Stashing seeds in 'Noah's fridge'
Researchers worldwide are collecting seeds from wild plants to guard against the ravages of climate change.
from the June 13, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
On these grounds, scientists involved in MSBP roundly reject comparisons to Noah's Ark: Only two members of each species wouldn't preserve nearly enough genetic information to create a viable population. "Noah's fridge" is slightly more palatable, says Michael Way, the Americas coordinator in the seed conservation department of the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens near London, which houses MSBP. But even this designation falls short. MSBP's seeds aren't hoarded and stored away for when the metaphorical floodwaters subside. "There's an active exchange taking place so that our partners are benefiting," says Mr. Way. "They're able to do their job in-country better."
Here's an example: Dalea azurea, a flowering shrub that grows in only one Chilean valley, nearly ceased to exist in the wild, mostly due to habitat loss. By 2003, seeds were so hard to find that even banking prospects for future reintroduction looked dim. But, working with Chilean conservationists, the MSBP grew Dalea in greenhouses. In the end, they succeeded in increasing their seed store, ensuring the possibility of the plant's future restoration in Chile.
But ultimately, seed from banks like MSBP might be used in much larger-scale – and more controversial – restoration projects.
Plants that define an ecosystem, what scientists call "keystone species," may need help migrating as the global climate changes. If the plains of Illinois are predicted to have the climate of Texas in 100 years, for example, prairie grasses growing there will have to withstand the conditions of present-day Texas, says Pati Vitt, manager of conservation programs at the Chicago Botanical Garden.
But with both natural and unnatural obstacles between two regions, and the rate of change so rapid, scientists worry that species migration won't happen on its own. So some propose "assisted migration" – aiding vegetation shifts by planting southern species in the north ahead of predicted climatic shifts.
An even more controversial approach involves hybridizing northern species with southern ones to make plants that will be more tolerant of the future climate.
Such proposals raise a host of questions: What should an ecosystem that never existed in a particular place look like? What happens if "assisted" species hurt the plants already there? Whatever the resolutions to these and other questions, without seed banking efforts now, such tactics won't be possible in the future, says Dr. Vitt.
"We maybe have a very narrow window of time where we still have a level of geographic range and diversity and plants that are producing seeds," she says, from a field site near a highway in Illinois. "I can't tell you how narrow that window is.… I don't know. But we do have a sense of urgency."
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