Seed production areas are crucial to conservation outcomes: benefits and risks of an emerging restoration tool

By Jack Zinnen

A new review article is now available in Biodiversity and Conservation about seed production areas (SPAs) from Zinnen et al. (2021). The review synthesizes research about SPAs, as well as other literature applicable to the topic. It provides a comprehensive investigation into the SPA literature and highlights the disproportionate influence of SPAs on conservation and restoration outcomes.

The review includes four main sections. The first details the practical benefits of SPAs to conservation. This section contrasts several difficulties and shortcomings associated with wildland seed collection to supply seed for restoration, and then discusses how SPAs can bypass some of these challenges.

The second section details how SPAs are the result of native seed markets and government policies. Conservation and restoration initiatives, generally those that are legislated, have spurred substantial regional markets for native seeds. SPAs are a tool used by managers to meet the native seed demands for these projects and are therefore rooted in government funding. Native seed markets and SPA managers are sensitive to shifts in government policy (e.g., funding cuts).

The third section characterizes how plant population in SPAs have an enhanced fitness potential compared to plants in the wild. SPA management is tailored to minimize natural stressors and promote high per capita seed output. Additionally, SPA populations have a consistent and permanent advantage in dispersing their seeds into new areas throughout the landscape for restoration projects. Together, these factors suggest that SPA populations have unique reproductive advantages compared to those in the wild. This in turn can amplify the positive or negative (see below paragraph) of SPAs throughout a landscape.

The fourth section discusses the potential negative effects of using SPAs, including genetic and community-level risks. We discussed three primary genetic risks (or “genetic legacies” due to management) associated with SPAs: genetic erosion and inbreeding, selection due to management, and promoting nonlocal genotypes. We then described how cultivation biases for certain species or genetic groups within SPAs can result in distinct communities, which may be mismatched to wildland communities. Large-scale ecological restoration and conservation projects could facilitate SPA-derived populations’ dominance relative to wildland populations, both in terms of genetic composition and representation on the landscape. We identify ways to minimize or reverse these risks, especially with reference to other complementary research about genetic challenges (e.g., Nevill et al. 2016). 

SPAs are an emerging tool to promote plant biodiversity and restore ecosystems but must be used carefully and further understood through continued scientific research. We concluded the article by identifying research questions, advocating for investment and stability in the native seed trade, and emphasizing the cultivation of greater taxonomic and functional plant diversity. See https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-021-02149-z if you are interested in reading the full article.

References

Nevill PG, Tomlinson S, Elliott CP, Espeland EK, Dixon KW, Merritt DJ (2016) Seed production areas for the global restoration challenge. Ecology and Evolution 6:7490–7497. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2455

Zinnen J, Broadhurst LM, Jones TA, Gibson-Roy P, Matthews JW (2021). Seed production areas are crucial to conservation outcomes: benefits and risks of an emerging restoration tool. Biodiversity and Conservation 30: 1233–1256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02149-z