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The UN "Decade on ecosystem restoration" demands urgent actions to bring back native ecosystems from degraded lands. Tree seedlings are widely available for restoration plantings. However, the lack of other life forms available in commercial nurseries constraints grassy biomes restoration. The use of fertilizers is widely common to grow tree seedlings in nurseries and the current technology could be useful to grow native grasses in nurseries and turn the planting technique feasible to restore grassy biomes, such as the Cerrado in Brazil. In this study, we examined the growth and nutritional responses to nutrient availability of the native grass Schizachyrium sanguineum produced in nursery. We produced seedlings by germinated seeds of S. sanguineum on seedbeds containing sand and, after emergence, transferring the plants to 290‐cm3 plastic tubes containing commercial substrate (CS) added with 0, 1, 3, 5, or 7 g/L of controlled‐release fertilizer (CRF, NPK 15‐09‐12) and non‐fertilized native soil (NS). After 90 days, we found high seedling survival (>98%) in all trials. In spite of lower nutrient availability, the NS promoted higher seedling tillering and relative height and biomass growths than the non‐fertilized CS. However, in general, seedlings showed increased growth, and shoot P and K concentrations with an increase in CRF rates, up to approximately 5 g/L. In addition, higher CRF rates allowed faster grow of S. sanguineum seedlings. Ultimately, we found that S. sanguineum responds positively to fertilization, despite being native from nutrient‐poor soil of Cerrado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a major need for restoration of nonforest ecosystems in the Brazilian Cerrado, and planting seedlings is promising. However, there is no currently available information on nontree species production in nurseries. Grasses are dominant in the Cerrado herbaceous layer; therefore, we tested whether tree seedling production techniques can be used for two native grasses widely spread across the Cerrado ecoregion (Schizachyrium sanguineum and Loudetiopsis chrysothrix). We performed a factorial experiment with three levels: (1) seedbed substrate, (2) container volume, and (3) final substrate. Seeds were germinated in seedbeds with native soil or sand and, after emergence, transferred to 30, 55, or 290 cm3 containers filled with native soil, commercial substrate, or a mixture thereof. We evaluated seedling survival, height relative growth rate (RGR), tillering, and dry biomass. Survival rates after transfer from seedbeds to containers were greater than 80% for both species. Generally, species had greater height RGR, tillering, and biomass in the 290 cm3 containers than in the other containers, and the presence of native soil in the seedbeds, as well as in the containers, fostered seedling growth. However, the use of native soil is not recommended for large‐scale production, because its acquisition could degrade Cerrado areas. The commercial substrate improvement could be an alternative to increase seedling growth, since grasses survived well and presented greater growth in the largest container. Our study demonstrated that the techniques currently used in commercial nurseries for growing trees are suitable for both grasses, and substrates and container size drive seedling growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-diversity reforestation can help jumpstart tropical forest restoration, but obtaining viable seedlings is a major constraint: if nurseries do not offer them, it is hard to plant all the species one would like. From 2007 to 2009, we investigated five different seed acquisition strategies employed by a well-established tree nursery in southeastern Brazil, namely (1) in-house seed harvesters; (2) hiring a professional harvester; (3) amateur seed harvesters; or (4) a seed production cooperative, as well as (5) participating in a seed exchange program. In addition, we evaluated two strategies not dependent on seeds: harvesting seedlings from native tree species found regenerating under Eucalyptus plantations, and in a native forest remnant. A total of 344 native tree and shrub species were collected as seeds or seedlings, including 2,465 seed lots. Among these, a subset of 120 species was obtained through seed harvesting in each year. Overall, combining several strategies for obtaining planting stocks was an effective way to increase species richness, representation of some functional groups (dispersal syndromes, planting group, and shade tolerance), and genetic diversity of seedlings produced in forest tree nurseries. Such outcomes are greatly desirable to support high-diversity reforestation as part of tropical forest restoration. In addition, community-based seed harvesting strategies fostered greater socioeconomic integration of traditional communities in restoration projects and programs, which is an important bottleneck for the advance of ecological restoration, especially in developing countries. Finally, we discuss some of the limitations of the various strategies for obtaining planting stocks and the way forward for their improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen availability and N-cycling dynamics across ecosystems play a critical role in plant functioning and species distribution. Measurements of 15N natural abundance provides a way to assess ecosystem N dynamics, and the range of nitrogen stable isotope