Artificial perches promote vegetation restoration

Abstract

Native ecosystems are continuously being transformed mostly into agricultural lands. Simultaneously, a large proportion of fields are abandoned after some years of use. Without any intervention, altered landscapes usually show a slow reversion to native ecosystems, or to novel ecosystems. One of the main barriers to vegetation regeneration is poor propagule supply. Many restoration programs have already implemented the use of artificial perches in order to increase seed availability in open areas where bird dispersal is limited by the lack of trees. To evaluate the effectiveness of this practice, we performed a series of meta-analyses comparing the use of artificial perches versus control sites without perches. We found that setting-up artificial perches increases the abundance and richness of seeds that arrive in altered areas surrounding native ecosystems. Moreover, density of seedlings is also higher in open areas with artificial perches than in control sites without perches. Taken together, our results support the use of artificial perches to overcome the problem of poor seed availability in degraded fields, promoting and/or accelerating the restoration of vegetation in concordance with the surrounding landscape.