保护种子免收气候变化影响

 　　Located on the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic, the Global Seed Vault¹ is home to millions of seeds.

　　The facility is surrounded by permafrost and is naturally cooled to around -3 degrees Celsius².

　　And the main vault is cooled even further to -18 degrees Celsius to guarantee that crops preserved here can survive for hundreds of years.

　　Michael Koch with the Global Crop Diversity Trust pays a rare visit to the facility.

　　"Here you have world agriculture in one room. 860,000 different types of accessions from more than 60 different institutions coming from virtually every country on earth."

　　保护种子免收气候变化影响

　　The labels on the hundreds of boxes give an indication of where they come from: the rice gene³ back in the Philippines, seeds from dry areas from ICARDA and maize⁴ from Mexico.

　　And new shipments are arriving all the time.

　　Cross-breeding allows scientists in gene banks to select specific traits and develop new climate-resilient crops as the need arises.

　　Koch says the vault plays a constructive⁵ role in cross-breeding so as to maintain crop diversity:

　　"You don't know what you're going need 20, 30, 50 years from now. Here you have the options for creating these better crops by using this diversity."

　　Meanwhile, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization plays a key role in defending crop diversity and food security.

　　Shakeel Bhatti, FAO Secretary at the International Treaty on plant genetic⁶ resources for food and agriculture, says the genetic heritage preserved in the vault will help to diversify⁷ crops:

　　"To produce climate-smart food crops, we will need to draw upon the genetic variability and the genetic traits that are conserved⁸ in the genetic variations and diversity of seeds that are now presently stored in seed banks, but also increasingly now in the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard."

　　Seeds preserved in the vault are duplicates. In other words, they are back-ups in case gene banks fail.

　　And the vault has already proven its worth.

　　In September, precious seeds that were originally bred in war-stricken Syria were dispatched to Morocco and Lebanon to be duplicated to reconstitute stocks.

　　For CRI, I'm Victor Ning.

1 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

2 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

3 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

4 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

5 constructive   

adj.建设的，建设性的

参考例句：

• We welcome constructive criticism.我们乐意接受有建设性的批评。
• He is beginning to deal with his anger in a constructive way.他开始用建设性的方法处理自己的怒气。

6 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

7 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

8 conserved   

v.保护，保藏，保存( conserve的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He conserved his energy for the game. 他为比赛而养精蓄锐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Under these conditions, the total mechanical energy remains constant, or is conserved. 在这种条件下，总机械能保持不变或机械能保存。 来自辞典例句