Arctic doomsday seed vault gets more than 14,000 new samples
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -A "doomsday" vault storing food crop seeds from around the world in man-made caves on a remote Norwegian Arctic island will receive more than 14,000 new samples on Tuesday, a custodian of the facility said.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set deep inside a mountain to withstand disasters from nuclear war to global warming, was launched in 2008 as a backup for the world's gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.
Protected by permafrost, the vault has received samples from across the world, and played a leading role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria.
"The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them," Executive Director Stefan Schmitz of the Crop Trust said in a statement.
The new contributions include a sample of 15 species from Sudan, consisting of several varieties of sorghum - a plant that is significant both for the country's food security and its cultural heritage, the Crop Trust said.
The war between the Rapid Support Forces and the army which broke out in April 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 12 million, while plunging half of Sudan into hunger and several locations into famine.
"In Sudan...these seeds represent hope," the director of Sudan's Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre said in a statement.
The total of 14,022 new samples will be deposited at 1430 GMT, including seeds of Nordic tree species from Sweden and rice from Thailand, the Crop Trust said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
Musician records sound of climate change in Arctic
The sound of Arctic wind howling through the strings of Sarah Smout's carbon fibre cello on the pack ice connected to the North Pole is like nothing she has heard before. She joined a group of artists from all over the world on a trip to research and be inspired by the "breathtaking and absolutely vast" landscape of the Arctic Circle. The musician and poet spent 16 days on board a specially-equipped ship in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and experienced temperatures of -15C. She said she saw climate change happening before her eyes as "cracks began to form on the ice, a large shelf broke off and we were hurried back onto the boat, no longer safe on the drifting piece of ice". Smout is using music, words and sound recordings to make her debut album, which will focus on climate change in the Arctic. "Music is a brilliant way to bring people together, speak to their hearts and minds and inspire them to make decisions themselves to bring about positive change," said Smout. "We are witness to the climate changing all around us, but none so dramatic and fast as in the Arctic. "It might be far away but what happens there affects all of us." She said visiting Svalbard had made her more driven than ever to bring the sounds she has recorded to the wider public. She hopes listeners will connect to what is happening in that part of the world and be encouraged to protect it. Smout said her current research was about water and that she and her cello, which she has named Bernard, had been on many adventurers to explore nature. "I've always been fascinated by the Arctic and I think being in places and getting a sense of the place first hand sparks my own creativity," she said. Smout used a hydrophone to record under water and said the sounds she had collected, such as creaking glaciers, would speak for themselves on her album. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. The race to save the fastest-warming place on Earth Arctic 'doesn't want you to survive', says explorer before mission
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches Sirius XM radio satellite to orbit, lands rocket on ship at sea (video, photos)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX launched the SXM-10 satellite for SiriusXM early Saturday morning (June 7), adding another spacecraft to the company's broadcasting constellation. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying SXM-10 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday at 12:54 a.m. EDT (0454 GMT). The rocket's first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes later as planned, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the eighth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Among its previous missions were the Crew-9 and Fram2 astronaut flights and the liftoff on Jan. 15 of this year that sent two private moon landers — Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience — toward Earth's nearest neighbor. Blue Ghost aced its lunar touchdown on March 2, but Resilience crashed during its landing attempt on Thursday (June 5). Related stories: — SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Sirius XM radio satellite (video) — SpaceX completes 1st Starlink direct-to-cell constellation with launch from California (video) — SpaceX: Facts about Elon Musk's private spaceflight company The Falcon 9's upper stage carried SXM-10 to geosynchronous transfer orbit high above Earth on Saturday, deploying it there about 33 minutes after launch as planned. The 14,100-pound (6,400 kilograms) satellite, which was built by Maxar Technologies, will now maneuver to join SiriusXM's radio constellation, adding its own capabilities to the mix. Saturday's launch was SpaceX's second for SiriusXM in just six months; a Falcon 9 lofted the SXM-9 satellite in early December 2024. SpaceX has now launched 69 Falcon 9 missions in 2025. Fifty-one of them have been dedicated to building out the company's Starlink broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
NASA says no decision yet on whether next Boeing Starliner flight will carry crew
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The earliest Boeing's Starliner spacecraft could fly again is early 2026, NASA said on Friday, as it evaluates whether to put humans on board one year after propulsion system issues on the capsule forced its debut crew to stay on the International Space Station for roughly nine months.
