Indicators of success should be sensitive to compositional failures: Reply to Suganuma and Durigan

Abstract

Species composition is a fundamental attribute of restored ecosystems, but it was excluded from a recent set of indicators of restoration success recommended for the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Suganuma and Durigan (2015) write off species composition as "unpredictable," but their analysis did not account for key compositional predictors, like site history and restoration technique. The result is a framework for evaluating restoration success that is insensitive to common restoration failures-including poor ecosystem functioning and lack of resilience.