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Doomsday Vault: First Tree Samples Arrive At Underground Seed Store

Posted by samzenpus on from the last-hope dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built into an Arctic mountain, received its first delivery of tree seeds. Opened in 2008, the vault is designed to withstand all natural and human disasters. From the article: "The 'doomsday' vault built into an Arctic mountain, which stores seeds for food crops in case of a natural disaster, has received its first delivery of tree samples. Norway spruce and Scots pine seeds have arrived at the frozen vault, which is located on Svalbard, an archipelago owned by and north of Norway. The organizations behind the vault hope to bring more seeds from outside of the Nordic countries. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will now look after the samples and use them to monitor how natural forests change. They will also keep them as back-ups, in case any of the species are lost, and to see how the forests change during breeding."

55 comments

  1. But what if they mix with the Virus Vault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And the whole planet is quickly repopulated with trees and oxygen levels plummet? Then only Bender Rodriquez will be able to save the day...

    1. Re:But what if they mix with the Virus Vault by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      On a more reality-based note...

      How in the hell are the survivors (who would be practically random) going to know...

      1) that such a thing exists
      2) where (exactly) it is
      3) how to get there (and back) without dying of something in the process (exposure, starvation, ocean storms, etc)
      4) (assuming generations later) how to read the content labels, instructions, etc ...?

      It's a nice gesture and all for nearly any other scenario, but a *lot* of assumptions would have to be made for this to be viable in a no-shit doomsday scenario. At one point in human prehistory, it was estimated that a small extinction event reduced us to around 100k people, globally. That's a pretty scattered dispersion, and assuming a similar number of survivors in some future doomsday scenario, the odds are almost lottery-sized against putting it to use.

      I'm not saying they should give up (far from it, actually) - I just think that maybe, just maybe they should expand on the idea a bit, and consider a few factors that seem awfully important when planning for a global doomsday scenario.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:But what if they mix with the Virus Vault by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1, Funny

      How in the hell are the survivors (who would be practically random) going to know...

      1) that such a thing exists

      Ask professor Farnsworth

      2) where (exactly) it is

      It's right next to Germ Warfare Repository

      3) how to get there (and back) without dying of something in the process (exposure, starvation, ocean storms, etc)

      If the barking snakes can survive, I trust humans can too.

      4) (assuming generations later) how to read the content labels, instructions, etc ...?

      Because of where it is, I'm guessing that most vandals and meth-head copper scavengers will not be looking for it. I don't know what language they are using,but how long has it been since anyone has spoke Latin? we can still figure that out, so there's some hope. If the human species needs instructions on how to plant a fucking seed, all of your above questions are irrelevant.

    3. Re:But what if they mix with the Virus Vault by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      If the human species needs instructions on how to plant a fucking seed, all of your above questions are irrelevant.

      ...so I give you a bag of seeds labelled "fwqnuiohuio", but don't tell you it's a plant that won't do very well outside of a warm-to-semi-tropical region, the plant fruits are underground but the plant itself is otherwise useless for food, it requires a *lot* of water during the latter phase of fruiting else you've wasted your time, and oh - it stands a great chance of giving a not-insignificant percentage of folks who eat the results a nasty case of anaphylactic shock.

      Maybe cultural memories would help them recognize what a peanut is? Not sure if it'd help them know how to grow the things...

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    4. Re:But what if they mix with the Virus Vault by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      On a more reality-based note...

      How in the hell are the survivors (who would be practically random) going to know...

      1) that such a thing exists
      2) where (exactly) it is

      They can just click on the link in the summary! I know RTFA is anathema here, but this is taking it a bit far.

    5. Re:But what if they mix with the Virus Vault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to think that any doomsday scenario means a 'restart culture from stone-age'. In that case, this place won't work.

      Partial doomsday scenarios are perhaps more realistic. A limited nuclear war or virus or a global large climate change reduce the human population to a few % of what it is today - and wipes out many species of plants. The survivors might retain sufficient grasp of technology to operate remaining ships. They may also remember enough history to know where to look for the seed vault, when the time comes to re-introduce missing plants.

  2. Cool entrance! by QilessQi · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm pretty sure Aperture Science used the same architect.

