Smart seed for automated forest restoration.
ABSTRACT: Aerial seeding may be an effective way to restore forest ecosystems on inaccessible or remote sites; it has been used for almost 80 years in agriculture and now is a widespread practice for post-wildfire revegetation in the US, to reduce soil erosion. The main advantage is rapid seed delivery over large areas, but its use has been limited by high costs, technical limitations, seed wastage, lack of precision and unpredictable success rates. Furthermore, aircraft have rarely been used to deliver the multi-species mixtures of native forest tree species that are required for ecosystem restoration, particularly in the tropics. Recent technological improvements in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's, i.e. “drones”) present new opportunities for cost-effective restoration in remote areas. A re-evaluation of existing aerial sowing technologies, combined with new approaches, currently under development, is therefore timely, to increase the effectiveness of drone-based seed delivery systems.
The development of seed-enablement technologies (SET), such as seed priming and coating could greatly improve the success of aerial seeding of native forest tree seeds by drones. If correctly applied to native seeds, SET could help overcome some of the main factors that limit seedling recruitment, e.g. seed predation, suboptimal edaphic and microclimatic conditions, biotic/abiotic stresses and competition from surrounding plants. This review, focuses on currently available solutions, and outlines the research paths that could lead to the cost-effective use of SET in drone-based forest restoration.
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