Todd E. Erickson

University of Western Australia | UWA · School of Plant Biology

Invasive plant species create barriers to native species’ re‐establishment after land degradation. Post‐emergent herbicides are preferred (over pre‐emergent) for use in restoration as they are not expected to affect native seeds. However, recent studies found that post‐emergent herbicides can persist in soils and reduce native species’ seed germina...

Ecological restoration of rangelands using wild-collected seeds can be challenging due to low seed quality , inconvenient seed anatomy, and poor plant establishment. In North America, the half-shrub winter-fat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) is a valuable protein-rich forage for wildlife and livestock. Seeds of this species are contained in one-seeded f...

Flash flaming has shown promise as a seed enhancement technology that improves the handling properties of bulky or irregularly shaped seed material, which in turn benefits logistical and ecological aspects of large-scale direct seeding. To date, only a small number of grass species, that possess similar morphological characteristics, have been test...

Seed‐based ecosystem restoration has huge potential to restore degraded drylands. However, fewer than 10% of directly sown seeds transition to established seedlings. One of the potential factors restricting plant establishment in degraded soils is the low abundance and diversity of native soil micro‐organisms. In this study, we investigated whether...

Extruded pellets containing activated carbon (AC) can be used to sow native seeds whilst simultaneously applying herbicide to control invasive species. Incorporating AC in pellets has been demonstrated to protect native seeds, however; there may be unintended detrimental impacts to seedling emergence. We aimed to optimise seed position within pelle...

Supplementary table to Dalziell et al (2022) Seed traits inform the germination niche for biodiverse ecological restoration. Contains list of species and data sources used in analysis.

Seeds are a primary source for generating plants for large-scale restoration and understanding the requirements for seed germination and establishment is fundamental to ecological restoration. Seed germination traits are central to defining the germination niche and identifying traits that may limit seedling establishment provides insights into how...

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...

Environmentally cued germination may play an important role in promoting coexistence in Mediterranean annual plant systems if it causes niche differentiation across heterogeneous microsite conditions. In this study, we tested how microsite conditions experienced by seeds in the field and light conditions in the laboratory influenced germination in...

Abstract The Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to provide the means and incentives for upscaling restoration efforts worldwide. Although ecosystem restoration is a broad, interdisciplinary concept, effective ecological restoration requires sound ecological knowledge to successfully restore biodiversity and ecosystem services in degraded landscap...

Context: Vegetation patterns in hummock grasslands of Australia's arid interior can be very complex. Additionally, the grasslands are interspersed with variable amounts of trees and shrubs. Objectives: To better understand the spatial arrangement of this vegetation structure, and in particular the unvegetated bare-soil gaps, we analyzed the scale-...

This guideline offers an introduction to the use of seed enhancement technologies (SETs), a group of seed pre-treatments being increasingly developed for improving the use of native seeds in restoration (Copeland et al. 2021; Madsen et al. 2016a). SETs are a natural extension to the application of treatments to manage seed dormancy, yet aim to furt...

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but wit...

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration will result in an unprecedented need for seeds. Agricultural production, or the growing of plants under controlled conditions to produce desired resources, can be a helpful tool for providing the quantities of seeds needed for large‐scale restoration. In some ecosystems, agricultural production of native plant...

A full list of affiliations appears at the end of the paper. R estoration ecology is rapidly advancing in response to the ever-expanding global decline in ecosystem integrity and its associated socioeconomic repercussions 1-4. Nowhere are these dynamics more evident than in drylands, which help sustain 39% of the world's human population 5 but rema...

Rehabilitation of mine sites in semi-arid landscapes is hindered by poor quality mine waste substrates, a byproduct of mining used as alternative growth media. Inorganic soil amendments, such as gypsum and urea, are sometimes used to improve the chemical and physical quality of mine waste substrates and increase native plant establishment. However,...

Seed-based restoration often experiences poor success due to a range of edaphic and biotic issues. Seed enhancement technologies (SETs) are a novel approach that can alleviate these pressures and improve restoration success. Broadly, SETs have been reviewed for agricultural and horticultural purposes, for specific types of SETs such as coating or p...

Many Australian mammals eat seeds. This may influence seed survival, germination or dispersal and have implications for ecosystem health and environmental restoration; however, seed consumption and dispersal by Australian mammals has been little studied. We measured the duration and effect of digestion by two seed-eating digging mammals, quenda and...

