Making every seed count - Creating multifunctional regional seed mixtures for permanent grassland – A strategy for maintaining genetic diversity in commercially produced seed

农民（以及更广泛的社会）需要更具弹性的物种混合物来维持其高产的永久草地，以减少对定期耕作和重新播种以及矿物肥料和除草剂投入的依赖。由几种改良的禾草、豆科植物和牧草组成的多物种草地已经证明了抗旱能力的提高，同时在不使用碳密集型合成氮肥的情况下仍能提供经济水平的生产。然而，在这些混合物中使用的物种数量仅限于那些在播种条件下表现良好并具有经济生产种子的物种。许多其他具有潜在效益的物种仍然是从新的或现有的草地上生产商业数量的种子和容易建立的挑战。对包括英国农村调查数据在内的关于草原的科学证据和文献的探索，将确定在英国多物种混合草原中成功生长的物种（以及这些物种的特性）。这一证据将作为选择物种的基础，这些物种可用于为未来草原提供种子的试点方法。为草原创造和恢复工程提供乡土种子的途径有三种。它们可以从自然或野生种群中收集，从管理的自然种群中生产，或在栽培种子生产系统下生产。这三种方法有不同的优点和局限性，特别是在捕获种群中物种遗传多样性的能力方面。该项目将研究选定的对牲畜、生物多样性、土壤或更广泛的生态系统服务有益的本地植物种子生产的创新方法。目的是利用创新的植物繁殖技术来增加种子储备，这些种子将从不同的自然栖息地收集。该项目将根据欧洲本地种子生产者协会（ENSPA）的最佳实践指南测试种子收集方法。它还将测试创新的植物繁殖技术，这些技术允许永久维持从原始收集中建立的植物，以延长生产第一代种子库存的能力，从而保持原始收集的最大遗传多样性。最后，它将测试各种种子发芽技术（分层，切割，收获后成熟和发芽刺激激素处理），以最大限度地提高所收集种群的代表性，同时减少任何有意识或无意识的选择压力。

Farmers (and wider society) need more resilient species mixtures for their productive permanent grassland in order to reduce dependencies on regular ploughing and re-seeding and mineral fertiliser and herbicide inputs. Multi-species leys, which consist of several species of improved grasses, legumes and forage herbs, have demonstrated the improved resilience to drought while still providing an economical level of production, without the use of carbon-intensive synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. The number of species used in these mixtures, however, is limited to those that perform well under sown conditions and have seed that is economically produced. Many other species with potential benefits remain a challenge to produce commercial quantities of seed from and to establish readily into new or existing grassland.An exploration of scientific evidence and literature on grasslands including data from the GB Countryside Survey, will identify the species (and the properties of those species) that grow successfully within multi-species grassland mixes across GB. This evidence will be used as a basis for selecting species which can be used to pilot approaches for seed provision for the grasslands of the future.There are three approaches to supplying native seeds for grassland creation and restoration projects. They can be collected from natural or wild populations, produced from managed natural populations or produced under cultivated seed production systems. These three methods have different advantages and limitations, particularly with regards to the ability to capture the genetic diversity of a species in a population.This project will investigate innovative methods of seed production for selected native plants which have beneficial properties for livestock, biodiversity, soil or wider ecosystem services. The aim is to use innovative plant propagation techniques to multiply up seed stock which will be collected from diverse natural habitats. The project will test approaches for seed collection in line with best practice guidelines of the European Native Seed Producers Association (ENSPA). It will also test innovative plant propagation techniques which allow for the perpetual maintenance of plants established from the original collection in order to prolong the capacity to produce 1st generation seed stock, thus maintaining the maximum genetic diversity of the original collection. Finally it will test a variety of seed germination techniques (stratification, scarification, post-harvest maturation and treatment with germination-stimulating hormones) in order to maximise the representation of the collected population while reducing any conscious or unconscious selection pressures.