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from the heard-good-things-about-oxygen dept.
To find out what works best for reestablishing tropical dry forests, the researchers planted seedlings of 32 native tree species in degraded soil or degraded soil amended with sand, rice hulls, rice hull ash or hydrogel (an artificial water-holding material). After two years, they found that tree species known for traits that make them drought tolerant, such as enhanced ability to use water and capture sunlight, survived better than other species. Some of the soil amendments helped get seedlings off to a good start, but by the end of the experiment there was no difference in survival with respect to soil condition.
"This study is important for a number of reasons," Powers said. "First, it demonstrates that it is possible to grow trees on extremely degraded soils, which provides hope that we can indeed restore tropical dry forests. Second, it provides a general approach to screen native tree species for restoration trails based on their functional traits, which can be applied widely across the tropics.
Is 'ecosystem restoration' the job growth area of the future?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @12:51PM (1 child)
FTFS "Some of the soil amendments helped get seedlings off to a good start, but by the end of the experiment there was no difference in survival with respect to soil condition."
So either they discovered that drought resistant species do better in drought conditions or adding soil amendments helped but there was no difference in result of the various different ones they tried.
I haven't read the paper but one of these results is useful the other is capt. obvious thanks for your usual clear and concise prose phys org
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 22 2017, @03:12PM
I think what TFS is saying is: soil amendments help if you only look at short term survival. Once you get out to 5 years (or whatever the term of the study was) the soil amendments no longer provide any differentiation.
In other words: in the long run the soil amendments tested did nothing - even though you could see short term benefits.
I suspect that continuing care might have made a long term difference, but they didn't test that, they tested one-shot soil amendments at the time of planting.
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