Seed banks preserve plant diversity

Some seed gene banks contain more higher plant species per square meter than anywhere else on the planet’, write Simon Linington and colleagues of the Millenium Seed Bank, Kew, in the October issue of Biologist. This helps to ‘ensure plant diversity is available long term for use in development or habitat restoration’, they explain.

Although genetically uniform crop varieties can produce good yields, the plants may be more vulnerable to new diseases than traditional varieties. Seed banks underpin their replacement. Similarly, seed banks offer a valuable resource for reintroduction of many native wild plant species, lost through habitat destruction and fragmentation or out-competition by invading alien species.

Linington and colleagues comment: ‘Seed banking cannot directly protect ecosystems.’ However, ‘it may offer the last line of defence for many plant populations’.