Thread by @ashish_nerlekar

I bet you haven't read very many studies on restoring Indian #grasslands. Read on for a summary of our recent article in @SERestoration s flagship journal: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/re…
#restoration #dryland #invasive #India #biodiversity #Gujarat #GenerationRestoration #Prosopis 1/n

When we think of restoration, we often think of planting trees. While adding trees might be useful for restoring (some) forests, restoring grasslands often need tree-removal. Encroaching trees on grasslands, like t #invasive Prosopis juliflora in India, are a restortn challng 2/n

Understanding how to best manage encroaching woody plants in biodiverse #tropical grasslands is critical for sustaining biodiversity and people. 3/n

Pause a bit before you read on. Close your eyes for a moment and visualize a tropical grassland. Thanks. Now our study site--#Banni grassland in #Gujarat--with ~300mm MAP/yr is v different from the wet/mesic site you probably visualized.😃 4/n

>50% of Banni is now a Prosopis-encroached woodland (like in the pic attached), and in this study we test how 2 Prosopis management treatments-mechanical removal & lopping result in recovery of native herbaceous plant diversity and composition. 5/n

We monitored plots for 4 yrs n found tht mechanically removing Prosopis increases plant richness by 3-fold n cover by 6-fold thn control. Lopping did not significantly increase diversity. Both trtmnts failed 2 shift compositn-similar 2 my chp1 results: pnas.org/content/117/31… 6/n

Side note- I am a fan of the #wesandersoncolorpalette. This one is from the movie #HotelChavalier. If you use default colors and themes in R, please, please stop😭 #ggplot2 7/n

Back to the results--So we found that removing Prosopis was an ecologically effective way to restore native plant diversity. Does this mean the next steps would be to recommend landscape-wide complete removal of Prosopis in the Banni? We don't think so. 8/n

Here is why. Over decades, the ppl of Banni have come to depend on Prosopis for charcoal+ fuelwood+ construction material. Prosopis also provides a source of resilience during drought yrs-which are not uncommon in Banni.
+ mechanical removal is costly. 9/n

Lets not forget that restoration is as much about ppl as it is about biodiversity. So till Prosopis supports local livelihoods, n we fully understand the tradeoffs in its removal, we recommend managing Banni as a mosaic of restored grasslands n Prosopis encroached woodlnds. 10/n

Shout out to the @atree_org, RAMBLE, and Sahjeevan teams @MisherChetan @PokarPokar @niravmehta23 AnkilaHiremath PankajJoshi, Mayur Bhagwat, the field staff, and our funders. Ending with a (must watch) video about the project and Banni by the NAS: 11/11