The associated more frequent cutting, and especially the earliest possible first cut, means that natural reseeding of grassland stands hardly occurs anymore, and numerous grassland species of more extensive sites disappear. Extensive grassland contains some of the same species spectrum as intensive grassland, but differs significantly in its genetics, which have usually adapted over centuries to the prevailing regional climate, site, and management conditions.
This regional genetics represents an extremely valuable resource, especially in times of climate change, which must be preserved for future generations as well as for future breeding work.
Regular overseeding and reseeding to maintain or increase the productivity and sward density of grassland stands are now standard practices in the management of permanent grassland. When selecting seed, attention is paid to the use of high-quality varieties, usually in the form of premium seed mixtures.
These varieties, besides domestic breeding material, largely originate from companies in Northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and New Zealand. However, even the varieties bred in Austria are necessarily genetically homogenized and their characteristics are tailored to the needs of modern grassland management.
The regular sowing of this, in effect, "genetically foreign" seed gradually leads to genetic drift, which also affects extensively managed and in-situ maintained grassland stands. Through pollen input from re-seeded grassland stands, the original genetics of affected species of the extensive grassland will be increasingly and irretrievably lost in the near future without countermeasures. Therefore, collecting suitable stands in their regional variations and securing the seed material in the Gumpenstein gene bank are urgently needed.
Within the framework of this project, seeds of agriculturally important grassland grasses and herbs are being collected in the three selected habitat types of all ten major natural regions of Austria (G-Zert 2012), reproduced, and stored ex-situ in the freezer of the HBLFA Higher Federal Institute for Agriculture). This primarily serves to preserve genetic diversity, which is severely threatened by reseeding and overseeding with uniform seeds. The collected and stored material will be available in the future for breeding activities as well as regional nature conservation and landscape management measures. The data collected within this project will be integrated into the national directory of the publicly accessible Austrian gene bank.
