DOI: 10.5061/dryad.51c59zwm2
title: Soil as a critical component of vegetation restoration on a sub-alpine mountain summit in Acadia National Park

description: Aims Recreational use on mountain summits has caused severe degradation of
 soils and vegetation, and climate change is exacerbating these impacts.
 Best practices for restoration of these important ecosystems are unknown.
 Here we examine the effectiveness of different treatments for restoring
 native vegetation (plant cover and native species richness) in degraded
 areas on a mountain summit through an experimental restoration approach.
 Location Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA. Methods We
 tested six restoration-method treatments: control, planting modules, coir
 erosion control, seed and coir, soil and coir, and soil, seed, and coir.
 We established four replicates of each restoration-method treatment in
 2016 and monitored percent cover and species richness twice per year from
 2017-2022. In 2017, we established four more plots for each of three
 soil-depth treatments (2.5 cm soil, seed, and coir, 13 cm soil and coir,
 and 13 cm soil, seed, and coir), and monitored percent cover. Results Six
 years after restoration began, native vegetation cover was highest in
 treatments with added soil. Seeding (502 seeds/m2) had no effect on
 percent cover. Planting seedlings added vegetative cover initially, but
 did not increase over time. Cover was equally high in treatments with
 shallow soil (2.5 cm deep) and deep soil (13 cm deep). Treatments with
 added soil also had the highest native species richness. Adding a small
 amount of soil (2.5 cm soil depth) with erosion control (i.e., coir
 matting) successfully restored vegetation to previously degraded areas of
 the Cadillac Mountain summit. Conclusions Mountain ecosystems will
 continue to experience degradation from human recreation and climate
 change. Restoration of degraded areas is critical to maintain these rare
 ecosystems. Our results suggest that restoring and maintaining soil is key
 to restoring degraded areas. However, more research is needed to
 understand the long-term implications and success of mountain summit
 restoration. Our study provides an example of how this work can be done
 without delaying restoration using an experimental restoration approach.
description: # Soil as a critical component of vegetation restoration on a sub-alpine
 mountain summit in Acadia National Park Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.51c59zwm2](10.5061/dryad.51c59zwm2) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Data and R scripts for analysis of experimental
 vegetation restoration plots on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park,
 Maine, USA. Data collected from 2017-2022. ### Files and variables ####
 File: cadillacdata\_manuscript\_final.csv **Description:** The field
 collected data from our restoration experiments on the summit of Cadillac
 Mountain from 2017-2022. ##### Variables * group.code: Species or higher
 order taxonomic code * month: Month of data collection. All data
 collection occurred in July, August, and September * year: Year of data
 collection represented by last two digits of the full year (i.e., 2020 =
 "20") * ridge: Which ridge (north or east) the plot was located
 at * site: Number assigned to each site. For this study the sites were 1,
 2, 7, and 8 * plotquad: The plot and quadrat ID combined * site.plotquad:
 Site number and plotquad separated with a period * treatment: Restoration
 treatment name * year.est: The year that the treatment was established on
 the summit of Cadillac Mountain * cover: Absolute percent cover #### File:
 cadillac\_species\_richness\_data.csv **Description:** Species richness
 data from the restoration plots collected by botanist Jill Weber. #####
 Variables * plot: Site and plot ID separated by a period * treatment:
 Restoration treatment name * year: Year of data collection * taxon:
 Species name, uncleaned and sometimes abbreviated * count: Number of
 individuals of that species ## Code/software #### Script:
 analysis\_functions.R **Description:** R script of helper functions for
 the actual manuscript analysis script. #### Script:
 manuscript\_analysis\_cleaned.R **Description:** R script for the full
 analysis completed and presented in the final manuscript.