    --
    Koans and fables for the software engineer
    1. Re:Cool entrance! by TimSSG · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure Aperture Science used the same architect.

      So far your post is the only one good. I hope some more good posts happen or it going to look like Slashdot has gone to seed. Tim S.

    2. Re:Cool entrance! by TWX · · Score: 1

      At the time I post this there are fifteen comments rated zero and above. None of them are really worth reading. Slashdot has indeed gone to something, but the only things it has in-common with 'seed' are the first letter and the same number of characters.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:Cool entrance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it 'saki'?

      Because, for the most part, when I come here, saki is what I want to drink.

    4. Re:Cool entrance! by TWX · · Score: 1

      I don't think you want to drink what it is, unless you're Austin Powers...

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  3. "Seed-Box"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does it have internet? And can we put an indestructable piratebay-server there?

  4. All natural disasters? by pr0t0 · · Score: 1

    Survive this!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
    1. Re:All natural disasters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, came here to note what a dumb assertion that is...

    2. Re:All natural disasters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A death star? How can that be natural?

    3. Re:All natural disasters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wow. I don't know where to begin with all of the inaccuracies and impossibilities in that video. It was clearly made by someone with a very vivid imagination and a serious lack of actual scientific knowledge. All capped off by an inattention to detail. Here's the 10 most obvious flaws (to me, at least):

      1) When the asteroid is approaching Earth, why is it glowing as if it's already on fire? It's a big ball of space rock. The burning wouldn't begin for a few million more miles as it enters the atmosphere.
      2) The asteroid survives the descent through the atmosphere intact and without shedding any debris.
      3) The impact takes way the hell too long. It wouldn't slow down much as it blasted through the atmosphere, so that dramatic slow descent before impact is pure bullshit.
      4) There is an instant and light-speed-breaking shockwave at the moment of impact. Impossible.
      5) A wave of fire spreads across the ocean. In reality, such an impact would cause a massive wall of water, not fire.
      6) The firestorms wouldn't happen. The steam generated by the heat of the impact would extinguish them. Also, the atmosphere is nearly 80% nitrogen. A sustained firestorm without fuel (and the fiery clouds are clearly separated from the ground) is nearly impossible.
      7) There would be one hell of a cloud of steam and debris. It wasn't pictured at all.
      8) Due to #7, there would be a "nuclear winter". So most likely everyone would freeze to death, not burn to death.
      9) The crater would be much smaller, submerged underwater, and any magma that was released into it might form an island. It certainly wouldn't have a glow visible from space. (How far underwater can you see? Yeah. And that's a lot less than 11 km, which is where ocean trenches bottom out.)
      10) The idiots that made that video did a pan around the earth at the end, but there's no sun anywhere nearby. What, did the asteroid kick its ass too? No? Then it's just the dumbass graphics modeling team that forgot that particular detail. Or more accurately, left it out because the earth is "darkening" and it interfered with the OMG HORRIFFIC DOOM they were trying to project.

      It's just typical bad Discovery Channel crap. It makes for good TV (at least for morons that don't cringe when they watch it), but it's scientifically crap.

      Consider that video survived.

    4. Re:All natural disasters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I do agree with you in general, I think you're taking it too far. As I read it, it's more or less implied that it is meant to survive any disasters that leave human population partially intact. If we're all dead, there's no one to take advantage of the seeds anyway...

  5. Norway has a Doomsday Vault ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Mr President, we must not allow a Doomsday-Vault gap!

  6. Good, but not adequate. Do it right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone knows you also should have an off-site backup. I think perhaps the moon or even better an asteroid in Langrangian points L1 or L2 would work even better. We'd have to shield against radiation and cosmic rays of course.

  7. To paraphrase Mark Twain by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

    "Man is the only animal that plans for doomsday. Or needs to.”

    1. Re:To paraphrase Mark Twain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Man is the only animal that plans for doomsday. Or needs to.”

      One could argue the dinosaurs might have needed to plan for doomsday as well.

    2. Re:To paraphrase Mark Twain by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

      "Man is the only animal that plans for doomsday. Or needs to.â

      That worked out really well for the wooly mammoth, dodo bird, all of the dinosaurs, or anything else on this list.

