Landscape-scale habitat restoration has the potential to return ecosystem functions and services and mitigate the loss of native flora and fauna. However, restoration projects rarely monitor the effectiveness of restoration efforts, such as quantifying the establishment success (survival) of the planted species. We monitored a landscape-scale revegetation program in southeastern Australia that planted 5 million plants representing 35 native species over a 4-year period (2012-2015). We assessed the restoration effectiveness across years to evaluate how different lifeforms survived over time and the factors that influenced the differential survival of lifeforms and individual plant species 3 months (spring) and 9 months (after summer) post-planting. Establishment success varied across years with survival lowest in the 2015 planting season. Survival of different lifeforms after summer were associated with site-level variables (e.g. mean maximum temperature, rainfall, and soil type) with survival generally declining due to high temperatures, low rainfall, and for species planted on sandy or saline soils. Maximum temperature, rainfall, and soil type were the most important predictors of compositional change in the 20 species commonly planted across years, with two saltbush species (Atriplex paludosa) and one eucalypt species (Eucalyptus fasciculosa) having the highest survival, while one sedge species (Juncus kraussii) and two grass species (Poa poiformis and Puccinellia stricta) had among the lowest observed survival. These results highlight the importance of monitoring establishment success through survival to detect changes in the composition of lifeforms and species to guide future re-plantings aimed at returning the desired plant diversity.

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Human activities such as land clearing and intensive land use around water bodies, particularly wetlands, have a detrimental impact on water quality and quantity, aquatic plant communities, and associated wetland fauna. Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert are internationally significant Ramsar wetlands located at the terminus of the Murray River, Australia's longest river system. Agriculture, water regulation, and extraction and droughts have had a detrimental impact on native plant communities in the lakes. We studied the influence of young (<1-3 years) and old (8-11 years) plantings of a native sedge (bulrush), Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani, to facilitate the establishment of aquatic plant communities in comparison with remnant and control sites. We also measured how planting structure (height, stand width, and stem density) changed with age in comparison with remnant sites. Results suggest that as plantings age they get substantially wider and have a greater maximum height, although do not reach similar stand widths by 11 years when compared to remnant areas. However, old plantings do not differ from remnant habitats in relation to aquatic plant species richness, counts of aquatic plants, and community composition. Young plantings have substantially less abundant and diverse plant communities, but are developing on a similar trajectory to old plantings. It is likely that planting sedges along lake shorelines causes a breakwater effect that facilitates the recolonization of wetland plants between the planted area and the water's edge. Management agencies should consider restoring native sedges to increase aquatic biodiversity, and potentially reduce erosion.