Home field advantage?

Woolridge, C.B., Fant, J.B., Flores, A.I., Schultz, K. and Kramer, A.T. (2023), Variation in overall fitness due to seed source: projections for predictive provenancing. Restor Ecol, 31: e13717. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13717

Written by Eve Beaury, Bethany Bradley, and Grace Gutierrez

Summary

If environmental conditions are not changing, locally-sourced plant material may produce the best restoration outcomes because nearby seeds/plants are well-adapted to local environmental conditions. But given the rapid pace of climate change, plant material that is adapted to a site’s future, rather than current, climate conditions may increase long-term restoration success (termed ‘climate-adjusted provenancing’; Prober et al. 2016). To ask whether sourcing plant material adapted to future conditions could improve restoration outcomes, Woolridge et al. (2023) conducted a common garden experiment using three plant species commonly used in Midwest restoration: Allium cernuum, Chamaecrista fasciculata, and Rudbeckia hirta. For each species, they planted seeds collected locally, from a southern climate zone (adapted to future, warmer conditions) and a northern climate zone (adapted to cooler conditions, more representative of the site’s historical climate). Seed source strongly influenced plant establishment and seed set, but surprisingly, each species’ performance was highest for a different seed source location. For A. cernuum, northern-sourced plants performed best, for C. fasciculata, southern-sourced plants performed best, and for R. hirta, locally sourced plants performed best. Therefore, plant performance for seeds sourced from different provenances is likely to vary across species.

Take home points

• Plant performance depended on species and on seed source location: locally-collected seeds performed best for R. hirta, warm-adapted seeds performed best for C. fasciculata, and cool-adapted seeds performed best for A. cernuum

• This study reveals no clear pattern in support of stronger plant performance for local provenancing vs. climate-adjusted provenancing

Management implications

• Seed sourcing to increase genetic diversity is probably still our best bet for ensuring long-term restoration success

• If working with Allium cernuum, Chamaecrista fasciculata, or Rudbeckia hirta, this paper’s results suggests seed provenances that will maximize plant performance

Related Papers

Millar et al. 2007; Prober et al. 2016; Gann et al. 2019; Pike & Haase 2024; Bucharova et al. 2016; Anderson & Wadgymar 2020; Hampe & Petit 2005

Keywords: Climate-smart restoration, assisted migration, assisted gene flow, climate adjusted provenancing, forest, managed relocation, plants, restoration