Restoration ecology is a young academic field, but one with enough history to judge it
against past and current expectations of the science's potential. The practice of ecological …

Drylands support over 2 billion people and are major providers of critical ecosystem goods
and services across the globe. Drylands, however, are one of the most susceptible biomes …

Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 973–984 Abstract The concept of alternative stable states has
long been a dominant framework for studying the influence of historical contingency in …

Organic matter amendments have been proposed as a means to enhance soil carbon (C)
stocks on degraded soils. However, only few data exist on rates of soil C sequestration or …

The way species affect one another in ecological communities often depends on the order of
species arrival. The magnitude of such historical contingency, known as priority effects …

Most of the world's grasslands are managed for livestock production. A critical component of
the long‐term sustainability and profitability of rangelands (eg, grazed grassland …

State and transition models (STMs) are used to organize and communicate information
regarding ecosystem change, especially the implications for management. The fundamental …

Understanding and forecasting changes in plant communities, ecosystem properties, and
their associated services requires a mechanistic link between community shifts and …

State-and-transition models are increasingly being used to guide rangeland management.
These models provide a relatively simple, management-oriented way to classify land …

Rainfall is a key determinant of production and composition in arid and semi‐arid systems.
Long‐term studies relating composition and water availability primarily focus on current …