As Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg looked on, conservationists from across the globe lugged precious cargo into the entrance of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which has now been upgraded to withstand more severe worst-case scenarios that may come with climate change.
Last week’s mass deposit of seeds from 36 banks around the world was the first since the tunnel behind the facade due to heavy rainfall and melting permafrost. The seed vault was untouched, but the incident raised questions over how a facility designed to help the world adapt to climate change would itself fare as the planet warms.
The answer from the Norwegian government, which runs the €1 million-a-year building, was to throw more money at the problem. An upgrade to waterproof the vault was completed last year at a cost of €20 million, four times as much as was needed to build it twelve years ago.
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The island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard was chosen as the vault’s location because it is cold, far from other seed banks yet easily accessed by plane from Oslo in Norway.
However, the area’s climate is changing fast. Kim Holmén at the Norwegian Polar Institute, which is a few minutes drive from the vault, says Svalbard’s winters have warmed much more rapidly than its summers, due to changes in sea ice. Average winter temperatures there are now about 10°C warmer than 30 years ago.
More energy in the climate system means it is wetter too. “We also have several rain events every winter, which used to be a fluke event every five years,” he says.
Adapting to such drastic change is no mean feat. The centrepiece of the vault’s upgrade was an entirely new 100-metre access tunnel, made from sections of concrete shipped to the island for assembly. “It was a really major work,” says Grethe Helene Evjen at the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Work took place in the warmer months to enable a large chunk of the mountainside to be removed, along with the old tunnel.
But the warmer climate even made that tricky. When the topsoil that was removed to install the tunnel was put back, it didn’t refreeze as expected, making the ground unstable. Engineers fixed this hiccup with freezing technology that effectively turned the ground back into permafrost, says Evjen.
Other improvements included a more efficient cooling system that lets more areas of the facility be cooled to -18°C, and moving heat-generating equipment to a small building outside.
Another big difference is that visitors are no longer allowed inside the vault for security reasons, Solberg included. “Climate change is coming more rapidly than we thought,” she says.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the energy source for the electricity cooling the seeds: it is still powered by burning coal from the narrow seam that runs through the mountains here. Solar power is under consideration to exploit the summer sun, says Evjen. “They have to find some new sources of energy, and they have to be environmentally friendly.”
Although temperatures in Svalbard are expected to keep climbing, Holmén says Svalbard is still a good location for the vault, as it is still colder than most places. “Climate change is here to stay. There will be surprises. And the seed vault has had some surprises. But I think this [upgrade] will last more than 10 years,” he says.
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Article amended on 5 March 2020
We corrected the location of Oslo, capital city of Norway.
