Online Tools to Guide Seed Conservation and Restoration Efforts
Kyle Doherty1*, Troy Wood2, Bradley Butterfield1
1Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States; kyle.doherty@nau.edu
2507 E Charles Rd, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
Climate can drive local adaptation in plants. Thus, matching the origin climate of plant materials to a target restoration site may improve the chances of successful establishment. Additionally, climate analyses can provide a spatially explicit framework for seed conservation efforts. One tool to guide practitioners through the seed selection process is the web app, Seed Selector (https://seedmapper.shinyapps.io/seed_selector/). Seed Selector creates a map of the best climate match given a set of plant materials of known geographic origin, and can also rank the climate match of that set at a particular site. Seed Selector can assess the magnitude of climate transfer from the home conditions of an accession to a potential restoration site. It can also be used to develop a seed mix when choosing among many available options or provision for a genetically diverse population. Climpart (https://seedmapper.shinyapps.io/seed_selector/) is a complimentary online tool that can guide seed collectors to regions that differ in climate properties. Collectors specify a desired number of collections and then Climpart maps out sites for potential collections. A key advantage of Seed Selector is its ability to rank the climatic suitability of available plant materials, because established seed transfer frameworks, such as seed zones derived from common garden experiments, exist for few herbaceous plant species in North America, and because supplies of plant materials are variable. A key advantage of Climpart is its flexibility of scale in terms of desired number of collections and spatial extent. We will review basic and advanced applications of these tools in restoration and conservation contexts.