    3. Re:To paraphrase Mark Twain by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

      Although TFS includes natural disasters under the category of "doomsday", I was enlisting Mr. Twain to satirize the fact that humans are perhaps more likely to cause their own extinction than the wooly mammoth, dodo bird, all of the dinosaurs, or anything else ever were. Self-extinction isn't really a proclivity that any sensible animal would have - even a dodo.

      But now that you mention it, weren't humans also responsible for most of the recent extinctions on your list? (We can't take the blame for the really old ones, or course, like the dinosaurs.) Just think how much better off passenger pigeons were before they met (European) humans.

    4. Re:To paraphrase Mark Twain by matfud · · Score: 1

      Us humans are really good at killing things. If it is profitable we can use and abuse it until it is totally gone. Hurm why do I fear that some things do not change.

    5. Re:To paraphrase Mark Twain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mark Twain was an idiot redneck. Right off the top of my head, ummm, squirrels. Squirrels prepare yearly for their doomsday. They look like they're doing fine.

  8. Target... by eth1 · · Score: 1

    So, I guess we know where the cataclysmic meteor will strike!

    1. Re:Target... by pspahn · · Score: 1

      We've known for awhile. Slashdot Beta seems to have been rolled out and it's clear where the destruction has taken place.

      40 second page loads /.? Really?

      --
      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
  9. Able to withstand all disasters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Opened in 2008, the vault is designed to withstand all natural and human disasters."

    Never underestimate the power of humanity's ability to destroy. I have a 2 year old and I have learned that destruction is simply a part of who we are.

  10. Oh yeah by ArcadeMan · · Score: 0

    They will also keep them as back-ups, in case any of the species are lost, and to see how the forests change during breeding.

    Tree porn! Yeah!

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  11. Insult to injury... by Dareth · · Score: 0

    Insult to injury...The world will be coming to an end, and I won't even have the comfort of knowing that, "at least all them damn pine trees are going to die too."

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  12. In Norway, but North of Norway? by bluelip · · Score: 1

    How can something be in Norway and North of Norway at the same time?

    --

    Yep, I never spell check.
    More incorrect spellings can be found he
  13. Withstand all natural and human disasters? by elgatozorbas · · Score: 1

    ... and lined with Nokia phones.

  14. If I had modpoints... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    -1 Anal

  15. Re:Good, but not adequate. Do it right. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows you also should have an off-site backup. I think perhaps the moon or even better an asteroid in Langrangian points L1 or L2 would work even better. We'd have to shield against radiation and cosmic rays of course.

    Having an off-site seed bank is about as worthwhile as feeling good about the spare tire you left at home in the garage after you totaled your car in an accident.

  16. Vault by tquasar · · Score: 1

    That sounds silly. Darwin must be turning over in his grave.

  17. doesn't DNA age or lose fidelity ? by vpness · · Score: 1

    I'm not slightly a DNA expert, so this is a question for those who may be. But doesn't the DNA in the seeds degrade ? Does storing them in a vault protect them from stuff that makes them degrade? if not too expensive, the concept is interesting. tho, with our nascent ability to inject DNA into another cel, wouldn't we be better off storing both the seed, and a copy of the dna for that seed, stored digitally (or carved in stone).

    1. Re:doesn't DNA age or lose fidelity ? by firewrought · · Score: 1

      I'm not slightly a DNA expert, so this is a question for those who may be. But doesn't the DNA in the seeds degrade ? Does storing them in a vault protect them from stuff that makes them degrade?

      Quoting the Wikipedia article on seed banks:

      Depending on the species, seeds are dried to a suitably low moisture content according to an appropriate protocol. Typically this will be less than 5%. The seeds then are stored at -18C or below. Because seed RNA (like our DNA) degrades with time, the seeds need to be periodically replanted and fresh seeds collected for another round of long-term storage.

      The bad news is that recalcitrant seeds can't be stored this way, so no cocoa, mango, avocado, or rubber.

      --
      -1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
    2. Re:doesn't DNA age or lose fidelity ? by cdrudge · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They will still age and degrade, but the cold temperatures and lack of oxygen due to their packaging prolong the process. It's kind of like a sealed or open package in your fridge and freezer. The better sealed and the colder stored, the longer whatever it is will last...but only up to a point.

