Building common garden arrays and developing climate-smart seed transfer zones to guide revegetation of priority habitats in high fire risk landscapes in the Great Basin and Intermountain West

This research will support and extend the scope of an ongoing shovel-ready project to develop empirical climate-smart seed transfer zones for priority forb species and guide revegetation efforts in High Fire Risk Landscapes in the Great Basin and Intermountain West. Since 2019, the Principle Investigators and cooperators have been developing a common garden array, currently including 9 test sites across ID, OR, NV, and UT, that covers a range of Great Basin and Intermountain West environments. They have been using this array, along with next generation genomic techniques, to test adaptative and genetic variation in priority forb species. All tested species are concurrently being put into seed production contracts by the prioritizing land management agencies. 

Photo Credit

USDA photo by Francis Kilkenny

To this point, the project has developed high-quality trait data for four priority forb species, with two more underway via other funding, and genomic data for six species. The data from these experiments will be used to develop climate-smart empirical seed transfer zones that can be immediately implemented to guide the use of material that will soon be available from the concurrent production contracts. All of this work is co-produced with multiple federal, state, university, non-governmental organization, and tribal partners. We seek to extend the geographic and environmental scope of the existing common garden array with the addition of sites in southern Utah and eastern Nevada, as well as one to several sites in areas representing potential future climates. 

With this funding, we will install and gather adaptive and genetic data on at least three additional priority species. In addition to extending the project into new species and sites, we wish to increase the value of the datasets we are collecting, by adding the ability to collect information on additional traits. Currently, we collect data on morphology, timing, survival, reproduction and genetics of the plants, as well as data on the soil conditions and climate that the plants experience. We wish to add data collection on physiological characteristics, because that is the main avenue through which plants adapt to their environment. In particular, we plan to collect data on water use efficiency, photosynthesis, and metabolic rates. In a time of global change, seed transfer guidance based on these data will be critical in restoring ecosystems in the face of mounting disturbances.

Objectives

Develop empirical climate-smart seed transfer zones for priority habitat revegetation forb species to guide seed collection, seed production and use of these species in post-fire revegetation and fuel-treatment projects in High Fire Risk Landscapes and other areas in the Great Basin and Intermountain West. This will be achieved by: 

1. Building on existing common garden array infrastructure with 2-3 additional sites representing new and potential future environments; 
2. Developing additional partnerships to run new sites; 
3. Installing, monitoring and analyzing a minimum of three additional priority forb species; 
4. Co-producing work with land management agencies through tight coordination of concurrent seed collection and seed production of priority forb species.

Expected Project Results 

A. Outputs:

1. Complete regional seed collections for a minimum of three priority post-fire revegetation forb species, for use in research, seed increase, revegetation and gene conservation
2. Climate-smart seed transfer zones for a minimum of three priority forb species in the Great Basin and Intermountain West
3. Physical infrastructure at additional sites to extend the environmental scope of an existing common garden array
4. Increased scientific and management capacity through training, partnerships and equipment
5. Direct guidance for collection and use of concurrently produced priority revegetation forb species
6. Addition of seed transfer models and data into aligned tools for direct public use, including the Climate-Smart Restoration Tool/Seedlot Selection Tool and the WWETAC Seed Zone Mapper
7. Update to online Western Forb Manual
8. Large adaptive trait and genomic datasets on under-researched priority forb species for use in additional basic and applied research
9. Continued direct PI consultation with stakeholders
10. Minimum of five regional, national and international conference presentations
11. Minimum of six peer reviewed journal articles
12. General technical report on developing and using common garden arrays to produce climate-smart seed transfer zones

B. Expected Outcomes:

We expect to add 2-3 additional common garden sites to an existing common garden array, bringing the array to a total of 11-12 sites representing current and future climates; collect seed, grow out, and install a minimum of three priority post-fire revegetation forb species into the common garden array; collect morphological, phenological, physiological, germination, fitness and genomic data on a minimum of three priority forb species; analyze the data and develop climate-smart seed transfer zones; deliver science to stakeholders, including Great Basin and Intermountain West federal and state land management agencies, non-governmental organizations, tribal governments, the private seed industry and the public.

C. Metrics of Success:

Metrics of success will include completion of the following stages for each priority species: 

1. Regional seed and tissue collection
2. Grow out of juvenile plants in greenhouse conditions
3. Installation of species into the common garden array
4. Collection of trait dataset from the common garden array
5. Germination experiments
6. DNA extraction and genomic analysis
7. Dynthetic analysis of all project data
8. Development of climate-smart seed transfer zones and science-delivery to stakeholders

We expect to complete the full set of success metrics for at least three priority forb species. However, we are also likely to partially or fully achieve success metrics for additional species.

Geographies and High-Risk Landscapes to be Addressed

This project revegetation of high fire risk areas across the Intermountain West, including Southwest Idaho, Central Oregon Landscape, Wasatch, Sierra and Elko Fronts, and Central Washington Initiative, with peripheral application to several other High Risk Fire Landscapes such as the Klamath River Basin and Colorado Front Range.