Andres Samantha E, Lieurance Paige E, Mills Charlotte H, Tetu Sasha G, Gallagher Rachael V
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.
AirSeed Technologies, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
Plants (Basel). 2024 Aug 14;13(16):2256. doi: 10.3390/plants13162256.
Native seeds are a finite resource, and their inclusion in revegetation is vital for supporting restoration outcomes that are both effective and scalable. Pelletized seed enhancement technologies (SETs) offer a promising solution to improve seed use efficiency in ecological restoration. Yet, knowledge of how diverse suites of native species perform when pelletized is required to optimize the application of SETs to the many species and ecosystems where restoration is required. Using a greenhouse trial of 64 Australian plant species, we assessed species performance to pelleting by evaluating (1) overall species amenability to pelleting based on total emergence and survival and (2) how pelleting modifies the rate of emergence based on average time to emergence, emergence rate index, and time spread of emergence. We investigated the potential for using morphological seed traits (seed endosperm:seed ratio, seed length, seed area, and seed coat thickness) to predict performance outcomes, by identifying traits that may aid in the prediction of species amenability to pelleting and emergence speed when pelletized. We found that some species demonstrate high amenability to pelleting and that pelleting can modify the emergence rates for many species. This work advances our understanding of the applicability of SETs for diverse native species, demonstrating the application of such technologies for meeting ecological restoration goals.
本地种子是一种有限的资源，将它们用于植被恢复对于实现有效且可扩展的恢复成果至关重要。造粒种子增强技术（SETs）为提高生态恢复中种子使用效率提供了一种有前景的解决方案。然而，为了优化SETs在众多需要恢复的物种和生态系统中的应用，需要了解不同种类的本地物种在造粒后的表现。通过对64种澳大利亚植物进行温室试验，我们通过评估（1）基于总出苗率和存活率的整体物种对造粒的适应性，以及（2）造粒如何根据平均出苗时间、出苗率指数和出苗时间分布来改变出苗率，来评估物种对造粒的表现。我们通过识别可能有助于预测物种对造粒的适应性以及造粒后出苗速度的特征，研究了利用种子形态特征（种子胚乳与种子比例、种子长度、种子面积和种皮厚度）预测表现结果的潜力。我们发现一些物种对造粒表现出高度适应性，并且造粒可以改变许多物种的出苗率。这项工作推进了我们对SETs在不同本地物种中的适用性的理解，展示了此类技术在实现生态恢复目标方面的应用。
