Maximizing Seed Resources for Restoration in an Uncertain Future

Seed is fundamental to broadscale plant restoration when the goal is to re-establish species and ecosystems. But climate change is expected to significantly influence plant reproduction, affecting seed availability and viability as well as planting opportunities. Meeting growing restoration targets within these constraints in new and unfamiliar climates will be challenging. Consequently, we need to develop a range of flexible strategies to ensure that sufficient volumes of viable seed are available to take advantage of planting opportunities under novel environmental scenarios. This requires coordinated leadership to align funding and planting timelines, using seed production areas to improve seed supply, building and maintaining infrastructure to stockpile seed, encouraging research to overcome storage and germination constraints, and developing and implementing new technologies in all of these areas. Increased tolerance to risk and failure will also be required as the application of current restoration practices may not be appropriate as the climate changes.