They’ve also been sending the seeds to scientists around the world who are researching drought-resistant crops for which these particular varieties happen to show potential. Over the past five years, they’ve grown more than 100,000 plants from them - and returned 81,000 seeds to Svalbard to replenish what they withdrew. In 2015, the staff withdrew the seeds from the Norway vault and moved them to backup locations in Morocco and Lebanon. It was a heroic mobilization that saved many unique varieties of chickpeas, lentils and alfalfa that otherwise might have been lost.īut getting the seeds to safety was just the start. ![]() Before they did, they shipped their entire inventory to Svalbard. In 2014, the staff of a seed bank outside of Aleppo were forced to flee. But until five years ago it had never had a withdrawal. Since it opened in 2008, it has received over one million samples. Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the largest seed bank in the world. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food handles the administration.Three great stories we found on the internet this week. The Norwegian government owns the vault, which is built of angular concrete. For example, Australian wild rice is resilient to pests and disease. The seeds’ genetic traits make them vital if a species of plant is wiped out by war, drought or floods. The Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 as a way to protect and preserve seeds in case of worldwide agricultural calamity. Even if the power fails, the temperature inside would eventually stabilize at -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which is low enough to preserve the vault’s contents for decades.Īschim said media headlines citing global warming as the cause of the permafrost melt were speculation, but that is one of the theories scientists are investigating. The permafrost acts like nature’s refrigerator. JUNGE, HEIKO/AFP/Getty ImagesĪrctic 'doomsday' vault seeks to protect world's most precious data Like the nearby Global Seed Vault, the new bunker is built underground on a remote Arctic island. ![]() Remediation efforts include removing power transformers from the entrance of the tunnel, allowing fewer people into the tunnel, and building waterproof walls inside the tunnel entrance, Aschim said. ![]() But “we will not take any chances,” Aschim said. She said the management team, along with climate scientists from University Centre in Svalbard, don’t know if the event was part of a long-term cycle or if it will escalate. ![]() “We have seen changes the ground is looser and the permafrost has not settled as planned,” Aschim said Friday. Hege Njaa Aschim, a spokeswoman for the management company, Statsbygg, said water seeped only about 15 meters in to part of an access tunnel during the “very unusual warm and rainy October.” The seeds were unharmed by the water breach. Carved into the side of a mountain, the vault holds more than 500 million seeds from around the globe that could be used to recreate food supplies. The Global Seed Vault is beneath the icy permafrost of Svalbard, midway between Norway and the North Pole. Unseasonably warm temperatures last fall caused water to breach the entrance to the Arctic’s so-called “Doomsday” seed vault, one of humanity’s last hopes after a global catastrophe, the company that manages the vault said last week.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |