Botanic Gardens Trust Sydney Australia

Kim Hamilton

Position

Rainforest Seed Project coordinator

Branch

Science & Public Programs

Section

Conservation & Horticultural Research
Mount Annan Botanic Garden

Email

kim.hamilton@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au

Phone

+61 2 4634 7968

Fax

+61 2 4648 2465

Role

My main role is coordinator and researcher for the Rainforest Seed Project. This 3 year project (2008-2011) has been made possible by the support of the Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation (Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney) through generous donations from Allianz and two private benefactors.

The conservation of seed of wild plants worldwide is recognised as a vital component to plant conservation. Seed conservation facilitates access to existing plant biodiversity for restoration and horticultural uses, especially for food crops and medicinal plants important to humanity, in the event of climatic changes and other catastrophic events (e.g. pests and disease, weeds and habitat fragmentation).

The Millennium Seed Bank Project (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) in the UK is a large scale project to conserve plant diversity by seed conservation through partnerships worldwide. The Seeds for the Future is part of SeedQuest NSW which is a partner in the Millennium Seed Bank project. Seedbanking is a cost effective way of conserving vulnerable species outside of their natural habitat but not all species, especially many rainforest species can survive the seedbanking procedure. The Rainforest Seed Project investigates the seed biology of Australian rainforest species with the aim of contributing to the conservation of threatened species in the wild.  We will screen species for their ability to be seedbanked and for really vulnerable species, alternative conservation measures such as cryostorage and tissue culture will be investigated.

Research interests

  • Rainforest and tropical plant conservation
  • Seed ecology and storage physiology
  • Alternative conservation technologies (cryostorage and tissue culture)
  • Crop diversity and wild relatives

Keywords

Rainforest, diversity, seed biology, desiccation sensitivity, plant conservation

Key publications

Refereed international journals

  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore, S.E. and Pritchard H.W. (2009) Thermal analysis and cryopreservation of seeds of Australian wild Citrus species (Rutaceae): Citrus australasica, C. inodora and C. garrawayi. Cryoletters 30 (4), 268-279
  • Hamilton K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A. (2008) Morphological characterization of seeds of three Australian wild Citrus species (Rutaceae): Citrus australasica F. Muell., C. inodora F.M. Bailey and C. garrawayi F.M. Bailey. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 55 (5), 683-693.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A. (2008) Desiccation and cryopreservation tolerance of near mature seeds of Citrus garrawayi. Seed Science and Technology, 36 (1), 157-161.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A. and Pritchard H. W. (2007) Seed morphology and ultrastructure in Citrus garrawayi (Rutaceae) in relation to germinability. Australian Journal of Botany, 55 (6), 618-627.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A. (2005) Development of conservation strategies for Citrus species of importance to Australia. Acta Horticulturae, 694, 111-115.

Book chapters/monographs

  • Hamilton, K.N., Turner, S.R. and Ashmore S.E. (2009) Chapter 7 Cryopreservation. In  Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia. Strategies and Guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections. Ed. Offord, C.A. and Meagher, P.F. Fully Revised Edition. Australian Network for Plant Conservation Inc., Canberra, 129-148.
  • Hamilton, K.N (2009) Case Study 7.1 Seed cryopreservation of Australian wild citrus - Australia’s unique wild citrus diversity. In Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia. Strategies and Guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections. Ed. Offord, C.A. and Meagher, P.F. Fully Revised Edition. Australian Network for Plant Conservation Inc., Canberra, 143-144.
  • Hamilton, K.N. (2008) Protocol 19.7.2 Cryopreservation of wild Australian citrus seed In Pritchard, H.W., Nadarajan, J., Cryopreservation of orthodox (desiccation tolerant) seeds (485-501) In B.M. Reed (ed.) Plant cryopreservation: a practical guide. Springer: Berlin, p.496.

Newsletters

  • Hamilton, K. (2008) Australia’s unique wild citrus diversity. Samara, 14, 3.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore, S.E. and Offord, C.A. (2009) National Projects - Development of conservation technologies for Australia’s rainforest and tropical native fruits. Crop Wild Relative, 7, 10-12.
  • Hamilton, K.N. and Ashmore, S.E. (2008) Development of conservation technologies for Australia’s rainforest and tropical native fruits, 17 (1) Australasian Plant Conservation, 30-31.

