In case of a global catastrophe, what happens to our plants? What would happen if a plant species was wiped out due to global warming, epidemics, species extinction, or a weather disaster? What if genetically modified seeds contaminate the last strain of  an important heirloom crop? Some smart researchers figured out a long time ago that seed banks might save us from ourselves. Like fallout shelters for plant DNA, seed banks are doomsday vaults that protect seeds against natural and human-caused disasters.

Photo courtesy of the University of Illinois Extension Urban Programs Resource Center.

Seed banks store duplicates of seeds from seed collections from around the world, allowing protected species to be reestablished using the stored seeds. Seeds saved may be of historical interest or economic importance (such as food crops), or they may be conserved to protect plant biodiversity.

Nikolai Vavilov started one of the world’s first seed banks in Leningrad during the 1920s. He organized a series of global expeditions, collecting seeds from all over the world to create the world’s largest plant seed collection. In WWII, when the 28-month long Blockade of Leningrad resulted in a dramatic reduction of the city’s food supply and the starving of city’s population, Vavilov’s staff faithfully guarded the edible seeds–one of them starved to death in the process.

Shown at right is the University of Illinois Extension Urban Programs Resource Center., a new seed bank located on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. A partnership between the Norwegian government, the Norway Gene Trust, and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Svalbard vault is built into an Arctic mountainside. The temperature will be maintained at -18 Celsius (about 0 Fahrenheit) once the facility opens in February 2008.

Photo courtesy of the University of Illinois Extension Urban Programs Resource Center.

There are already about 1,400 seed banks in the world–nearly every country has one. Seed banks are not always indestructible–Iraq and Afghanistan seed banks have been destroyed in the wars, and the Phillipines’ seed bank was destroyed last year in a typhoon. The facility in Svalbard is intended to be a backup vault for all countries.

To store seeds, they must be dried to have a moisture content of no more than six percent and stored at -18 Celsius or lower. Some seeds are called orthodox seeds, which means they become naturally dormant in cold, dry environments. They can remain viable for decades. Recalcitrant seeds, conversely, can’t be stored at low temperatures without being damaged, so they can’t be stored in seed banks. Even the viability and DNA of orthodox seeds degrades over time, so they need to be taken out of storage and exchanged before on a regular basis.

I’m glad researchers invented seed banks, but let’s hope we never have to use them. Posted by: Caroline Brown    Source

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