Can synthetic vegetation (novel ecosystems) help nature conservation in the Anthropocene?

In Bridgewater (1988) | published on the topic of synthetic vegetation, which | described as "admixtures of native, naturalised and exotic species".Further, | suggested these may be transitional phases in the degradation of a native plant community, or metastable communities capable of persistence, given appropriate management.It's fair to say this idea was greeted with some scepticism, both in terms of the name and the possibility that there may be positives associated with such mixtures.Coastal vegetation in Australia is one example of synthetic vegetation which may help clarify the idea.Strandline vegetation in southern Australia was absent pre-European colonisation.Now, however, the cosmopolitan and introduced species Cakile maritma with the introduced South African Arctotheca populifolia frequently form a strandline community, sometimes with the native Spinifex sericeus as a component, if the substrate is particularly sandy.This simple community may well help in buffering the effects of coastal changes arising from sea level and other climatic changes.Native grass-dominated salt marsh from New South Wales to southern Western Australia frequently has an introduced species as a component -Parapholis incurva.It is a naturally occurring grass of saline meadows in western and Mediterranean Europe, but is introduced in Australia.It appears as an additional species to the native assemblage, with no apparent threat to vegetation stability.