# The Roles of Space and Food‐Web Complexity in Mediating Ecological Recovery

## TL;DR

This study shows how the layout of habitats and food-web complexity affect the recovery of species during large-scale ecological restoration.

## Contribution

The paper reveals how spatial configuration and food-web complexity jointly influence ecological recovery in restoration efforts.

## Key findings

- The spatial arrangement of communities affects colonization of empty habitat patches.
- Food-web complexity slows recovery of lower trophic levels but may have reduced effects at higher complexity.
- Population recovery in populated patches is not influenced by spatial configuration.

## Abstract

Landscape‐scale ecological restoration is a key strategy for halting and reversing biodiversity decline. However, ensuring the long‐term sustainability of restoration efforts requires guiding the recovery of complex ecological systems with many interdependent species at a landscape scale. Due to these challenges, our understanding of recovery trajectories remains limited. Using metacommunity models and experiments, we explore how the spatial configuration of communities and food‐web complexity jointly influence species recovery at different spatial scales. We find that the number and spatial placement of communities affect the colonisation of empty habitat patches, but do not influence population recovery in patches where communities are introduced. Food‐web complexity reduces the recovery of lower trophic levels. However, this negative effect may be partially mitigated at higher levels of food‐web complexity. Our results demonstrate that the joint consideration of spatial configuration and species interactions could enhance the effectiveness of restoration actions.

We investigate how spatial configuration and food‐web complexity influence species recovery during landscape‐scale ecological restoration. We find that while the spatial arrangement of communities affects colonisation of empty patches, it does not impact recovery in already populated patches. Food‐web complexity can slow recovery of lower trophic levels, though this effect may lessen with increasing complexity.