Abstract
The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) Partnership, developed and managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew), conserves propagules primarily from orthodox seed-bearing wild vascular plants. It is the largest ex situ conservation programme in the world, currently involving 96 countries and territories. Where possible, seeds are collected and conserved in the country of origin with duplicates being sent to RBG Kew’s MSB for storage. In this paper we assess the conservation value of the germplasm stored at the MSB using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The MSB holdings represent a high quality, rich biological resource. Substantial and unique taxonomic diversity exists amongst the collections, representing 365 families, 5813 genera, 36,975 species and 39,669 taxa conserved. The collections cover a wide geographic range, originating from 189 countries and territories, representing all nine bio-geographic regions and all 35 biodiversity hotspots. The collections possess significant natural capital and population value: 32% of taxa, representing 49% of collections, have at least one identified use to humans; and 74% of taxa, representing 78% of collections, are either endemic, endangered (nationally or globally) and/or have an economic, ecological, social, cultural or scientific value. While 10% of taxa, representing > 8% of collections, are either extinct, rare or vulnerable to extinction at the global and/or national level, 20% of taxa, representing 13% collections, are endemic at the country or territory scale. Over the 17-year period since 2000 at least 11,182 seed samples, representing 12% of taxa and 8% of collections, have been distributed globally for conservation, research, education and display. This analysis highlighted collection gaps in MSB holdings in relation to their geographic representativeness, the taxonomic diversity of large families and genera of angiosperms, and coverage of threatened taxa. Further analysis across the entire MSB Partnership is required to underpin future collection activities and maximize the usefulness of collections.
Highlights
The long-term storage of germplasm in the form of seeds is central to an integrated in situ and ex situ conservation strategy, and together with botanic gardens is one of the most widespread and valuable approaches to ex situ plant conservation
The total number of accepted genera and species described per family and accepted species described per genus were taken from The Plant List (2013) considering the confidence level and review status of names
Fifty percent of Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) collections originated from 355 families, 5558 genera, 30,956 species and 32,747 taxa, whilst the other 50% originated from 10 families, 255 genera, 6019 species and 6922 taxa (Appendix 1; Table 2)
Summary
The long-term storage of germplasm in the form of seeds is central to an integrated in situ and ex situ conservation strategy, and together with botanic gardens is one of the most widespread and valuable approaches to ex situ plant conservation. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) Project established in 1995 is a plant conservation partnership between RBG Kew and organizations both within the UK and across the globe. It is the largest ex situ plant seed conservation program for wild species in the world (Smith et al 1998). Seed banking remains a key part of RBG Kew’s Science Strategy (RBG Kew 2015), while contributing to Target 8 (at least 75% of threatened plant species conserved in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least 20% available for recovery and restoration programs) and Target 9 (70% of the genetic diversity of crops including their wild relatives and other socio-economically valuable plant species conserved, while respecting, preserving and maintaining associated indigenous and local knowledge) of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (CBD 2012). With one in five vascular plant species currently threatened with extinction (RBG Kew 2016), the need for such conservation measures has never been greater
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