The Arctic LEVELED BOOK • T

Seed Vault
A Reading A–Z Level T Leveled Book
Word Count: 1,129

Connections
Writing
Why should people protect the world’s

The Arctic
seeds? Create a slogan that shows the
importance of this task.

Seed Vault
Science and Art
Research which countries have seed
banks. Choose one of those countries
and create a poster with information
about its seed bank.

Written by Kira Freed

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The Arctic Words to Know

Seed Vault
crisis fortress
duplicates insurance
extinction preserve
facility vault
food security
Cover: The entrance to the seed vault looks beautiful in the Arctic
landscape.
Title page: A vault worker catalogs newly arrived seed samples.
Page 3: The entrance tunnel to the vault looks strange and mysterious.

Photo Credits:
Front cover, back cover: imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo; title page: © Pal
Hermansen/NPL/Minden Pictures; pages 3, 6 (inset): CPC Collection/Alamy
Stock Photo; page 4: © Kerstin Langenberger/imageBROKER/imageBROKER RF/
age fotostock; page 6 (main): © SOPHIE RAMIS, PAUL DEFOSSEUX, JONATHAN
STOREY AFP/Newscom; pages 7, 15: JIM RICHARDSON/National Geographic
Image Collection; page 8: Hemis/Alamy Stock Photo; page 9: © Yonhap News/
YNA/Newscom; page 10: © Larsen, Haakon Mosvold/AFP/Getty Images; page 11:
RALPH LEE HOPKINS/National Geographic Image Collection; page 12: © Nigel
Cattlin/Science Source; page 13: © iStock.com/xavierarnau

Written by Kira Freed

www.readinga-z.com

Focus Question The Arctic Seed Vault

Level T Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z LEVEL T
What is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Written by Kira Freed
Fountas & Pinnell P
and why was it created? All rights reserved. Reading Recovery
DRA
38
38
www.readinga-z.com
 The seed vault is protected by its remote location on an island
in the Arctic Ocean.

Food Crops in Danger!

Earth’s population is growing quickly .
Table of Contents Wars, disease, and natural disasters are
happening around the world . Concern is
Food Crops in Danger! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
growing that a crisis could wipe out important
Inside the Arctic Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 food crops . Scientists are collecting seeds in
a fortress near the North Pole in case of an
Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
emergency . They’re working to preserve plant
How It Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 species to make sure the planet’s food supply
stays safe . The fortress, which is called the
Seeds in Danger? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, is the world’s
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 largest facility for seed storage .

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 3 4

 Seed Vault Location Diagram of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
c
Canada cti ASIA
Ar ircle
C
ARCTIC OCEAN tunnel length storage rooms
EUROPE 120 meters (394 ft.)

North Pole

Spitsbergen Svalbard Global

Island Seed Vault
air shaft
GREENLAND
Greenland SEA EUROPE office
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi.)
from the North Pole.
tunnel
Inside the Arctic Circle entrance

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was named Construction of the seed
for its location in a group of islands in the vault began in 2006 and cost
nearly $8 million. Storing seeds
Arctic Ocean that belong to Norway . Builders in the facility is free for the
countries and organizations
blasted into a mountain on one of the islands that choose to do so.
and carved the vault into the rock . The seeds
are stored more than 120 meters (394 ft .) inside
The people who planned the seed vault
the mountain . They are housed under rock
chose its location for many reasons . It’s far
that is at least 40 meters (131 ft .) thick .
from big cities, yet people can reach it on
The idea for the seed vault began in the regular airplane flights . Earthquakes and
1980s . In 1984, a company set up a facility for other natural disasters are not a concern . Also,
storing seeds in an old coal mine . Scientists the location is 130 meters (427 ft .) above sea
decided it wasn’t safe enough and said a new level . That’s good protection against flooding,
facility should be built nearby . even if sea levels rise because of climate change .

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 5 6

 Perhaps the best reason for the location is
a layer of permafrost—ground that is always
frozen . Permafrost helps keep the seeds cold
naturally, which saves energy and money .
Permafrost cools the vault to several degrees
below freezing . Refrigeration units cool the
vault even more, lowering the temperature to
–18°C (0°F) . The seed vault also has generators
that could keep the refrigeration running if
Roland von Bothmer, a scientific advisor, shows the vacuum-sealed
the power went out . Even if all power failed, aluminum foil bags and glass vials used to store seeds in the vault.
however, permafrost alone would keep the
seeds cold enough . Purpose
The purpose of the seed vault is to safely
store duplicates of seeds that are kept in
other places around the world . The goal is to
preserve the world’s food plants and protect
them from accidentally being destroyed . Like
carrying an extra house key, the seed vault
is extra insurance against something bad
happening to seeds stored elsewhere .

Seed banks in countries around the world

can be in danger for many reasons . War or
severe storms can destroy a country’s seed
bank . Flooding and fire can destroy precious
Concrete and plastic fiber on the seed vault’s walls make them look like
snow and ice. The real walls are dark-colored rock. seeds as well .

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 7 8

 In addition to these big threats, poor
management and a lack of money can also
put seed banks around the world in danger .
Even something as simple as a freezer not
working right could cause an entire seed
collection to be lost . If that happened, a
type of food plant could be lost forever .
The extinction of any form of life is a great
loss to all of Earth . The Svalbard seed
vault was built to prevent that loss .

Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Jens Stoltenberg of Norway placed the first
seeds in the vault when it opened in 2008.

How It Works
The seed vault opened on February 26, 2008 .
It stores seeds from around the world . Each
of its three halls can hold about one and a half
million seed samples . Only one hall is being
used now . As of February 2018, more than one
million seed samples were stored there .

Word Wise
A sample is a small amount of something that is a good
example of the whole thing. Each sample at the seed vault
South Korea’s National Agrobiodiversity Center serves as another world is made up of about five hundred seeds.
seed vault.

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 9 10

 It’s not only important to store the seeds
of different plants, such as rice and wheat .
It’s also important to store seeds of different
kinds of rice and wheat . Certain kinds may be
less affected than others by a disease or other
threat . Preserving many different kinds of
seeds creates more possibilities for the future .
No one knows what Earth will be like one
hundred years from now . However, the more
kinds of seeds people have, the better their
chances of having enough food .

Seeds from the Philippines are packaged before being sent to the seed vault.
Helpful Seeds
Seeds from many different countries arrive The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds the seeds of a kind of
wild rice that is not harmed by an insect known as the brown
at the vault in special packages made of heavy planthopper. This insect destroys
foil . The packages are then placed in boxes . rice crops in Sri Lanka, an island
near India. Scientists are using
No one is allowed to open boxes or remove the same kind of seeds to create
seeds except for people from the country that a new kind of rice that farmers
in Sri Lanka can grow.
put each box there . The vault has security
Other seeds in the vault are
cameras, sensors, and locked doors . Strict from special kinds of beans and
rules control who can enter . According maize (corn) that are high in
certain nutrients. The beans can
to the website of Crop Trust, one of two
help people whose health suffers
Planthoppers eat rice plants
organizations that manage the seed vault, because of a shortage of those and also transmit deadly
“Unofficial security is provided by polar bears, nutrients. viruses to the plants.

which prowl the mountain outside .”

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 11 12

Foods Around the World Seeds in Danger?
Many factors play a part in people having a secure supply of food.
One of them is being able to eat foods that are part of their everyday The vault’s builders thought the seeds
lives. People around the world grow and eat different kinds of
stored there would always be safe . They
foods. For example, many people in Asian countries eat rice, and
corn is an important crop in North, Central, and South America. thought the permafrost would be there forever .
When people have a secure food supply, they can keep eating the However, a recent event caused some concern .
kinds of foods they prefer.
In October 2016, Svalbard had unusually warm
weather, which caused some permafrost to
melt . It also caused heavy rain to fall instead
of snow . As a result of these events, some
water collected at the vault’s entrance .

Earth is warming up . Svalbard’s warmer

weather raised questions about how global
warming will affect the vault in the future .
People started to wonder whether permafrost
could be counted on to keep the seeds safe .
A family enjoys choosing fruits at a local farmer’s market.

Global Warming
In addition to having enough food, Global warming is a rise in the average temperature of Earth’s
air and oceans large enough to change long-term weather patterns.
people need food that’s safe, nutritious, and
Global warming today is mainly caused by human activities.
affordable . The food must also be of good These include clearing land for farming and burning coal, oil,
enough quality to keep people healthy . All and gas. These things make large amounts of carbon dioxide gas.
This gas enters the air around Earth and traps heat close to Earth’s
these things are part of a big idea called
surface. Global warming is causing many problems, including more
food security . The goal of the seed vault is bad weather and dangers to plant and animal communities. Scientists
to guarantee that, in the future, people will expect the problems to get worse unless we cut way back on the
activities that make so much carbon dioxide.
have a supply of food they can count on .

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 13 14

 Glossary
crisis (n.) a dangerous or unstable time or
situation that demands attention
(p . 4)

duplicates (n.) exact copies of something (p . 8)

extinction (n.) the process by which an entire group

A scientist holds two vials of peas at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. of animals or plants dies out (p . 9)

The seeds were never in danger in 2016 . facility (n.) an area, building, or structure that is
The water only reached one-sixth of the way devoted to a specific purpose or task
(p . 4)
into the vault’s main tunnel . If the water had
reached the other end, water pumps would food the state of being able to find and
have removed it . Still, the government of security (n.) afford healthy and safe food in the
Norway decided to make improvements amount needed to maintain health
(p . 13)
to keep the seeds even safer . People now
watch over the vault twenty-four hours a day . fortress (n.) a building or group of buildings built
Workers are making the tunnel waterproof . to protect from attack or destruction
(p . 4)
There’s no way to know how much warmer
insurance (n.) something that gives protection
Earth will get or how the seed vault will be
against something bad or unexpected
affected . No matter what happens, people
happening in the future (p . 8)
will keep working to save the seeds . “The Seed
Vault offers long-term protection for one of the preserve (v.) to take care of and save for the future
most important natural resources on earth,” (p . 4)

notes Crop Trust’s website . “It is the final vault (n.) a place used to safely store important
backup .” things (p . 4)

The Arctic Seed Vault • Level T 15 16