Understanding the drivers of restoration success is a central issue for marine conservation. Here, we explore the role of life‐history strategies of sessile marine species in shaping restoration outcomes and their associated timescales. A transplantation experiment for the extremely slow‐growing and threatened octocoral Corallium rubrum was highly successful over a relatively short term due to high survival and reproductive potential of the transplanted colonies. However, demographic projections predict that from 30 to 40 years may be required for fully functional C. rubrum populations to develop. More broadly, a comprehensive meta‐analysis revealed a negative correlation between survival after transplanting and growth rates among sessile species. As a result, simulated dynamics for a range of marine sessile invertebrates predict that longer recovery times are positively associated with survival rates. These results demonstrate a tradeoff between initial transplantation efforts and the speed of recovery. Transplantation of slow‐growing species will tend to require lower initial effort due to higher survival after transplanting, but the period required to fully recover habitat complexity will tend to be far longer. This study highlights the important role of life history as a driver of marine restoration outcomes and shows how demographic knowledge and modeling tools can help managers to anticipate the dynamics and timescales of restored populations.

中文翻译：

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海洋修复中的生命历史策略和时间表的核算

了解恢复成功的驱动因素是海洋保护的中心问题。在这里，我们探讨了无柄海洋物种的生命历史策略在塑造恢复结果及其相关时标中的作用。一个移植实验极其缓慢增长，并威胁octocoral红珊瑚虫是在相对短期内非常成功的，由于高生存和移植的殖民地的生殖潜力。但是，根据人口统计学预测，功能齐全的红毛梭菌可能需要30到40年的时间人口发展。从更广泛的角度来看，一项综合的荟萃分析显示，无柄物种的移栽后存活率与生长速率之间存在负相关关系。结果，一系列海洋无脊椎动物的动态模拟预测，更长的恢复时间与存活率成正相关。这些结果证明了初始移植努力与恢复速度之间的权衡。生长缓慢的物种的移植由于移植后的较高存活率而往往需要较低的初始努力，但完全恢复栖息地复杂性所需的时间往往会更长。