Integration of seed pelletization and precision micro-climate mapping technologies direct aerial seeding in response to climate change

气候变化对加拿大森林造成了重大威胁，因为树木在一次管理轮换期间暴露在环境中50到100年。由于树木不能足够快地适应气候条件的快速变化，现有的森林可能在短时间内大面积遭受严重的生长损失、虫害破坏和其他类型的疾病。传统的再造林能力可能不足以满足需求。直接空中播种为人工种植提供了另一种选择，可以在大面积种植适合未来气候条件的理想物种或物种组合。然而，直接播种的成功并不像种植大苗那样可靠。这种较高的风险主要来自于气候和微站点气候因子的控制和预测的难度。例如，吹风可能导致种子在地面上分布不均，这反过来又会造成种子的浪费，导致一个地区的库存不足而另一个地区的库存过剩，并增加未来的间伐成本。随着籽粒重量的增加，籽粒分布更均匀，到达矿质土壤的机会更大。在保水成分的帮助下，颗粒包衣材料有助于减少出苗脱水。本研究将系统地研究种子和出苗所经历的微场地条件，开发一种根据生物物理表面（太阳辐射、温度、土壤湿度）高精度地图对景观进行分类的方法，量化造粒过程的物理和生物影响，并开发针对特定微场地条件优化的种子造粒配方。拟议的研究将集中在红云杉种子上，并将在新斯科舍省进行实地试验。期望将种子造粒与精确微站点和气候制图技术相结合，可以大大提高种子萌发和幼苗存活率，同时减少种子的使用，并为应对气候变化引起的森林更新需求提供一种经济有效的替代森林更新方法。

Climate change imposes a major threat to Canadian forests because trees are exposed to the environment for fifty to a hundred years during one management rotation. Since trees cannot adapt fast enough to rapid change from climate conditions, existing forests could suffer from severe growth loss, insect damage and other types of diseases over large areas in a short period of time. Traditional reforestation capacity may not be large enough to meet the demand. Direct aerial seeding offers an alternative for manual-planting to reforest large areas with desirable species or species mix that are suitable for future climate conditions. However, the success of direct seeding is not as reliable as planting of large seedlings. This higher risk mainly comes from the difficulty of controlling and predicting both climate and micro-site climatic factors. For example, blowing winds could cause uneven distribution of seeds on the ground, which in turn will cause a waste of seeds, lead to understocking in one area and overstocking in other areas, and increased thinning costs in the future. With increased weight, seed pellets could be distributed evenly and have a better chance of reaching mineral soil. With the help of water holding ingredients, pellet coating material could help to reduce dehydration of emerging seedlings. The proposed research will systematically study micro-site conditions that seeds and emerging seedling would experience, develop a method to classify landscape according to high precision maps of biophysical surfaces (solar radiation, temperature, soil moisture), quantify the physical and biological impacts of the pelletization process, and develop seed pelletization formulae that are optimized to specific micro-site conditions. The proposed research will focus on red spruce seeds and field trials will be conducted in Nova Scotia. It is expect that the combined seed pelletization and precision micro-site and climate mapping technology can lead to substantially increased success in seed germination and seedling survival, while reducing seed usage, and provide a cost effective alternative to forest regeneration methods in response to forest regeneration demand caused by climate change.