As climate change becomes a very real global problem, scientists are stocking up the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a collection of crop seeds from around the world intended for what’s been nicknamed as “doomsday.” In anticipation of a global need for food in the future, 10,000 new varieties of food crops from around the world have recently been added to the vault. The vault, which is stationed on a Norwegian island in the arctic, is a potential safeguard to protect the world’s crops, managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT).

 

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault already hosts over 825,000 samples of seeds from around the world, but the recent additions amp up the vault’s crop contents. The new deposit of 10,000 seeds includes shipments from four gene banks around the world- Bulgaria, Colombia, India and Taiwan. These gene banks store seeds for crops from over 100 countries worldwide.

 

The new deposit includes food crops such as wheat, barley, corn, chickpea and millet. In addition to these grains, the deposit also includes a variety of African vegetables like okra and amaranth.

 

The vault is intended to safeguard future food supply from disasters such as climate change, war and natural disasters, but also increased demand by a growing population. With the effects of climate change in mind, the vault will maintain crop diversity, as well as preserve plants varieties so future research to develop plants that can withstand climate change.