Right around the world, seed banks have been working together to collect and store as many plant species as possible. Storing seeds is actually something that's been done for a while now. So scientists reckon tucking a few of these little things away now could end up being really handy in the future, especially if anything bad happens on Earth. That could leave people without the plants or seeds they need to grow food. Other plants could be wiped out by natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, climate change, or even war. Many useful kinds of plants aren't being grown by farmers anymore, and they're becoming rare. Scientists say the vault is super important for a few reasons. They're stored at freezing temperatures, which kind of freezes them in time so the seeds can still grown into plants centuries later. That includes seeds to grow wheat, barley, potatoes and almost a 150,000 types of rice. Deep in the mountain, there are 865,000 types of crop seeds. The vault was actually built to protect the world's most precious produce from destruction- plants. Despite the name, there aren't any nuclear weapons or bad guys with cats hiding away here. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!ĪMELIA MOSELEY: Deep in the Arctic, on the very edge of civilization you can spot the tip of a building that looks like something straight out of a spy movie.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning. 100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.Follow Live Science, Facebook & Google+. You can learn more about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and take a virtual tour of the underground facility by visiting the Crop Trust website.įollow Elizabeth Palermo techEpalermo. In total, the vault can handle about 2.5 billion seeds (or about 500 seeds each from about 4.5 million varieties of crops). Right now, the vault holds just less than 865,000 seed samples from all over the world, but it's capable of holding many more. Located about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from the North Pole, the area surrounding the vault is extremely remote, secluded and home to a number of polar bears. There are also the Svalbard archipelago's most notorious security guards to consider. The vault is secured by four sets of locked doors, according to the Crop Trust. Should the power at the facility fail for any reason, the seeds will likely stay frozen thanks to the permafrost that covers the vault.Īnd there's very little chance that any ne'er-do-wells could make off with the world's most precious supply of seeds. Seeds stored in the Svalbard vault, which is built right into a sandstone mountain and covered in a thick layer of permafrost, are kept at an icy minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius). "If something were to happen to one of those collections around the world, they can always come back to the seed vault and retrieve what might have been lost," Lainoff told The WorldPost. Constructed as a sort of last-ditch effort at protecting plants from extinction, the seed bank is meant to serve as a backup for gene banks like ICARDA, Lainoff said.
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