Arctic seed vault hits 500,000 sample mark

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault said Thursday that it now has 500,000 unique samples to become the most diverse collection of crops in the world.

The new arrivals included a mold-resistant bean from Colombia and soybeans from the United States.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust marked the milestone in a brief statement. The Svalbard seed vault is designed to be insurance against loss of crop diversity due to natural or man-made disasters. It has been called the Doomsday Vault by the media. The vault opened Feb. 26, 2008 and features a fail-safe design that could withstand a nuclear holocaust or extreme global warming and keep the seeds safe.

Here’s a look at the set up of the vault, which is funded by the Norwegian government. The Global Crop Diversity Trust explains:

The Vault is dug into a mountainside near the village of Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Svalbard is a group of islands nearly a thousand kilometres north of mainland Norway. Remote by any standards, Svalbard’s airport is in fact the northernmost point in the world to be serviced by scheduled flights – usually one lands a day. For nearly four months a year the islands are enveloped in total darkness. Permafrost and thick rock ensure that, even without electricity, the samples remain frozen.

And the graphic tells construction the tale:

These milestones shed light on crop diversity efforts. It’s a noteworthy topic worth exploring more. Among the key resources to check out:

• Backgrounder on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
• FAQ on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
• The National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) in Fort Collins, Colo.
• International Treaty on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
• Reuters on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

And a video of Cary Fowler, head of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, talking at TED about crop diversity.