Seeds for the future

Monday, October 14, 2024

Seeds for the future

By: Karime Holguin

This image is showing us how if we are able to transform not only our way of living but how it can all be tied to sustainable development as well as people's quality of life through the use of seeds. It also goes over the seeds based solutions on species level and ecosystem level this allows us to put a larger spectrum on this research (Mattana et al., 2022).

How can seeds contribute to the future? We might think that seeds are very small and not important to our future, but seeds are so much more than that. Seeds are very high value once you start to notice how many other ways, we are able to use seeds as well as store them. We have always relied on our NCP’s (Nature's contributions to people’s), those being as simple as food, water and biodiversity, which have started to decline. We have caused this to decline because we have had a lot of habitat loss and degradation as well as one that we are all familiar with that is pollution. How can we try and reverse this problem that humans have caused? We can start by looking into seeds. Seeds offer the human population new ways to help our natural capital. Not only are their existence value important, for instance that it can allow flowering plants to move in space and time, but their usage value is also important. We can use seeds for our economic growth like commercial crop varieties as well as perhaps indirect use or optional value such as nutritional and medical value. Seeds are structures composed of different compartments, those being the embryo, endosperm and maternal tissues. Seeds tend to have a high phenotypic plasticity (ability to adapt in diverse environments) which allows them to adapt to climatic changes. Dispersal of seeds allows them to avoid intraspecific competition as well as other seedlings; this lowers the risk of predation. Seeds are mostly dispersed by animals which can go back to increasing our NCP’s. If we are able to create a seeds bank with seeds that are native to where we live, we would be able to restore some of our ecosystems. As well as storing them for their use value and unlocking nutritional and medical value will not only help with the decline of our NCP’s but we can improve people's quality of life as well. There is still a lot of research needed to be done on how we would be able to conserve seeds for example we would need to consider long-term storing of our seeds. One problem that could arise from that would be pests. Considering seeds for our future does not sound so bad once you realize how much seeds actually contribute to our world.

Original article citation: 

Mattana E, Ulian T, Pritchard HW. 2022. Seeds as natural capital. Trends Plant Sci. 27(2):139-146.