under increasing pressure from habitat fragmentation and edge effects. To improve conservation value of remnants, restoration plantings used to accelerate redirect ecological succession. Unfortunately, many projects undergo little no evaluation in achieving project goals. Here we evaluate success one common technique, “buffer strip planting,” at Malanda Scrub North Queensland, Australia. Buffer strips reduce impacts associated with effects overall quality. project, compared microclimate, understorey community structure functional trait-state diversity (functional diversity) for a range plant traits along original edge, reference interior reserve. We found buffer restored conditions majority measured features. Edge were not more than 5 m any penetrated even shorter distances edge. The appeared have similar microclimate (here represented by soil temperature) physical structure; however, it did (after 14 years) closely resemble floristically nor same traits. Results suggest that was successful reducing but restoring within years.