The Svalbard Doomsday Global Seed Vault is surpassing 500,000 samples to become the most diverse collection of seeds in history, notes the Barents Observer.
Just days after celebrating its second anniversary, the seed vault received thousands of new seeds this week.
These will push its collection to more than half a million unique samples, NRK reports.
The vault was established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds from locations around the world in an underground cavern built 120 metres inside a frozen mountainside.
The vault holds duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks in other locations. It's intended to act as an insurance against the loss of seeds in gene banks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large scale regional or global crises.
500,000 seeds and counting
Svalbard's seed vault safeguards the most diverse collection of seeds in history.
Published: 12.03.2010 12:59