values (δ15N) for plants in an ecosystem can indicate divergent strategies for N uptake. We tested the hypotheses that the N-rich seasonally dry forest would have higher soil and leaf δ15N and a smaller range of leaf δ15N values compared to the N-poor cerradão (savanna woodland). We measured N concentration and δ15N in two soil depths and leaves of 27 woody species in cerradão and 26 in seasonally dry forest. As expected, total soil N concentration decreased while soil δ15N value increased with soil depth. Regardless of soil depth, seasonally dry forest soils had higher δ15N and total N concentration compared to cerradão soils. Foliar δ15N values varied from −6.4‰ to 5.9‰ in cerradão and from −2.3‰ to 8.4‰ in seasonally dry forest plants. Phylogenetically independent contrasts analysis and comparisons of δ15N mean values of the most abundant species and species co-occurring in both sites confirmed the hypothesis of higher δ15N for seasonally dry forest in comparison to cerradão. These results corroborate the expectation of higher soil and leaf δ15N values in sites with higher soil N availability. However, except for the most abundant species, no across-site leaf-soil (δ15N leaf -δ15N soil) differences (Δδ15N) were found suggesting that differences in leaf δ15N between cerradão and seasonally dry forest are driven by differences in soil δ15N. Variation of leaf δ15N was large in both sites and only slightly higher in cerradão, suggesting high diversity of N use strategies for both cerradão and seasonally dry forest communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Soil animal communities include more than 40 higher-order taxa, representing over 23% of all described species. These animals have a wide range of feeding sources and contribute to several important soil functions and ecosystem services. Although many studies have assessed macroinvertebrate communities in Brazil, few of them have been published in journals and even fewer have made the data openly available for consultation and further use. As part of ongoing efforts to synthesise the global soil macrofauna communities and to increase the amount of openly-accessible data in GBIF and other repositories related to soil biodiversity, the present paper provides links to 29 soil macroinvertebrate datasets covering 42 soil fauna taxa, collected in various land-use systems in Brazil. A total of 83,085 georeferenced occurrences of these taxa are presented, based on quantitative estimates performed using a standardised sampling method commonly adopted worldwide to collect soil macrofauna populations, i.e. the TSBF (Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme) protocol. This consists of digging soil monoliths of 25 x 25 cm area, with handsorting of the macroinvertebrates visible to the naked eye from the surface litter and from within the soil, typically in the upper 0-20 cm layer (but sometimes shallower, i.e. top 0-10 cm or deeper to 0-40 cm, depending on the site). The land-use systems included anthropogenic sites managed with agricultural systems (e.g. pastures, annual and perennial crops, agroforestry), as well as planted forests and native vegetation located mostly in the southern Brazilian State of Paraná (96 sites), with a few additional sites in the neighbouring states of São Paulo (21 sites) and Santa Catarina (five sites). Important metadata on soil properties, particularly soil chemical parameters (mainly pH, C, P, Ca, K, Mg, Al contents, exchangeable acidity, Cation Exchange Capacity, Base Saturation and, infrequently, total N), particle size distribution (mainly % sand, silt and clay) and, infrequently, soil moisture and bulk density, as well as on human management practices (land use and vegetation cover) are provided. These data will be particularly useful for those interested in estimating land-use change impacts on soil biodiversity and its implications for below-ground foodwebs, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem service delivery., New Information: Quantitative estimates are provided for 42 soil animal taxa, for two biodiversity hotspots: the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes. Data are provided at the individual monolith level, representing sampling events ranging from February 2001 up to September 2016 in 122 sampling sites and over 1800 samples, for a total of 83,085 ocurrences., (George G. Brown, Wilian C Demetrio, Quentin Gabriac, Amarildo Pasini, Vanesca Korasaki, Lenita J. Oliveira, Julio C.F. dos Santos, Eleno Torres, Paulo R. Galerani, Dionisio L. P. Gazziero, Norton P. Benito, Daiane H. Nunes, Alessandra Santos, Talita Ferreira, Herlon S. Nadolny, Marie L. C. Bartz, Wagner Maschio, Rafaela T. Dudas, Mauricio R. G. Zagatto, Cintia C. Niva, Lina A. Clasen, Klaus D. Sautter, Luis C.M. Froufe, Carlos Eduardo S. Seoane, Aníbal de Moraes, Samuel James, Odair Alberton, Osvaldino Brandão Júnior, Odilon Saraiva, Antonio Garcia, Elma Oliveira, Raul M. César, Beatriz S. Corrêa-Ferreira, Lilianne S. M. Bruz, Elodie da Silva, Gilherme B. X. Cardoso, Patrick Lavelle, Elena Velásquez, Marcus Cremonesi, Lucília M. Parron, Amilton J. Baggio, Edinelson Neves, Mariangela Hungria, Thiago A. Campos, Vagner L. da Silva, Carlos B. Reissmann, Ana C. Conrado, Jean-Pierre D. Bouillet, José L. M. Gonçalves, Carolina B. Brandani, Ricardo A. G. Viani, Ranieri R. Paula, Jean-Paul Laclau, Clara P Peña-Venegas, Carlos Peres, Thibaud Decaëns, Benjamin Pey, Nico Eisenhauer, Miguel Cooper, Jérôme Mathieu.)