Trophic rewilding is an ecological restoration strategy that uses species introductions to restore top-down trophic interactions and associated trophic cascades to promote self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems. Given the importance of large animals in trophic cascades and their widespread losses and resulting trophic downgrading, it often focuses on restoring functional megafaunas. Trophic rewilding is increasingly being implemented for conservation, but remains controversial. Here, we provide a synthesis of its current scientific basis, highlighting trophic cascades as the key conceptual framework, discussing the main lessons learned from ongoing rewilding projects, systematically reviewing the current literature, and highlighting unintentional rewilding and spontaneous wildlife comebacks as underused sources of information. Together, these lines of evidence show that trophic cascades may be restored via species reintroductions and ecological replacements. It is clear, however, that megafauna effects may be affected by poorly understood trophic complexity effects and interactions with landscape settings, human activities, and other factors. Unfortunately, empirical research on trophic rewilding is still rare, fragmented, and geographically biased, with the literature dominated by essays and opinion pieces. We highlight the need for applied programs to include hypothesis testing and science-based monitoring, and outline priorities for future research, notably assessing the role of trophic complexity, interplay with landscape settings, land use, and climate change, as well as developing the global scope for rewilding and tools to optimize benefits and reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Finally, we recommend developing a decision framework for species selection, building on functional and phylogenetic information and with attention to the potential contribution from synthetic biology.conservation | megafauna | reintroduction | restoration | trophic cascades

Until recently in Earth history, very large herbivores (mammoths, ground sloths, diprotodons, and many others) occurred in most of the World's terrestrial ecosystems, but the majority have gone extinct as part of the late-Quaternary extinctions. How has this large-scale removal of large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning? In this review, we combine paleo-data with information from modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of large herbivores (and their disappearance) on woody species, landscape structure, and ecosystem functions. In modern landscapes characterized by intense herbivory, woody plants can persist by defending themselves or by association with defended species, can persist by growing in places that are physically inaccessible to herbivores, or can persist where high predator activity limits foraging by herbivores. At the landscape scale, different herbivore densities and assemblages may result in dynamic gradients in woody cover. The late-Quaternary extinctions were natural experiments in large-herbivore removal; the paleoecological record shows evidence of widespread changes in community composition and ecosystem structure and function, consistent with modern exclosure experiments. We propose a conceptual framework that describes the impact of large herbivores on woody plant abundance mediated by herbivore diversity and density, predicting that herbivore suppression of woody plants is strongest where herbivore diversity is high. We conclude that the decline of large herbivores induces major alterations in landscape structure and ecosystem functions.browsers | ecosystem functions | herbivore diversity | landscape structure | megaherbivore During the late Quaternary, megafaunas were drastically reduced in most regions (1, 2), representing the start of an ongoing trophic downgrading that has resulted in the loss of entire functional guilds and relaxation of top-down control in today's ecosystems (3). A high proportion of the large herbivores that have survived into the Anthropocene (4) are now drastically reduced in range and abundance, rendering them functionally extinct, or have been replaced by livestock in much of their historic ranges (5-8). How has this loss of wild-living large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning?Contemporary large herbivores have strong effects on the abundance of woody species, plant diversity, nutrient cycling, and other biota (9). Most likely, the ecological effects of preextinction herbivores were as large, possibly much more so given the great size and diversity of the lost large herbivore assemblages (10, 11). We hypothesize that Pleistocene herbivore assemblages, including large and megaherbivore browsers, would have greatly reduced woody plant abundance and altered species composition and landscape structure, if present at sufficient densities. We review the impact of large herbivores (≥45 kg in body weight) on woody vegetation, with a focus on megaherbivores (≥1,000 kg), and combine information from ...

Summary1. Light-demanding trees and thorny shrubs in temperate plant communities may reflect adaptations to now-extinct large grazers, such as aurochs and tarpans, rendering these adaptations ecological anachronisms. 2. We explored the ecological functions of plant traits of Quercus robur and Prunus spinosa in areas grazed by cattle and horses, the domesticated descendants of aurochs and tarpans. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that grazing induces a shifting mosaic of grassland, shrub thickets and woodlands through the key process of associational resistance: the protection of palatable young trees by thorny shrubs.3. An exclosure experiment with transplanted Q. robur seedlings revealed that Q. robur grew best in grassland exclosures and on the edge of thorny shrub thickets, which may be viewed as an optimal balance between sufficient protection from large herbivores and sufficient light availability. 4. A cross-site comparison of four floodplain woodlands in north-western Europe showed that Q. robur can regenerate in the presence of large herbivores through spatial association with P. spinosa . However, we found that expansion of P. spinosa shrubs and Q. robur coincided with periods of low rabbit abundance and not with livestock density. From this, it appears that the process of associational resistance does not work with rabbits. 5. Synthesis and applications . With extensive grazing by large (domesticated) grazers in temperate floodplains, a shifting mosaic of grassland, shrubs and trees may develop that has high conservation value. Palatable, light-demanding Q. robur seedlings can successfully regenerate in spiny P. spinosa shrubs through associational resistance. This process does not offer protection from abundant small herbivores, such as rabbits, that can inhibit the recruitment of shrubs and trees in this mosaic vegetation. In floodplain meadows frequent flooding may be an efficient way to reduce rabbit populations, with dry conditions in summer and wet in winter. When floodplain meadows are combined with adjacent higher grounds, large herbivores can escape the floods through migration.

Free-ranging large grazers, such as cattle and horses,

Free‐ranging large grazers, such as cattle and horses, are increasingly reintroduced to former agricultural areas in Western Europe in order to restore natural and diverse habitats. In this review we outline mechanisms by which large grazers induce and maintain structural diversity in the vegetation (mosaics of grasslands, shrub thickets and trees). This variation in vegetation structure is considered to be important for the conservation of biodiversity of various plant and animal groups. The process of spatial association with unpalatable plants (as‐sociational resistance) enables palatable plants to establish in grasslands maintained by large grazers. In this way, short unattractive (thorny, low quality or toxic) species facilitate taller unattractive shrubs, which facilitate palatable trees, which in turn outshade the species that facilitated their recruitment. Established trees can, therefore, not regenerate under their own canopy, leading to cyclic patch dynamics. Since this cyclic dynamic occurs on a local scale, this contributes to shifting mosaics. The mechanisms involved in creating and maintaining the resulting shifting mosaics are described for temperate flood‐plain and heathland ecosystems, including the effects on nutrient transport within grazed landscapes. How grazing leads to shifting mosaics is described in terms of plant functional types, allowing potential generalisation to other ecosystems. The resulting interaction web of grasses, unpalatable forbs and shrubs, palatable light‐demanding trees and shade‐tolerant trees is discussed, and was found to contain various interesting direct and indirect effects. The key process contributing to spatial diversity in vegetation structure is the alternation of positive (facilitation) interactions between plant species at one life cycle stage, and competitive displacement at another stage. Grazing thus causes directional successional sequences to change to shifting mosaics. The implications of this theory for nature conservation are discussed, including the relevant management problems, possible choices and practical solutions. We conclude that the theoretical framework outlined in this review provides helpful insights when coping with nature conservation issues in temperate woodland habitats.