Climate change impacts management of genebanks and botanic gardens
Climate change impacts management of genebanks and botanic gardens
Gayle M. Volk, USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, 1111 S. Mason St., Fort Collins, Colorado USA 80521<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Tara L. Moreau, University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, 804 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Learning Objectives
- Describe how genebanks and botanic gardens are conserving plant genetic resources threatened by climate change.
- Understand the ways climate change could affect ex situ plant collections and how management choices can be used to protect them.
outline
- Introduction
- Genebank and botanic garden responses to climate change threats
- The effects of climate change on plant genetic resource collection management
- Conclusions
- References
- Acknowledgments
1. introduction
Ex situ collections provide access to diverse plant genetic resources critical for developing plant-based solutions to climate change. Given the valuable service these collections provide (see chapter 3), it is more important than ever that genebank and botanical garden collection managers recognize climate change threats and respond accordingly.
The threat of climate change puts pressure on genebanks, seedbanks, and botanical gardens to collect those plants most vulnerable to loss and those most valuable for their potential resistance to pests and diseases and resilience to environmental conditions (Jarvis et al., 2008). Originally, collections focused on capturing the diversity of cultivars. Increasingly, collections are being expanded to include more wild species that might not have desirable cultivation properties but do have the potential of genetic diversity that can be used in breeding programs to overcome abiotic and biotic stressors (Castañeda-Álvarez et al., 2016).
Ex situ collection maintenance will also be impacted by climate change. New insect and disease pressures could affect collection health. Changing temperatures might affect dormancy, bloom, seed set, and harvest. It will become increasingly important for collections managers to adapt to these changes and to ensure that collections securely backed-up at secondary locations.
2. genebank and botanic garden responses to climate change threats
Genebanks, seedbanks, and botanic gardens conserve crop wild relatives and landraces. These plant genetic resources are becoming increasingly important as breeders seek novel plant traits and germplasm to adapt crops to a changing climate. Crop wild relatives could provide the necessary alleles that breeding programs need to develop crops that are more resilient to biotic and abiotic stresses (Dempewolf et al., 2014). Landraces provide access to cultivars that might already possess some desired traits and could grow in locations experiencing new weather patterns, temperature extremes, and pathogens/pests.
Crop Wild Relatives: Wild plants that are related to crops, either in the same or different species, that don’t usual