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，因为在一次管理轮换中，树木暴露在环境中长达50至100年。由于树木不能足够快地适应气候条件的快速变化，现有森林可能在短时间内遭受严重的生长损失、虫害和其他类型的疾病。传统的植树造林能力可能不足以满足需求。直接飞播为人工种植提供了一种替代方案，可以在大片地区重新造林，种植适合未来气候条件的理想物种或物种组合。然而，直播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对气候和微场地气候因素的控制和预测的困难。例如，刮风可能会导致种子在地面上分布不均，进而造成种子浪费，导致一个地区库存不足，其他地区库存积压，并增加未来的间伐成本。随着重量的增加，种子颗粒可以均匀分布，并有更好的机会到达矿质土壤。在保水成分的帮助下，颗粒包衣材料有助于减少出苗的脱水。拟议的研究将系统地研究种子和出苗苗木将经历的微场地条件，开发一种方法，根据高精度的生物物理表面图(太阳辐射、温度、土壤湿度)对景观进行分类，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进行优化的种子造粒公式。拟议的研究将集中在红云杉种子上，田间试验将在新斯科舍省进行。预计种子颗粒和精确的微站点和气候测绘技术相结合将大大提高种子萌发和幼苗存活的成功率，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森林更新方法替代方法。

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.