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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.