Evaluating the success of functional restoration after reintroduction of a lost avian pollinator.

We found that objectives for hihi recovery and site biodiversity were achieved at each hihi+ site (i.e., a hihi population was reestablished), but this did not improve pollination function for our focal plant species, hangehange. Keywords: mutualismos; polinización realizada por animales; polinizador; recuperación del ecosistema; restauración ecológica; retorno a la vida silvestre; reubicación para la conservación; animal-mediated pollination; conservation translocation; ecological restoration; ecosystem recovery; mutualisms; plant-pollinator interactions; rewilding EN mutualismos polinización realizada por animales polinizador recuperación del ecosistema restauración ecológica retorno a la vida silvestre reubicación para la conservación animal-mediated pollination conservation translocation ecological restoration ecosystem recovery mutualisms plant-pollinator interactions rewilding 1 11 11 08/01/22 20220801 NES 220801 INTRODUCTION The decline of one species can have cascading effects on many others by disrupting important ecological functions (e.g., Brodie et al., 2014; Kelly et al., 2010; Soulé et al., 2003). Thus, uncertainty remains about the species' role (How much do hihi contribute to pollination relative to other species?), ecological need (How significantly is pollination reduced at sites without hihi?), and reintroduction effectiveness (How successfully do hihi reintroductions restore pollination function?). Flowers set a greater proportion of filled seeds when they received bird pollination (open access > bird exclusion), but birds improved filled seed set equally at hihi+ sites and hihi- sites (condition*hihi: SP 2 sp = 0.03, df = 1, I p i = 0.87) (Table 1 & Figure 3a). [Extracted from the article]