Data from: Matching seed to site by climate similarity: Techniques to prioritize plant materials development and use in restoration

Land management agencies are increasing the use of native plant materials
for vegetation treatments to restore ecosystem function and maintain
natural ecological integrity. This shift towards the use of natives has
highlighted a need to increase the diversity of materials available. A key
problem is agreeing on how many, and which, new accessions should be
developed. Here we describe new methods that address this problem. Our
methods use climate data to calculate a climate similarity index between
two points in a defined extent. This index can be used to predict relative
performance of available accessions at a target site. In addition, the
index can be used in combination with standard cluster analysis algorithms
to quantify and maximize climate coverage (mean climate similarity), given
a modeled range extent and a specified number of accessions. We
demonstrate the utility of this latter feature by applying it to the
extents of 11 Western North American species with proven or potential use
in restoration. First, a species-specific seed transfer map can be readily
generated for a species by predicting performance for accessions currently
available; this map can be readily updated to accommodate new accessions.
Next, the increase in climate coverage achieved by adding successive
accessions can be explored, yielding information that managers can use to
balance ecologic and economic considerations in determining how many
accessions to develop. This approach identifies sampling sites, referred
to as climate centers, which contribute unique, complementary climate
coverage to accessions on hand, thus providing explicit sampling guidance
for both germplasm preservation and research. We examine how these, and
other, features of our approach add to existing methods used to guide
plant materials development and use. Finally, we discuss how these new
methods provide a framework that could be used to coordinate native plant
materials development, evaluation, and use across agencies, regions, and
research groups.

土地管理机构正日益采用本地植物材料开展植被治理，以恢复生态系统功能并维护自然生态完整性。这种转向使用本地植物的趋势凸显了扩大可用材料多样性的需求。核心问题在于确定应开发多少种以及哪些新的种质资源（accessions）。本文介绍了解决这一问题的新方法。这些方法利用气候数据计算特定范围内两点间的气候相似性指数。该指数可用于预测现有种质资源在目标场地的相对表现。此外，在给定模拟分布范围和特定数量的种质资源时，该指数可与标准聚类分析算法结合使用，以量化并最大化气候覆盖度（mean climate similarity）。我们通过将后一种功能应用于北美西部11种已证实或潜在可用于恢复的物种分布范围，验证了其效用。首先，通过预测现有种质资源的表现，可快速生成针对某一物种的专属种子转移图；该图可便捷更新以纳入新的种质资源。其次，可探究通过连续添加种质资源所实现的气候覆盖度提升，从而为管理者提供信息，助力其在确定开发种质资源数量时平衡生态与经济考量。该方法可识别被称为气候中心（climate centers）的采样点，这些采样点能为现有种质资源提供独特且互补的气候覆盖度，进而为种质资源保存与研究提供明确的采样指导。我们探讨了本方法的这些及其他特征如何补充现有指导植物材料开发与应用的方法。最后，我们讨论了这些新方法如何提供一个框架，用于协调不同机构、区域及研究团队间本地植物材料的开发、评估与应用。