People

Manger, Kirstine (née May)

Job Title Seed Conservation Assistant
Department Seed Conservation
Section Curation
Science Teams Millennium Seed Bank Project
Joined Kew 2000
Foreign Language(s)

Qualifications & Appointments

BSc (Hons), Thames Polytechnic, 1989

Role

Processing and curation of seed bank collections.

To assist with the daily processing of seed collections for long-term storage and conservation. This includes the initial receipt and assessment of incoming collections, checking the associated field data and accessioning on to the seed bank database. Cleaning, x-raying, counting, banking and germination testing of the received collections is also performed. If necessary, regeneration and harvesting of relevant collections is carried out. Research into dormancy issues and germination testing for a variety of collections within the families Aizoaceae, Cactaceae, Crassulaceae, Ericacaceae, Gentianaceae and Saxifragaceae is also undertaken.

Projects

Seed Responses to Climate Change and Environmental Extremes

Solving Seed Germination Problems in Conservation Collections

Selected Publications 2001-2005

Hay, F.R., Mead, A., Manger, K. & Wilson, F.J. (2003).One-step analysis of seed storage data and the longevity of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds. Journal of Experimental Botany 54: 993-1011.

Selected Publications pre-2001

Dickie, J.B., May, K., Morris, S.V.A. & Titley, S.E. (1991). The effects of desiccation on seed survival in Acer platanoides L. and Acer pseudoplatanus L. Seed Science Research 1: 149-62.

Pritchard, H.W., Tompsett, P.B., Manger, K. & Smidt, W.J. (1995). The effects of moisture content on the low temperature responses of Araucaria hunsteinii seed and embryos. Annals of Botany 76: 79-88.