Enhancing resilience in formerly degraded ecosystems is an important goal of restoration ecology. However, evidence for the recovery of resilience and its underlying mechanisms require long‐term experiments and comparison with reference ecosystems. We used data from an experimental prairie restoration that featured long‐term soil heterogeneity manipulations and data from two long‐term experiments located in a comparable remnant (reference) prairie to (1) quantify the recovery of ecosystem functioning (i.e., productivity) relative to remnant prairie, (2) compare the resilience of restored and remnant prairies to a natural drought, and (3) test whether soil heterogeneity enhances resilience of restored prairie. We compared sensitivity and legacy effects between prairie types (remnant and restored) and among four prairie sites that included two remnant prairie sites and prairie restored under homogeneous and heterogeneous soil conditions. We measured sensitivity and resilience as the proportional change in aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) during and following drought (sensitivity and legacy effects, respectively) relative to average ANPP based on 4 pre‐drought years (2014–2017). In nondrought years, total ANPP was similar between remnant and restored prairie, but remnant prairie had higher grass productivity and lower forb productivity compared with restored prairie. These ANPP patterns generally persisted during drought. The sensitivity of total ANPP to drought was similar between restored and remnant prairie, but grasses in the restored prairie were more sensitive to drought. Post‐drought legacy effects were more positive in the restored prairie, and we attributed this to the more positive and less variable legacy response of forb ANPP in the restored prairie, especially in the heterogeneous soil treatment. Our results suggest that productivity recovers in restored prairie and exhibits similar sensitivity to drought as in remnant prairie. Furthermore, creating heterogeneity promotes forb productivity and enhances restored prairie resilience to drought.

中文翻译：

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异质性促进恢复草原的恢复力：环境异质性假说的含义


增强先前退化的生态系统的恢复能力是恢复生态学的一个重要目标。然而，复原力恢复及其潜在机制的证据需要长期实验并与参考生态系统进行比较。我们使用了来自一项以长期土壤异质性操作为特征的实验性草原恢复的数据，以及来自位于可比较的残余（参考）草原的两个长期实验的数据，以（1）量化生态系统功能（即生产力）的恢复相对于残余草原，（2）比较恢复草原和残余草原对自然干旱的恢复能力，（3）测试土壤异质性是否增强恢复草原的恢复能力。我们比较了草原类型（残余和恢复）之间以及四个草原地点（包括两个残余草原地点和同质和异质土壤条件下恢复的草原）之间的敏感性和遗留影响。我们测量了敏感性和恢复力，即干旱期间和之后地上净初级生产力（ANPP）相对于干旱前 4 年（2014-2017 年）平均 ANPP 的比例变化（分别是敏感性和遗留效应）。非干旱年份，剩余草原与恢复草原的总ANPP相似，但与恢复草原相比，剩余草原草生产力较高，杂草生产力较低。这些 ANPP 模式在干旱期间通常持续存在。恢复草原和残存草原总ANPP对干旱的敏感性相似，但恢复草原的草类对干旱更敏感。 干旱后的遗留效应在恢复后的草原上更为积极，我们将其归因于恢复后的草原上杂草ANPP的更为积极且变化较小的遗留效应，特别是在异质土壤处理中。我们的结果表明，恢复后的草原生产力有所恢复，并且对干旱的敏感性与剩余草原相似。此外，创造异质性可以提高森林生产力并增强草原对干旱的恢复能力。