      Depending on the seed type it may only be a relatively short time, say a dozen or two years, or it may be decades or much much longer for a more hardy seed. Whatever that time limit is, seeds can be rotated out, planted, and hopefully new generations grown to be refrozen perpetuating the cycle.

  18. Acorns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How will they store seeds that are not viable for more than a few months under natural conditions (e.g., acorns)?

    1. Re:Acorns by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      They're frozen, silly. That's why it's in Svalbard (go look it up on Google Maps). It's pretty close to cryogenic storage up there.

  19. Scandinavians by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here again, the Scandinavians prove they are the most superior culture on the planet. While much larger nations with far more resources are spending on their resources on military adventurism and weapons systems (including nations who also have possessions far north of the Arctic Circle, namely Russia), the Scandinavians have the highest quality of life in the world and are looking out for the future with this seed vault.

    1. Re:Scandinavians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Norway isn't exactly poor. Far from it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway
       

    2. Re:Scandinavians by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I never said they were poor. However, they have a really small population compared to the US, Russia, and China, and a much smaller GNP as a result. So why aren't those countries doing useful things like this?

    3. Re:Scandinavians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because it's pointless. Because it's utter foolishness to give them a warm fuzzy feeling.

      This kind of idiocy is why there are only 5 million Norwegians and their culture exists entirely at the pleasure of stronger cultures (i.e. America saving them from Germany). Did you know that Norway and Sweden spent most of the 20th century sterilizing their own people that they deemed 'deviant' (e.g. a young woman hangs out with a motor cycle gang, nosy neighbors report her, authorities sterilize her).

      Svalbard is a good case study: The Svalbard Treaty allows Norway to administer Svalbard but grants all citizens and companies of the treaty countries the right to live and work there... but instead of Svalbard becoming an amazing experiment, the Norwegian government hoards all the land, doesn't allow development, and has conditions on who can live there contrary to the treaty.

      Do you know why there isn't a country call 'Scandinavia' unified in the same way that the German states unified? Because the Scandinavian countries all hated each other too much to unite. There is a long list of Swedish towns where the Danes wiped out every Swedish man, woman, and child that lived there.

    4. Re:Scandinavians by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      The US has a nasty history with regard to slavery and the treatment of indigenous peoples, but that doesn't have much bearing on its current culture.

      I'm not talking about Scandinavian culture 100 years ago, only right now.

    5. Re:Scandinavians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here again, the Scandinavians prove they are the most superior culture on the planet. While much larger nations with far more resources are spending on their resources on military adventurism and weapons systems (including nations who also have possessions far north of the Arctic Circle, namely Russia), the Scandinavians have the highest quality of life in the world and are looking out for the future with this seed vault.

      Well it must be said that Norway does in fact develop quite a few of those weapons for you..
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    6. Re:Scandinavians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you know that Norway and Sweden spent most of the 20th century sterilizing their own people that they deemed 'deviant' (e.g. a young woman hangs out with a motor cycle gang, nosy neighbors report her, authorities sterilize her).

      Yeah, that description involves quite a bit of artistic freedom. The reality was as gruesome as can be, but no one benefits from mangling history beyond recognition.

    7. Re:Scandinavians by jandersen · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Here again, the Scandinavians prove they are the most superior culture on the planet

      As a Dane, I can confirm this in full; also, we are tall, blond, honest and noble.

      However, we are not the only ones to have a seed bank - Wikipedia lists 5 major facilities: The millennium Seed Bank in UK, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the Australian PlantBank, the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry and National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in the US, as well as several smaller ones in India.

  20. Read With Swedish Chef Accent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Interviewer: So you are receiving your first tree samples?
    Biologist: Ya, it's very exciting!
    Interviewer: What kind of trees are they?
    Biologist: Whut? I don't understand?
    Interviewer: The trees? What kind are they?
    Biologist: Trees don't have a kind? They have a number?
    Interviewer: No no. Are they spruce or elm or oak?
    Biologist: We got the flowers...
    Interviewer: What? I thought you saved seeds?
    Biologist: We got tree flowers. One, two, tree...

  21. Re:This is needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Monsanto owners should be jailed or better, shot, becouse they are poisoning the world and humans.