HOW TO PLAY

Go as "Seedhunter" on the hunt for virtual tree seeds in the forests of your surroundings.

The map view tells you your current location. There you can also see where the next virtual tree seeds are.

If you approach one of the marked locations with your smartphone, the screen will change and the name of the virtual tree seed will be displayed.

If you click on "collect" you can save the tree seed in your "vault" and get points for it. For common tree species you get fewer points than for rare tree species.

In the "vault" you can see which tree seeds you can find. If you have found one, it will be displayed in color. The number tells you how many seeds you have already collected.

If you collect several seeds of a tree species you will receive a bonus for genetic diversity. Why genetic diversity is important in climate change, you'll find out below.

Once you register, you'll be able to compete with other players and become the best Seedhunter!

GENETIC DIVERSITY

A tree seed contains all the information a tree needs to grow. For example, it contains information on how high it grows under certain conditions or how deep it must root to get enough water. But also strategies on how to deal with drought or infestation by pests are already laid out in the seed.

All this information comes from the parents of a tree. One half is from the father, the other half is from the mother of a tree. If the tree has a certain age, he can pass all this information back to his descendants. This way the information is transmitted from one generation to the next. Researchers therefore also speak of the "genetic material" or the "genome".

Just like every human, each tree has its own genome with countless information and strategies. Just think of it as a huge library. Even if the tree may never need all the information, it still exists.

Since nobody can say what the environmental conditions will be in the future, it is wise to preserve as much information as possible. For this reason, modern forestry aims to ensure that as many trees as possible can reproduce.

The highest possible genetic diversity can secure a tree species long-term survival in climate change.

But back to Seedhunter:

If you have collected more than five tree seeds of a particular tree species, we reward you with 100 bonus points for genetic diversity. If you find more than ten seeds of a tree species, you will receive another 50 points. More than 15 tree seeds bring you another 25 points. After that the genetic diversity in your "vault" is sufficiently covered and you can concentrate on other tree species.