Succession theory and vegetation restoration

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework proposes to protect 30% and restore 30% of the land with high quality and maximize the goal of conserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Succession theory and vegetation restoration can serve the targets of 30% protection and restoration. Succession theory is the core theory in vegetation ecology. Succession refers to the process that the structure or composition of a group of different species in a site change with time. Vegetation restoration is the process of restoring or recovering or naturally renewing plant communities, mainly based on plant planting and configuration. Vegetation restoration is the process of changing the structure and function of ecosystem from simple to complex, from low level to high level, and the ultimate goal is to establish healthy and stable plant communities. Succession is the foundation of vegetation restoration, and vegetation restoration can be seen as the manipulation of the succession process to achieve the goal of restoring damaged vegetation ecosystem. Succession theory can guide vegetation restoration. Vegetation restoration is also beneficial to the development of succession theory. Succession theory and vegetation restoration differ in scale, theme and paradigms. Succession often emphasizes disturbances related to nature, while vegetation restoration focuses on disturbances related to humans. The succession can be divided into primary succession and secondary succession according to the nature of bare land. The restoration process is suggested to be regarded as the tertiary succession, which will help to understand the management options for promoting the success of vegetation restoration through human intervention, especially by emphasizing the management options which may improve success, especially by addressing environmental and biological legacies. Artificial intervention based on succession theory can accelerate vegetation restoration, avoid early positive promotion of degraded vegetation ecosystems to pre-degraded levels in poor habitats, and also avoid resource waste caused by disordered competition and low efficiency among communities. This paper also puts forward the scientific and technical issues on the theories of vegetation restoration and succession in the future.