What to expect from restored Cerrado grasslands? Indicators and reference values from pristine ecosystems

• DOI: 10.1111/rec.70010
• Publication Date: 2025-02-21T02:48:31Z
• Authors: Bruna H. Campos; Natashi Pilon; Giselda Durigan

Open ecosystems are disappearing worldwide, requiring urgent restoration efforts. However, limited knowledge of their structure and composition hinders the assessment success. We aimed to establish reference values for plant community attributes in undisturbed native grasslands guide restoration. In an unprecedented data collection, we sampled 14 remnants under different climate, soil, fire regimes, representing a broad portion Brazilian savanna (except least converted northern). assessed composition, richness at scales, ground cover by functional groups, aboveground biomass. From 794 species recorded, half were unique occurrences, few present over 70% areas. Richness ranged from 9 22 species/m 2 53 130 30 m . Grasses (22–80%) non‐grasses (9–45%) did not entirely, leaving 4–56% exposed. Biomass 57 715 g/m Because is variable, finding “reference set” whole Cerrado possible. Regional subsets key guilds recommended instead. The number good proxy diversity, species/30 total richness. unreliable indicator due natural range independent integrity. maximum biomass, however, should never be surpassed. Structural targets include grasses, non‐grasses, bare soil within range, but achieving pristine may unrealistic most cases. Strong efforts focus on conservation rather than restoration, once recovering all reference's difficult.