Doomsday of the Arctic — World’s Largest Seed Bank
Agricultural practice has changed a lot, thanks to technology and various other factors. But there’s an increasing loss of biodiversity, which may at first, not seem like a real problem. It is crucial to conserve genetic diversity, as growing monoculture nature in variety can lead to crises like drought or disease. To conserve this many seed banks have been set up across the world. But this seed vault, also known as ‘Doomsday of the Arctic’, is different.
Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago is home to a modern scientific and engineering marvel, the safest of its kind, Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The seed vault is made to provide long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in gene banks around the world. It is like a master backup of all the gene banks. It ensures the security of the world’s unique crop genetic materials in situations like loss of seeds in gene banks due to mismanagement, accidents, equipment failures, funding cuts, and natural disasters.
Despite more than 1700 gene banks across the globe which are safekeeping collections of the food crop, they are still vulnerable to the natural and human made disasters. This can be anything ranging from a natural catastrophe to the poor management of the freezer.
How is it safer than other gene banks?
Spitsbergen is a geologically stable place with low humidity levels, this area lacks tectonic activity which means less earthquakes, much less volcanism, and comparatively uniform weather.
Permafrost and thick rock ensures freezing temperature for the stored seeds without power as well, as it is built deep inside the mountain. The site being 430ft(130m) above the sea level would keep the vault dry and functional, even when ice melts or in the worst case sea level rises. However, ever rising temperature in the Arctic is quicker than it was expected and its melting permafrost have raised some uncertainty.
The presence of coal mines in that area ensures a constant power source for refrigeration units which would cool the stored seeds to its optimal recommended temperature, which is -18°C. If by any chance, the system fails in a certain scenario, it would take several weeks for the Vault to reach bedrock’s temperature of -3°C and would take approximately two centuries to warm up to 0°C. And well, two centuries is quite a long time.
Svalbard is the farthest north a person can reach by scheduled commercial flights which gives Vault a better accessibility as and when required from any part of the world.
Capacity and Management:
The Norwegian government totally contributed and funded construction of the Seed Vault. The fund was approximately 45 million kr(USD 8.8Million in 2008), Norway and Crop trust pays for operational costs. The Vault is an opening option for the coming generation in case of crisis, to handle challenges caused by global warming and population growth. The Vault will safely conserve millions of crop varieties available in the world today, as it is built to be able to store 4.5 million varieties of crops. Each variety will contain on average 500 seeds. The genetic diversity in all these seeds will be preserved and may provide immunity ― a new strain to the challenges in the future.
Currently, the Vault holds more than 1,000,000 samples. The varieties range from unique varieties of Asian and African food staples like maize, rice, wheat, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, making the Vault the most diverse collection of food crop seeds in the world.
To ensure that they don’t pile up unnecessary duplicates in the Vault, samples stored in the Vault can be found on NordGen’s public online database. The seeds are stored and sealed in custom made three-ply foil packages. These packages are properly sealed and secured inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. The Vault ensures low metabolic activity due to low temperature, keeping the seeds viable for prolonged duration.
The Black Box System
One of the interesting facts about the Seed Vault is that storing seeds in the Vault is absolutely free of cost for depositors. There should be consistent deposition with the help of international and national laws. The Seed Vault will only agree to receive seeds that are shared under the Multilateral System or under Article 15 of the International Treaty or seeds that have originated in the country of the depositor.
The Black Box System makes sure each country or institution will still own and control access to the seeds they have deposited and only the depositor can withdraw the seeds and open the boxes.
Global Warming is putting the The Vault at risk
As per the report “The Svalbard climate in 2100”, the average temperatures for the archipelago between 2070 and 2100 will rise by 7–10 degrees Celsius because of greenhouse gas emissions which might cause loss of permafrost. The changes are already visible. In 2016, rising temperatures led to melting of ice. As a result, the floodwater breached the vault’s entrance tunnel. Although no seeds were damaged, the repair bills were quite expensive and it raised many concerns about the safety of the vault. Humans have to start prioritizing the task of addressing and tackling the root cause of climate change.
