15 May 2020
Dr Elinor Breman
Senior Research Leader
Department
Team
Millennium Seed Bank Partnership
Specialism
Conservation, notably of seeds, and sustainable use of plants, improvement of livelihoods and habitat restoration. Data management, palaeoecology, ecology
I have been working in seed conservation at RBG Kew since 2013. During this time I have helped shape and develop the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP) through a variety of roles. I currently oversee the projects and partnerships that comprise the MSBP as the head of the Seed Conservation Team at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank. We work together with international partners around the world to ensure the future of wild plant species.
- DPhil, Palaeoecology, University of Oxford, 2010 (Pattern and process in grass-dominated ecosystems: vegetation dynamics at the grassland-savanna ecotone in South Africa during the Holocene)
- MSc, Forestry and its Relation to Land Use, University of Oxford, 2000
- MA, Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, 1998
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Banking the world’s seeds
The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership safeguards wild plant diversity and enables its sustainable utilisation through global partnership.
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Adapting agriculture to climate change
Collecting and protecting the wild relatives of the world’s most important food crops to safeguard our future food security in a changing climate.
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Alpine seed conservation and research network
Conserving more than 500 species from the European Alps by collecting seeds and storing them ex situ in seed banks.
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Enhancing rural Caucasian livelihoods through fruit and nut conservation
Protecting important fruit and nut species in Georgia and Armenia through rural community engagements, ex situ seed conservation and research.
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Global Tree Seed Bank Programme
Conserving some of the world’s rarest, endangered and useful tree and shrub species as well as conducting vital tree conservation research in order to retain a significant resource for humanity.
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UK National Tree Seed Project
Ensuring that high quality, genetically diverse seed and associated data from UK trees and shrubs are available to support conservation and research.
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UK Flora Project
Enhancing the UK collections stored in the Millennium Seed Bank with a focus on threatened and useful species, and optimising the storage and germination protocols for these collections.
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UK Native Seed Hub
Mobilising Kew's seed collections, facilities and expertise "to enhance the resilience and coherence of the UK's ecological network by increasing the quality, quantity and diversity of native plants and seeds available for conservation and habitat restoration."
Breman, E., Détraz-Méroz, J., Terry, J. & Lambelet, C. (2019)
Ex situ conservation storage potential of Saxifraga (Saxifragaceae) bulbils from alpine species.
Biologia 74:1621–1625.
Breman, E. (2019).
Saving the future: conservation in action. The Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The Jane Grigson Memorial Lecture. Proceedings of the Oxford Food Symposium.
Liu, U., Kenney, S., Breman, E. & Cossu, T. A. (2019).
A multicriteria decision making approach to prioritise vascular plants for species-based conservation.
Biodiversity and Conservation 234: 221-240.
Rivière, S., Breman, E., Kiehn, M., Carta, A., & Müller, J. V. (2018).
How to meet the 2020 GSPC target 8 in Europe: priority-setting for seed banking of native threatened plants.
Biodiversity and Conservation 27: 1873–1890.
Liu, U., Breman, E., Cossu, T. & Kenney, S. (2018).
The conservation value of germplasm stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK.
Biodiversity and Conservation 27: 1347.
