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: 2) by Aiwendil on Friday September 22 2017, @07:06PM
If it occurs within 500million years - yes. That roughly is how long it will take for the tectonic plates to recycle, and up until then any following civilisation will find odd breaks in ore-veins, and quite a few places where the geology doesn't match the mineral abundance. And before that they will find progressivly more and more remains.
Beyond 500 million years - maybe stuff that we left on the moon and other low-atmospheric bodies.