Conference papers

  • Hamilton K., Offord C., Cuneo P., Ashmore S., Deseo M. and Shepherd K. (2009) Rainforest Seed Project. Native Seed Forum, 3-4 September, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Ashmore, S.E., Parisi A., Hamilton, K. N and Offord C.A. (2009) Cryopreservation of native Australian fruits and crop wild relatives. 1st International Symposium on Cryopreservation in Horticultural Species, 5-8 April 2009, Heverlee, Belgium.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Offord, C.A. and Cuneo, P. and Ashmore, S.E. (2008)
    Australian Rainforest Seed Project: investigating conservation options for significant and threatened Australian rainforest species. Saving a Sunburnt Country: Challenges of species adaptation in a heating land, 12-13 November, Sydney, Australia.
  • Hamilton K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A., Pritchard H.W. (2007) Effects of natural distribution of Australian wild Citrus on phase transitions of seed oils and cryopreservation. In ‘The 2nd International Society for Seed Science Meeting on Seeds and the Environment Conference Proceedings’. Perth, Western Australia, September 2007  (eds S. Turner, D. Merritt, S. Clarke, L. Commander & K. Dixon) Kings Park and Botanic Garden: Perth, 29.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A. (2005) Investigations on desiccation and freezing tolerance of Citrus australasica seed for ex situ conservation. In ‘Proceedings of the Fifth Australian Workshop on Native Seed Biology’. Brisbane, Queensland, June 2004. (eds Adkins, S.W., Ainsley, P.J., Bellairs, S.M., Coates, D.J. and Bell, L.C.). ACMER: Brisbane, 157-161.
  • Ashmore S.E., Hamilton K.N., Pritchard H.W. (2007) Development of Conservation Biotechnologies in Response to Target 8 of the GSPC. ‘Proceedings of the Third Global Botanic Gardens Congress’, Wuhan, CHINA, (http://www.bgci.org/files/Wuhan/PapersConserving/Ashmore.pdf).

Conference posters

  • Hamilton, K.N., Offord, C.A. and Cuneo, P. and Ashmore, S.E. (2008)
    Australian Rainforest Seed Project: investigating conservation options for significant and threatened Australian rainforest species. Tree Seeds 2008: Trees, Seeds and a Changing Climate, September 22- 27, Sussex, UK.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R.A. (2005) Seed conservation studies in rare and threatened wild relatives of citrus in Australia. In: ‘First International Conference on Crop Wild Relative Conservation and Use Book of Abstracts’, September 2005, Sicily ITALY, p. 79.
  • Ashmore S.E., Parisi A., Hamilton, K.N., Zulucki J. (2005) Conservation strategies for recalcitrant-seeded species in Queensland. In. ‘Abstracts of the Eighth International Workshop on Seeds’, 8-13 May 2005, Brisbane AUSTRALIA, p. 30.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Ashmore S.E., Drew R. A. (2005) Investigations of ex situ conservation of Australian Citrus species: seed storage, embryogenesis and cryopreservation options. In. ‘Abstracts of the Eighth International Workshop on Seeds’, 8-13 May 2005, Brisbane AUSTRALIA, p. 84.
  • Drew R.A., Ashmore S.E., Azimi M., Hamilton K.N., Parisi A, O’Brien C. and Kaity A (2005) Cryopreservation of Tropical Fruit Species. In ‘3rd International Symposium on Biotechnology of Temperate Fruit Crops and Tropical Species Program and Abstract Book’, October 10-14 2006, Daytona Beach, Florida USA, p.45.
  • Hamilton, K.N., Drew R.A., Ashmore S.E. (2005) Development of ex situ conservation techniques for Citrus inodora: a threatened rainforest species of northern Queensland. In International Symposium on Biotechnology of Temperate Fruit Crops and Tropical Species Program and Abstract Book’, October 10-14 2006, Daytona Beach, Florida USA, p. 46.

Thesis

  • Hamilton, K.N. (2007) Ex situ conservation of Australian Citrus species: investigations on seed biology, cryopreservation and in vitro culture. PhD thesis, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

kim-hamilton
Kim Hamilton

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Rainforest of Nightcap National Park, northern NSW

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Australian rainforest fruits and seeds