4.3 Unexpected consequences of the biotic barrier
The biotic barrier can manifest unforeseen results during restoration.
Remediation research has shown that the establishment of beneficial
microbial inoculants in soil communities is not strictly correlated with
measurable macro-ecological outcomes (plant growth in this instance). At
least two independent studies have reported beneficial plant growth
outcomes even when the inoculant was lost from the soil (Kang et
al. , 2013; Liu et al. , 2015). The beneficial effects are
attributed to changes to the native community structure and function
triggered by the addition, and subsequent demise, of the inoculum. This
research highlights significant knowledge gaps in managing soil function
and indicates that monitoring of soil communities post rewilding will be
necessary to disentangle outcomes for ecosystem functions and the
microbial community. Addressing these knowledge gaps can include more
specific instances of rewilding soil microbial communities that extend
beyond current soil inoculation methodologies (Box 2).