Exploring Seed Bank in Mahuva Taluka of Bhavnagar District: A Comprehensive Survey

A seed bank is a structure or holding area created to preserve plant seeds for future generations.  In the face of habitat loss, climate change, and overexploitation, seed banks are crucial to preserving genetic variety, which is necessary for plant species to survive.  They guarantee the preservation of seeds from economically significant, rare, and endangered plants so that they can be reintroduced into ecosystems as needed (National Research Council, 1993). Furthermore, seed banks are an essential tool for reforestation, habitat restoration, and preserving agricultural biodiversity (Hawkins et al., 2007).  By providing resistance to environmental disruptions, these collections can also act as insurance against the extinction of plant species in the future. Mainly 3 types of seed bank such as Ex Situ Conservation Seed Banks, In Situ Seed Banks and Community Seed Banks

Significance of Seed bank

By preserving genetic variety and storing plant seeds, seed banks aid in the preservation of uncommon and endangered plant species.  Seed banks help protect species that might be endangered by habitat destruction, climate change, and human activity by preserving seeds of native plants (Smith et al., 2003). In ecological restoration, they are crucial to efforts to restore habitat, particularly in regions impacted by land degradation, desertification, and deforestation.  The seeds required for grassland rehabilitation, wetlands restoration, and reforestation can be obtained via seed banks (FAO, 2021). The agricultural sustainability also based on seed banks, it promotes sustainable agricultural methods by keeping a variety of crop seed collections, especially traditional and indigenous types.  These cultivars are resistant to pests and diseases and are well suited to regional climates (Harlan, 1992).  Thus, by offering a resource for robust crops, seed banks support food security (Lamb, 2017). Seed banks are essential for preserving seeds from species that can withstand drought and flooding, as climate change intensifies extreme weather events. (According to Robinson et al.2018), these seeds are crucial for bolstering agriculture's and ecosystems' resistance to shifting climatic trends. This study was conducted in Gujarat, India's Nana Asrana, Mahuva, Bhavnagar, which has a variety of ecosystems, including wetlands, grasslands, woodlands, riverbanks, desert areas, and agricultural plains.  With rare species that represent both arid and semi-arid environments, the region is biologically rich.  In order to support the larger goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management, the study focuses on the gathering of seeds from these diverse habitats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Sites

The natural richness of the area was taken into consideration when choosing the study locations.  An excellent place to study seed variety across different habitats is Nana Asrana, Mahuva, Bhavnagar, which offers a diverse range of coastal plains, dry zones, and agricultural fields.  The area's plant species' biological richness and significance offered a solid foundation for seed collection, which is essential to the goals of the study.

Seed collection and documentation

The gathering of mature and viable seeds, seed collecting was done during each ecosystem's busiest time of year. The name of the plant species, the kind of environment, and the growth conditions were all included in the complete information labeled on each seed sample.  Geographic coordinates and environmental information were also labeled. To prevent contamination, all seeds were put in the proper containers, like glass jars or paper envelopes (Lamb,2017;Sharma et al.,2020;Smith et al.,2003).