Tallgrass prairie is one of the most disturbed ecosystems in North America due to large-scale conversion to row-crop agriculture. Restoring tallgrass prairie on cultivated soil reverses many ecosystem disservices caused by agriculture, but a better understanding of factors and processes influencing plant diversity, ecosystem functioning, and community outcomes is needed to achieve holistic conservation goals. I will present findings from two long-term studies aiming to inform these knowledge gaps by applying and testing ecological theory in a restoration context. Results from a multi-decadal prairie restoration experiment that manipulates spatial variation in soil resources illustrate the importance of dominant species, propagule supply, and environmental heterogeneity for determining diversity and resilience of reconstructed prairie. A second experiment has sequentially restored prairie over a decadal time frame and demonstrates the influence interannual variability in climate and drought on dissimilarity in plant community outcomes. Collectively, these long-term studies showcase the opportunity ecological restoration offers to test the applicability of ecological theory to practice and transition the discipline of restoration ecology toward prediction.
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