Tree species that ‘live slow, die older’ enhance tropical peat swamp restoration: Evidence from a systematic review

Background

Highly degraded forests often require active reforestation, which presents additional challenges with species selection for tree plantings. In tropical peat swamp forests, where harsh environmental conditions threaten seedling survival, various seedling and site treatments can enhance seedling survival and growth in restoration projects.

Goals and Methods

Several challenges are associated with synthesizing data from past tropical restoration projects and their seedling monitoring records, underscoring the need for a systematic review of past restoration projects to inform future endeavors. This research consisted of surveying different restoration reports, extracting survival and growth data from relevant articles, and analyzing the data through different models.

Conclusions and Takeaways

This review reveals that slower growing tree species last longer when planted to reforest tropical peat swamps. Major challenges for species selection and seeding include the inconsistent effects of treatments on survival and growth, the underutilization of native peat swamp species, and difficulties with selecting species due to survival and growth variation between species and studies. Screening for functional traits of the longer living and slower growing tree species can help to predict species survival in restoration projects and sites. The authors recommend that restoration practitioners prioritize post-planting monitoring and long-term monitoring of tropical peat swamp forest restoration projects to help supplement future species selection and survival.