BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC

oai:digital.csic.es:10261/266214

One advantageous strategy for the restoration of human-disturbed landscapes is the use of ecologically “important” species such as nurse plants. We propose a field-based approach to measure the functional importance of nurse species (i.e. their relative facilitative effects on other plant species) and to identify which species will yield more efficient revegetation programs regarding their abundance. We identified 30 nurse-beneficiary spatial associations, with the functional importance varying largely among four nurse species and three human-disturbed areas. A Mediterranean endemic palm was the most important nurse species, thus showing its potential key role in revegetation programs by promoting spatial associations with late-successional plant species. We encourage restorers to use nurse species with a disproportionate (regarding their relative abundance) impact on ecosystems to save additional resources., This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, P.J.G. (SFRH/BD/130527/2017), A.R.C.(SFRH/BPD/115781/2016), and by a grant of the Spanish Min-istry of Education and Science (PGC2018-094808-B-I00) toJ.M.F.