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Practical applications of soil microbiota to improve ecosystem restoration: current knowledge and future directions
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Practical applications of soil microbiota to improve ecosystem restoration: current knowledge and future directions

Shawn D. Peddle, Riley J. Hodgson, Ryan J. Borrett, Stella Brachmann, Tarryn C. Davies, Todd E. Erickson, Craig Liddicoat, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Jake M. Robinson, Carl D. Watson, …
Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol.100(1), pp.1-18
2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13124
pdf
Published2.11 MBDownloadView
CC BY V4.0,  Open Access

Abstract

Soil microbiota are important components of healthy ecosystems. Greater consideration of soil microbiota in the restoration of biodiverse, functional, and resilient ecosystems is required to address the twin global crises of biodiversity decline and climate change. In this review, we discuss available and emerging practical applications of soil microbiota into ( i ) restoration planning, ( ii ) direct interventions for shaping soil biodiversity, and ( iii ) strategies for monitoring and predicting restoration trajectories. We show how better planning of restoration activities to account for soil microbiota can help improve progress towards restoration targets. We show how planning to embed soil microbiota experiments into restoration projects will permit a more rigorous assessment of the effectiveness of different restoration methods, especially when complemented by statistical modelling approaches that capitalise on existing data sets to improve causal understandings and prioritise research strategies where appropriate. In addition to recovering belowground microbiota, restoration strategies that include soil microbiota can improve the resilience of whole ecosystems. Fundamentally, restoration planning should identify appropriate reference target ecosystem attributes and – from the perspective of soil microbiota – comprehensibly consider potential physical, chemical and biological influences on recovery. We identify that inoculating ecologically appropriate soil microbiota into degraded environments can support a range of restoration interventions (e.g. targeted, broad‐spectrum and cultured inoculations) with promising results. Such inoculations however are currently underutilised and knowledge gaps persist surrounding successful establishment in light of community dynamics, including priority effects and community coalescence. We show how the ecological trajectories of restoration sites can be assessed by characterising microbial diversity, composition, and functions in the soil. Ultimately, we highlight practical ways to apply the soil microbiota toolbox across the planning, intervention, and monitoring stages of ecosystem restoration and address persistent open questions at each stage. With continued collaborations between researchers and practitioners to address knowledge gaps, these approaches can improve current restoration practices and ecological outcomes.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#14 Life Below Water
#15 Life on Land

Source: InCites

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26 Times Cited - Web of Science

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.40 Forestry
3.40.86 Plant Communities
Web Of Science research areas
Biology
ESI research areas
Biology & Biochemistry
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