DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fxpnvx13p
title: Data from: Meta-analysis reveals the effectiveness and best practices for the iconic Mediterranean seagrass restoration

description: Seagrass forest restoration programs have become a global priority to
 reverse their decline and regain the ecosystem services they provide.
 However, defining the restoration outcomes has remained controversial,
 probably due to the wide portfolio of practices experienced mainly on
 short-term periods and local scales. Scientific literature from 40 years
 of experience on experimental efforts and active restoration interventions
 of the Mediterranean foundation seagrass Posidonia oceanica has been
 systematically summarized through a meta-analysis. Variables concerning
 the characteristics of the site selection, procedural context, and plant
 performance evidenced the best practices for the seagrass restoration.
 Here, the dataset pf the collated evidence is provided.
description: The file contains all the information extracted from the
 literature searching process conducted to consider peer-reviewed
 literature, conference proceedings and patents published with no temporal
 scale or language restriction and a final search date on the
 24<sup>th</sup> of January 2024. Selection criteria included
 all studies that reported on a receiving site in which human-mediated
 actions were performed to re-habilitate, re-create or enhance recovery of
 a degraded or changed <em>P. oceanica</em> habitat type, where
 response variables were quantitatively expressed as a measure of
 transplanting intervention outcome. Only those studies in which the
 transplanted <em>P. oceanica</em> plants could be compared
 with a control group, (i.e., an untreated reference meadow and initial
 restoration time) were selected. Secondary documents such as reviews,
 studies on restoration technique insight, mesocosm experiments, or
 documents with insufficient data were excluded. Moreover, studies that did
 not report the mean values of measured response variables, the number of
 replicates per treatment, or the measures of variability around the mean,
 were necessarily excluded from the analysis. The suitable records were
 included for the data extraction and analysis, and when a document
 contained more than one type of information, each one was divided into
 different case studies.
description: # Data from: Meta-analysis reveals the effectiveness and best practices
 for the iconic Mediterranean seagrass restoration Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.fxpnvx13p](10.5061/dryad.fxpnvx13p) #### Description of the
 data and file structure This spreadsheet provides an overview of the
 datasets associated with the study. Each row corresponds to a specific
 dataset and includes the file name, a brief description of its contents,
 the species involved, and the type of experiment or analysis conducted.
 This file serves as a reference guide to help users navigate the
 associated data files, ensuring clarity and ease of reuse. In this matrix,
 variables are in columns and case studies in rows. All missing data
 represented as NA. ### Files and variables In this matrix, variables are
 in columns and case studies in rows. Cells containing N/A values
 represents not applicable data For each case study, the following
 information were extracted: * ID paper: identification of the document -
 ID.CS: case study of the document * document type: type of the document:
 ar= article; di=dissertation, cp= conference paper - Year of publication:
 YYYY * Authors: Authors of the document - Title: Title of the document *
 Journal: Journal of the document **Physical characteristics of the sites**
 * Previous P. oceanica occurrence: P. oceanica occurrence before the
 decline (categorical) - Receiving Latitude * Receiving longitude - Depth:
 Depth of the receiving site (continuous, m) * Substrate (CMECS): Type of
 substrate in which the intervention has occurred, following Coastal and
 Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) (categorical) -
 Substrate: Type of substrate in which the intervention has occurred
 (categorical) * Cause of decline: Cause of meadow decline in the receiving
 site (categorical) - Cause of decline removal: Removal of the cause of
 meadow decline in the receiving site (categorical) * Donor site: Site of
 collection - Depth: Depth of the donor site (continuous, m) * Donor
 Latitude - Donor longitude * Cause of decline: Cause of meadow decline of
 the donor site (categorical) - Donor - receiving spatial distance:
 (continuous, km) * Distance from donor to receiving site (continuous, km)
 - Donor - receiving depth range:  (continuous, m) * Depth difference
 between the donor site and the intervention receiving site: + if receiving
 site is shallower; - if the receiving site is deeper (continuous, m)
 **Procedural context of the transplanting intervention** * Aim: Purpose of
 the intervention (categorical) - Classification: Classification of the
 intervention following Elliott et al. (2007, categorical) * Total
 restoration area: Total restoration area (continuous, m2) - n° of
 shoots/plant portion: continuous, n * Shoot density: continuous, n/m2 -
 Plant portion type: Portion of the plant used for the transplanting
 intervention (categorical) * Treatment before the intervention:
 Manipulation applied to the plant portions before the transplanting
 intervention (categorical) - Treatment during the intervention:
 Manipulation of the plant portions during the transplanting intervention
 (categorical) * Plant portion collection: Type of collection of the plant
 portion used in the intervention (categorical) - Anchoring technique:
 Technique applied to anchor the transplanted plant portion to the
 substrate (categorical) * Season of intervention: Season of intervention
 (categorical) - Year of intervention: continuous * Monitoring time: Time
 elapsed from the start of the transplanting intervention for each survey,
 (months) **Plant performance** * Ctrl type: Type of control used to
 evaluate the transplanted plants performance (categorical) - Plant trait:
 Explanatory variables measured for each survey, for above and below ground
 tissues. Biochemistry includes elemental and pigment analyses; Development
 includes growth data; Morphology includes size and biomass metrics,
 density and cover (categorical) * Response variable: notes of the
 explanatory variables measured for each survey (categorical) - Mean of the
 Control group (initial time of transplanting or reference meadow): n * SD:
 standard deviation of the Control group (initial time of transplanting or
 reference meadow): n - N: sample size of the Control group (initial time
 of transplanting or reference meadow): n * Mean of the treatment group
 (transplanted plant): n - SD: standard deviation of the treatment group
 (transplanted plant): n * N: sample size of the treatment group
 (transplanted plant): n ## Code/software For the dataset, an excel matrix
 was produced.