Security for seeds
In the far north, burieddeep in thepermafrost of Spitsbergen,
liesa rather unusual treasure. It doesn’t containgold, silver or
diamonds, but over 783,000seedsamples fromaround4,500
cropplants,whicharekept in theSvalbardGlobal SeedVault.
This representsaroundone thirdof all knownseedvarieties. The
project aims topreserveseeds fromall cropplants.Whenstored
at a temperatureofminus18degrees, theseeds canpotentially
survive for thousandsof years. Asgeneticbackup copies, they
canbeused to re-establishcrops in theeventof natural disasters.
Photo:©MatthiasHeyde
