Alternatives for Reintroducing a Rare Ecotone Species: Manually Thinned Forest Edge versus Restored Habitat Remnant

Species native to ecotones are often overlooked in restoration efforts despite the increasing rarity of ecotone habitat. In fragmented, fire‐suppressed landscapes, true ecotone may no longer exist. Restoration biologists interested in reintroducing ecotone species must decide whether to plant them in historic ecotones maintained by manual thinning or whether to opt for discrete restoration areas that are easier to maintain. We investigated these two alternatives with Lantana canescens , a rare tropical shrub native to the ecotone between pine and hardwood forests of Miami‐Dade County, Florida, U.S.A. Our short‐term findings show that after 15 and 18 months, survival of transplants was 69% in a restored site and 65% and 84% in two historic ecotone sites. The restored site had significantly higher photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (75%) than the historic ecotones (25–39%). Correspondingly, 267 seedlings have recruited at the restored site, whereas only 8 have emerged at both historic ecotone sites. Seedling establishment was associated with higher PAR at the restored site. We found that overall population sustainability was higher at the restored site where there is the additional benefit of less maintenance. Our work suggests that, by reducing succession, a discrete restoration area can approach the historic conditions of hardwood/pine forest ecotone more closely than degraded historic ecotones themselves. We present a viable solution for conserving rare ecotone species when their natural habitat and the processes that maintained it no longer exist.