The latest shipment will bring to around 1.05 million the number of seed varieties placed in three underground alcoves which form the vault, known also as Noah’s Ark.Īimed at safeguarding biodiversity in the face of climate change, wars and other natural and man-made disasters, the seed bank has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million batches, or twice the number of crop varieties believed to exist in the world today. “But more importantly it demonstrates a growing global commitment - from the institutions and countries that have made deposits today and indeed the world - to the conservation and use of the crop diversity that is crucial for farmers in their efforts to adapt to changing growing conditions,” he said.Ĭommon as well as wilder varieties of grains are being sent by institutions in countries as diverse as Brazil, the United States, Germany, Morocco, Mali, Israel and Mongolia. Department of Agriculture, National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation.“The large scope of today’s seed deposit reflects worldwide concern about the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on food production,” Schmitz added.
"We’re seeing in several of the soybean varieties intriguing traits that could allow farmers to confront such problems as drought or extreme heat, shorter or longer growing seasons, or higher levels of CO2 ," said Dave Ellis, curator at the U.S. Other seeds shipped to the doomsday vault include: semi-dwarf wheat and rice from the early 1960s disease-resistant soybeans and the German pink tomato, a hardy sweet-flavored tomato transported to Iowa in 1883 by a Bavarian immigrant. "Svalbard is a fail-safe backup to be used whenever a depositing seed bank loses part or all of its collection, but we should focus equally on averting the disasters in the first place," Fowler said. Material directly acquired by plant breeders to develop disease-resistant and "climate-ready" crops, and to meet the challenge of rapidly growing populations, is maintained by genebanks, not the seed vault. Like all seeds coming to the vault, the new ones are duplicates of those from other collections. "Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the facility. "Anyone seeking access to the seeds themselves will have to pass through four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door approximately 115 meters down the tunnel and finally the two keyed air-locked doors," the Trust writes. The preciousness of such seeds is reflected in the inaccessible nature of the vault. "The region on Svalbard surrounding the Seed Vault is remote, severe, and inhabited by polar bears," according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which helps to support the vault’s operations. The arctic permafrost offers natural freezing for the seeds, while additional cooling brings the temperatures down to minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius).Īnd if the mountain of snow enshrouding the storage rooms isn’t enough protection, what better body guard than one of nature’s biggest beasts. The Vault is dug into the Platåberget mountain, which means "plateau mountain," and is located near the village of Longyearbyen, Svalbard – a group of islands north of mainland Norway. It will hold 4.5 million different agricultural seed samples from around the world. The vault, which has been described as Noah’s Seed Ark and a Doomsday Vault, was dug into a mountainside in Norway’s arctic Svalbard islands. 24, 2008 in Longyearbyen, Norway, outside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed as a safety net for the world’s crop diversity. "Reaching the half million mark brings mixed emotions, because while it shows that the vault at Svalbard is now the gold standard for diversity, it comes at a time when our agriculture systems are really sitting on a knife’s edge," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which partners with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center in Sweden in operating the vault.įowler added, "If crops and agriculture don’t adapt to climate change, neither will humanity."Ī guard armed with a rifle stands guard Sunday, Feb. 26, 2008, is meant to protect the world’s crop diversity from natural or manmade disasters. The giant icebox of sorts, which was officially opened on Feb. With these new deposits, the so-called Svalbard "Doomsday" Global Seed Vault will reach its half-million mark of seed varieties. From the article: 'The 'doomsday' vault built into an Arctic mountain, which stores seeds for food crops in case of a natural. Opened in 2008, the vault is designed to withstand all natural and human disasters. A mold-resistant bean, a German pink tomato and a wild strawberry plucked from the flanks of a Russian volcano are just some of the crops whose seeds are being tucked away this week in a giant vault dug out of a mountainside of the Norwegian island Svalbard. An anonymous reader writes 'The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built into an Arctic mountain, received its first delivery of tree seeds.
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