Prairie Sustainability through Seed Storage, Beneficial Microbes, and Adaptation

Healthy prairies contribute numerous benefits, such as providing habitat for wildlife and pollinators, maintaining and improving water quality, stabilizing roadsides, and providing a sustainable source of materials for bioenergy production and other products. Since European settlement the once vast expanses of Minnesota prairie covering 18 million acres have been reduced to small remnants totaling about 235,000 acres. With this decline has also come a drastic reduction in the genetic diversity of the various species typical of Minnesota prairies. This has resulted in inbreeding of remnant species populations, which reduces the robustness of plants and can result in yet further population decline. Researchers at the University of Minnesota are using this appropriation for efforts aimed at protecting the long-term health and sustainability of remaining prairie in the state by collecting prairie plant genetic material for long-term preservation, collecting and studying microbes that promote prairie plant health, and examining the capacity for prairie plants to adapt to changing conditions. Information and resources derived from this effort will contribute to improving restoration techniques and ensuring healthy prairies into the future.