Dry grasslands of the North‐western Mediterranean Basin are semi‐natural species‐rich ecosystems, composed of many annual species and some structuring perennial species. As these grasslands have been used as rangelands for centuries, human management (grazing; fire regimes) is one of their main ecological and evolutionary drivers, along with the Mediterranean climate. Despite EU conservation policy, damage to such grasslands still occurs and efficient ecological restoration is needed. This paper reviews restoration constraints, effective techniques, and research perspectives for restoring them in the light of their ecological characteristics. Major restoration constraints specifically include i) a poor contribution of the internal (seed bank) and external (seed rain) species pools, and ii) low establishment. The latter may be the result of the low seed quantity or quality of perennial species, stochastic or extended droughts, high soil nutrient content that may lead to competition (e.g. between weed and target species), inappropriate grazing management or fire regimes leading to shrub encroachment, or the death of target species seedlings in early stages of restoration. Successful restoration techniques include seeding, transplanting, hay transfer and timely soil transfer, all of which have to be adapted to regional plant phenology and to local Mediterranean climate. They must be combined with appropriate grazing or fire management. Their success may depend on years with particular rainfall amounts or patterns or on particular target plant species. We discuss research perspectives contributing to a better understanding of seed dispersal, seedling recruitment and soil processes and suggesting the benefits of using ecosystem engineer species.

中文翻译：

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西北地中海干草原恢复的关键问题

西北地中海盆地的干草原是半自然物种丰富的生态系统，由许多一年生物种和一些结构性多年生物种组成。由于这些草原几个世纪以来一直被用作牧场，人类管理（放牧；火灾制度）是其主要的生态和进化驱动因素之一，还有地中海气候。尽管有欧盟保护政策，但此类草原仍会遭到破坏，需要进行有效的生态恢复。本文根据其生态特征，回顾了恢复制约因素、有效技术以及恢复它们的研究前景。主要的恢复限制特别包括 i) 内部（种子库）和外部（种子雨）物种库的贡献不足，以及 ii) 建立率低。后者可能是多年生物种种子数量或质量低、随机或长期干旱、可能导致竞争的土壤养分含量高（例如杂草和目标物种之间）、不适当的放牧管理或导致灌木侵占的火灾制度的结果，或目标物种幼苗在恢复早期死亡。成功的恢复技术包括播种、移栽、干草转移和及时土壤转移，所有这些都必须适应区域植物物候和当地地中海气候。它们必须与适当的放牧或火灾管理相结合。它们的成功可能取决于具有特定降雨量或模式的年份或特定的目标植物物种。我们讨论有助于更好地了解种子传播的研究观点，