Context. Mammal–seed interactions are important for structuring vegetation communities across a diverse range of ecosystems worldwide. In Australia, mammals are typically considered to be seed predators and to play insignificant roles in seed dispersal. However, very few studies have investigated endozoochorous seed dispersal in Australian species....

Recruitment for many arid‐zone plant species is expected to be impacted by the projected increase in soil temperature and prolonged droughts associated with global climate change. As seed dormancy is considered a strategy to avoid unfavorable conditions, understanding the mechanisms underpinning vulnerability to these factors is critical for plant...

Mammal-seed interactions are important for structuring vegetation communities across a diverse range of ecosystems worldwide. Many Australian mammals consume seeds, but their role in seed dispersal has not been well explored. The translocation of Australian mammals for the purposes of ecosystem restoration is increasing. Digging mammals, i.e. speci...

Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...

Current methods of mine rehabilitation in the arid zone have a high failure rate at seedling emergence largely due to limited availability of topsoil and low water-holding capacity of alternative growth substrates such as mining overburden and tailings. Further, seedlings have consistently failed to emerge from seeds sown on the soil surface using...

The demand for native grasses is increasing in restoration and agriculture, though their use is often limited due to seed handling challenges. The external structures surrounding the grass seed (i.e., the floret) possess hairs, awns, and appendages which create blockages in conventional seeding equipment. Flash flaming is a patented technology whic...

We posit that a better meshing of traditional engineering disciplines and ecological restoration science is central to achieving environmental repair at the scale and pace required to combat globally ever-growing, human caused, land degradation and biodiversity loss. Ecological restoration is an increasingly vibrant endeavour supported by diverse f...

Endozoochory, the dispersal of seeds via ingestion by a vertebrate animal, is an advantageous mechanism for many plants. Seeds may be dispersed at a greater distance from the parent plant, reducing competition for resources and predation rates. Gut passage can break seed dormancy and the deposition of seeds in faeces may provide moisture and nutrie...

Many Australian mammals consume seeds, but their role in seed dispersal has not been well explored. Here, we investigated the mean retention time and the post-consumption germination capacity of Australian seeds (Acacia acuminata, Dodonaea viscosa and Gastrolobium calycinum) likely to be consumed by quenda (Isoodon fusciventer) and woylies (Bettong...

1. Globally, soil water repellency is a major constraint to plant establishment, restricting water infiltration and moisture retention in the seed zone which results in poor germination and seedling emergence. 2. To address this problem within an ecosystem restoration context, we investigated the use of a surfactant in extruded seed pellets to impr...

1. So‐called fairy circles (FCs) comprise a spatially periodic gap pattern in arid grasslands of Namibia and north‐west Western Australia. This pattern has been explained with scale‐dependent ecohydrological feedbacks and the reaction‐diffusion, or Turing mechanism, used in process‐based models that are rooted in physics and pattern‐formation theor...

The use of native grasses for both restoration and commercial purposes is becoming increasingly important globally. Many native grasses have limited success in seed‐based restoration (e.g. post‐mine rehabilitation) and commercial industries (e.g. agriculture) due to poor seed germination and handling. Seed‐enhancement technologies can assist in ove...

Variations in the degree of seed dormancy expressed among conspecific populations provide a basis for improving understanding of the mechanisms controlling species persistence, especially in fire-prone ecosystems. We investigated seed germination of 12 Anigozanthos flavidus populations in response to various fire-related cues that included exposure...

AimsWe aimed to understand the influence of differing soil rock content on seedling emergence of a dominant arid zone grass critical to mine restoration (Triodia pungens R.Br.). We assessed whether emergence mortality resulting from seedlings failing to navigate rocky soils contributes meaningfully to failed recruitment and the maximum emergence de...

Professor Richard Hobbs has had a profound influence on the development of the discipline of restoration ecology. With more than 300 publications spanning a broad scope of applied ecological sciences, he has collaborated with hundreds of researchers. His sometimes‐provocative insights, balanced by extensive empirical research, will have a lasting i...

What did we use before single-use plastics became ingrained in our everyday lives?

Innovative seed enhancement technologies can help to improve restoration success in highly degraded landscapes across the globe, including the Banksia woodlands in the southwest of Western Australia. After clearing of pine plantations, or completion of sand mining, these once Banksia woodland areas, become heavily dominated by exotic grasses such a...

