PMC

Agricultural/plantation land-use legacies and restoration influenced 45 ecological properties in longleaf pine savannas. (A) The four experimental treatments include plots without (−) and with (+) restoration and plots without (−) and with (+) agricultural/plantation history. The colored bars show four comparisons made among treatments, which correspond to matching colored points in the graph on the right. (B) The effects of restoration (Restoration − Ag. history, Restoration + Ag. history; blue and green points) were roughly twice the magnitude of land-use legacy effects (Ag. history − Restoration; orange point). There was no evidence that agricultural/plantation history alters the outcome of restoration (no difference between Restoration − Ag. history and Restoration + Ag. history; blue versus green points) nor that restoration ameliorated legacy effects present in unrestored plots (no difference between Ag. history − Restoration and Ag. history + Restoration; red versus orange points). We consider Hedges’ g values of 0.2 small-, 0.5 medium-, and above 0.8 large-magnitude effects.

Effects of land-use legacies and restoration on four major categories of ecological properties within longleaf pine savannas: abiotic conditions, abundance of organisms, diversity of species, and species interactions (n refers to the number of properties measured within each category). The colors of the points correspond with the contrasts illustrated in . The majority of categories were influenced by agricultural/plantation legacies and restoration, with effects typically of greater magnitude for restoration (Restoration − Ag. history, Restoration + Ag. history; blue and green points) than for agricultural/plantation legacies (Ag. history − Restoration; orange points). There was little evidence that agricultural/plantation history alters the outcome of restoration (no difference between Restoration − Ag. history and Restoration + Ag. history; blue versus green points) nor that restoration ameliorated legacy effects present in unrestored plots (no difference between Ag. history − Restoration and Ag. history + Restoration; red versus orange points). We consider Hedges’ g values of 0.2 small-, 0.5 medium-, and above 0.8 large-magnitude effects.

(A) Transect T1, located in Zone I where the restoration actions began in 2010 and ended in 2012 (this time-lapse considered as during the restoration actions); the years 2013–2014 were considered as after the restoration. (B) Transect T2 located in zone II: 2012 during restoration and 2013–2014 after restoration. The continuous and discontinuous lines represent the median values of the porewater salinity during and after the restoration actions, respectively. The boxes show the inter-quartile range, the thick black lines within the boxes are the medians, the cross represents the average, and the whiskers are the minimum and maximum values.

(a) restoration results using method [], and (b) restoration results using method [].