Biodiversity, including agricultural biodiversity, continues to decline at an alarming rate. We are losing ecosystem, species and genetic diversity from many global production systems. This will have extensive consequences, particularly in communities that cannot afford agricultural misfortune and accustom sustainable practices. In response to concerns arising from a changing, drying climate and increasing human pressures on the environment, 193 countries have signed international treaties such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and there are other groups such as the Global Crop Diversity Trust and Biodiversity International which fund seed banks.
Seed banks maximises use of storage space, has relatively low labour demands as well as the capacity to maintain large samples and are the most cost effective way to preserve seeds. Seed banking is seen as a safeguard against environmental catastrophe and/or disease so that in the event of devastation seeds can be retrieved from the 'bank'. The stored seeds and seedling materials are also used for breeding varieties, conservation genetics, disease susceptibility and scientific research into seed biology. It can be argued that saving seeds for restoration projects are of the highest importance to the maintenance of genetic diversity as restoration promotes genetic diversity and has an important role for seed dispersal in the population.
The Svalbard Seed Bank in Norway is the most well known international seed vault and can store up to 4.5 million seeds. Built inside of a mountain in 2008 and costing US$9 million, the vault was created to further conserve seeds as seeds can lose germination in seed banks. Samples are sent in from all over the world which can be retrieved at any time. The location was selected as the ground of the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen is permafrost which acts as a fail safe as the natural circumstances will not let the vault rise above -18°c or 0 Fahrenheit. Kew Gardens in London works part of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, an international agreement into the research and conservation of threatened species, that already has banked 10% of the world's wild plant species and plans to have stored 25% by 2020.
Entrance to and inside Svalbard Seed Vault
The collection and storage of seeds in seed banks represents the most efficient means of capturing and protecting current levels of biodiversity. Collections represent a global resource that is made freely available to the rest of the world. Conservation of seed is very important as a means of protecting the world's natural heritage as storing seeds will reduce the threat of extinction of crop and native plant species. Potentially the seeds being saved may present the solution to environmental issues in the future.
Images Courtesy of:
1. Seed Bank Storage photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/5979324552/">CIMMYT</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
2. Svalbard Seed Vault Enterance photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/croptrust/4577268899/">Global Crop Diversity Trust</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a
3. Inside Svalbard Seed Vault photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/croptrust/3851518425/">Global Crop Diversity Trust</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
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