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that form a fundamental part of soil biocrusts, enhance soil function and structure, and can promote plant growth. We assessed the potential of cyanobacteria as a seed bio‐primer for mine‐site restoration in an arid region in Western Australia, examining its effects on native plant growth and the characteri...

Mine rehabilitation is not just earthworks. Mine rehabilitation is a complex, integrated process that involves multiple stakeholders, long-term commitment, and a comprehensive understanding of site-specific conditions. When it comes to the re-introduction of vegetation, increasing the likelihood of successful plant establishment requires the proper...

The ability to reliably and efficiently restore degraded ecosystems at scale is a major challenge. Restoration on a mine site typically consists of either the planting of cultivated nursery stock or the direct seeding of seed onto site to reinstate native plants and ecosystems. At scale, planting seedlings can be extremely costly and time consuming...

The success of mine site rehabilitation using native seeds is hampered by poor seedling establishment. Seed enhancement treatments including seed coatings and pelleting form one strategy to improve establishment. However, for some seeds, particularly those of grasses, irregular shapes and surface features of covering floret structures are difficult...

In degraded drylands, post-disturbance native plant community re-establishment is almost exclusively conducted using seeds. These restoration efforts are challenging, in large part as a result of a limited understanding of seed dormancy and germination traits. In this paper, we characterize these traits for four herbaceous perennials (Asteraceae) t...

In a time when global climate variability threatens the sustainability and productivity of arid ecosystems, the development of effective strategies to recover and protect soil resources and biota is crucial for the survival of these landscapes. With 20% of arid systems degraded and estimates of up to 10 Mha of land degrading each year, this issue i...

The methods used to distribute seeds influence the success of a restoration project. We surveyed 183 restoration practitioners from across the globe with the aim of identifying common limitations to the effective use of mechanical direct seeding in large scale restoration practice to highlight avenues for design improvement to mechanised seeding eq...

Trait‐based approaches have improved our understanding of plant evolution, community assembly and ecosystem functioning. A major challenge for the upcoming decades is to understand the functions and evolution of early life‐history traits, across levels of organisation and ecological strategies. Although a variety of seed traits are critical for the...

This paper aims to examine two aspects of coating surfactants onto seeds to improve crop establishment and production on water repellent soils. First to examine if commercially available surfactants and glues can be coated onto seeds to improve crop establishment of crops on water repellent soil. Second to examine if these seed coatings have a toxi...

Fairy circles (FCs) are extremely ordered round patches of bare soil within arid grasslands of southwestern Africa and northwestern Australia. Their origin is disputed because biotic factors such as insects or abiotic factors such as edaphic and eco‐hydrological feedback mechanisms have been suggested to be causal. In this research, we used a multi...

Morphophysiological dormancy (MPD) is predominantly found in seeds of temperate regions and is uncommon in arid biomes. MPD has been reported in a number of Hibbertia (Dilleniaceae) species of temperate Australia, and in a single species of the arid zone, H. gla- berrima. This study aimed to examine the dormancy and germination ecology of seeds of...

Triodia, an endemic Australian grass genus of ∼70 species inhabiting arid and monsoonal regions, is an abundant and underused biomass resource. Harsh environmental conditions have driven the evolution of adaptive extremophile traits, including uniquely high aspect ratio cellulose nanofibres (CNFs) and high hemicellulose content. In this study, we a...

Restoration of native plant communities through direct seeding often experience low seedling establishment success rates, partly due to invasive weed species. To improve seeding success, herbicides can be applied to control weed competition, however this can have negative impacts on the seeded species. Activated carbon (AC) can be incorporated into...

In the 25 years during which the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) has overseen the publication of Restoration Ecology, the field has witnessed conceptual and practical advances. These have become necessary due to the scale of environmental change wrought by the increasing global human population, and associated demands for food, fibre, ener...

Background and aims Cyanobacteria from biocrusts can enhance soil function and structure, a critical objective when restoring degraded dryland ecosystems. Large-scale restoration of biodiversity requires direct seeding of native plant species, and bio-priming seeds with cyanobacteria is a potential method of initiating enhanced soil functioning. Th...

In degraded dryland systems, native plant community re‐establishment following disturbance is almost exclusively carried out using seeds, but these efforts commonly fail. Much of this failure can be attributed to the limited understanding of seed dormancy and germination traits. We undertook a systematic classification of seed dormancy of 26 specie...

1 Landscape‐scale restoration requires stakeholder collaboration and recognition of diverse social and ecological motivations to achieve multiple benefits. Yet few landscape restoration projects have set and achieved shared social and ecological goals. 2.Mechanisms to integrate social and ecological motivations will differ in different landscapes....

Seed dormancy status regulates the response of seeds to environmental cues that can trigger germination. Anigozanthos flavidus (Haemodoraceae) produces seeds with morphophysiological dormancy (MPD) that are known to germinate in response to smoke, but embryo growth dynamics and germination traits in response to temperatures and after-ripening have...

Despite significant efforts to restore dryland ecosystems worldwide, the rate of success of restoration is extremely low in these areas. The role of cyanobacteria from soil biocrusts in reestablishing soil functions of degraded land has been highlighted in recent years. These organisms are capable of improving soil structure and promoting soil N an...

Seed dormancy can present a significant barrier to restoration outcomes in dryland systems. Physical and combinational (physical + physiological) dormancy are prevalent among seeds of many herbaceous perennials used in restoration of drylands throughout the western United States. Although many techniques designed to alleviate these dormancy traits...

Seed coating with wetters provided a higher agronomic efficiency than banded furrow placed wetters. For instance, seed coatings with wetters applied at 0.065-0.325 L/ha achieved the same increase in plant density, tiller number, biomass production and, nutrient uptake as wetters applied to the furrow at 1-5 L/ha.

Background and Aims Regeneration dynamics in many arid zone grass species are regulated by innate seed dormancy mechanisms and environmental cues (temperature, moisture and fire) that result in infrequent germination following rainfall. This study investigated bet-hedging strategies associated with dormancy and germination in arid zone Triodia spec...

Translocation of threatened species is challenging in semiarid environments, especially when seeds are the principal means of in situ establishment. Worldwide, the overall success of translocations using seeds is highly variable and generally unpredictable. Most seed-based translocations are embarked upon with limited understanding of the species’...

The use of native plant seeds is fundamental to large-scale rehabilitation and the re-establishment of selfsustaining ecosystems after high-impact mining activity has ceased. However, many of the biological attributes of seeds are often overlooked in large-scale rehabilitation programs. Multi-disciplinary, long-term research collaborations are requ...

Demand for restoration of resilient, self-sustaining, and biodiverse natural ecosystems as a conservation measure is increasing globally; however, restoration efforts frequently fail to meet standards appropriate for this objective. Achieving these standards requires management underpinned by input from diverse scientific disciplines including ecol...

1.Demographic recruitment processes, such as seed germination and seedling emergence, are critical transitional phases to the re-establishment of degraded plant populations, but often fail due to rainfall not supporting plant requirements. Using species from the widespread arid Australian perennial grass genus Triodia, we investigated the interacti...

Restoration is becoming an increasing global priority. Particularly in high impact developments like open cut mining, restoring ecosystems to pre-disturbance states is difficult but essential. Successful restoration of vegetation communities requires complex achievements of cover, density, community composition, species richness and structural elem...

Germination-an important stage in the life cycle of plants-is susceptible to the presence of soil contaminants. Since the early 1990s, the use of germination tests to screen multiple plant species to select candidates for phytoremediation has received much attention. This is due to its inexpensive methodology and fast assessment relative to greenho...

Phenological patterns including peak flowering and seed production of nineteen grass, herb, shrub and tree species were studied in the Pilbara biogeographic region of Western Australia. Each plant population was monitored monthly over an 18-month period. Qualitative data was collected capturing plant phenophases. Plant fecundity was estimated using...

We assess the impacts of a wildfire on soil respiration in a semi-arid ecosystem • Larger rates of CO 2 efflux were found in the burnt areas compared to the un-burnt • Rs was higher under Eucalyptus trees and Acacia shrubs versus grasses or bare soil • CO 2 fluxes were triggered with higher temperatures and water availability • Q10 was significantl...

Climate can influence plant demographic processes and life stages in different ways, but such details are often ignored in analyses that focus on adult life stages and annual climate averages. In particular, the effects of climate on seeds may be hugely important under climate change. Climate is known to influence seed survival and germination, whi...

The relative effectiveness of wet- and dry-heat treatments on alleviating physical dormancy (PY) of seeds of seven species of Fabaceae and five species of Malvaceae was determined to optimise seed handling procedures for ecological restoration. Seeds of all species were treated at different temperatures (40�100�C) for various durations (2 and 5 min...