Jonathan Drori: Why we're storing billions of seeds

翻译人员: xiaomin chen 校对人员: Chaoran Yu

All human life,

所有人类生命，

all life, depends on plants.

所有生命，皆赖于植物。

Let me try to convince you of that in a few seconds.

让我试着在几秒钟内说服你们相信它。

Just think for a moment.

试想一下。

It doesn't matter whether you live in a small African village,

不管你是住在非洲的一个小村庄，

or you live in a big city,

还是住在一个大城市里，

everything comes back to plants in the end:

最终一切都会追溯到植物。

whether it's for the food, the medicine,

不管是食物、药物、

the fuel, the construction, the clothing, all the obvious things;

燃料、建筑、衣服，所有显而易见的东西，

or whether it's for the spiritual and recreational things

或精神上的或娱乐上的，

that matter to us so much;

这些对我们来说是非常重要的东西，

or whether it's soil formation,

又或者是土壤的形成，

or the effect on the atmosphere,

或者对大气的影响，

or primary production.

或者初级生产。

Damn it, even the books here are made out of plants.

该死的，甚至连这里的书本都是用植物造的。

All these things, they come back to plants.

所有的这些东西，可以追溯到植物。

And without them we wouldn't be here.

要是没有植物的话我们就不可能在这里。

Now plants are under threat.

现在植物正受到威胁。

They're under threat because of changing climate.

它们由于气候的改变而受到威胁。

And they are also under threat because they are sharing a planet

它们还因为跟像我们一样的人类生存在同一个星球，

with people like us.

而受到威胁。

And people like us want to do things that destroy plants,

我们这些人所做的却是在摧毁植物，

and their habitats.

甚至侵占它们的栖息地。

And whether that's because of food production,

不管是由于食物生产的原因

or because of the introduction of alien plants

还是由于引进外来植物品种

into places that they really oughtn't be,

到它们本不该存在的地方，

or because of habitats being used for other purposes --

或者是由于栖息地被占为它用，

all these things are meaning that plants have to adapt,

所有的这些东西会导致植物要么适应，

or die, or move.

要么死去或者转移。

And plants sometimes find it rather difficult to move

但是植物在多数情况下很难转移

because there might be cities and other things in the way.

因为会有城市和其他的一些东西挡住去路。

So if all human life depends on plants,

所以如果所有人类的生命依赖于植物，

doesn't it make sense that perhaps we should try to save them?

难道很难理解我们或许该拯救它们？

I think it does.

我想应该很好理解。

And I want to tell you about a project to save plants.

我想告诉你们有关于一个可以拯救植物的项目。

And the way that you save plants

拯救植物的方法

is by storing seeds.

可以通过保存种子来实现。

Because seeds, in all their diverse glory,

因为种子，有多种值得称赞的功能，

are plants' futures.

其中一种就是[它们]是植物的未来。

All the genetic information for future generations of plants

所有用于将来生产植物的遗传信息

are held in seeds.

都保存在种子里。

So here is the building;

因此这里有一座建筑物。

it looks rather unassuming, really.

它看上去很普通。

But it goes down below ground many stories.

但却埋在地下好几层深。

And it's the largest seed bank in the world.

并且是世界上最大的种子库。

It exists not only in southern England,

它不仅存于英格兰南部，

but distributed around the world. I'll come to that.

并且将会分布在世界各地。我将会实现这个愿望的。

This is a nuclear-proof facility.

这是座可以防核爆的建筑物。

God forbid that it should have to withstand that.

但愿不会发生，但（种子库）必须得承受得住（核爆）。

So if you're going to build a seed bank, you have to decide

那么如果你要建一座种子库，你必需得决定

what you're going to store in it. Right?

你所要保存（植物种类）。对吧？

And we decided that what we want to store first of all,

所以我们决定首先保存

are the species that are most under threat.

濒危植物品种。

And those are the dry land species.

和旱生植物种类。

So first of all we did deals

因此我们和

with 50 different countries.

50个不同国家达成协议。

It means negotiating with heads of state,

这意味着要跟50个国家的管理者

and with secretaries of state in 50 countries

和部长们谈判

to sign treaties.

并签订各项协议。

We have 120 partner institutions all over the world,

我们在全世界有120个合作机构，

in all those countries colored orange.

在所有标橘红色的国家中。

People come from all over the world to learn,

人们来自世界各地学习（保存种子所需要的技术）。

and then they go away and plan exactly how

然后回去并计划具体如何

they're going to collect these seeds.

收集这些种子。

They have thousands of people all over the world

分布在世界各地的成千上万的人

tagging places where those plants are said to exist.

他们先标记目标植物的潜在栖息地。

They search for them. They find them in flower.

并寻找它们（植物种子）。他们会找处于开花期间的植物。

And they go back when their seeds have arrived.

然后等产生种子的时候再回来。

And they collect the seeds. All over the world.

然后他们收集这些种子。在全世界范围内。

The seeds -- some of if is very untechnical.

有些种子（的保存）不需要什么技术。

You kind of shovel them all in to bags and dry them off.

有的你只要把它们都铲到袋子里然后晾干。

You label them. You do some high-tech things here and there,

做上标记。然后做些高技术的活。

some low-tech things here and there.

或者非技术性的活。

And the main thing is that you have to dry them

然后最主要的是你必须得把它们弄干

very carefully, at low temperature.

要在低温下非常的小心。

And then you have to store them

然后你得把它们保存

at about minus 20 degrees C --

在大约零下20度 --

that's about minus four Fahrenheit, I think --

也就是零下4华氏温度，我想 --

with a very critically low moisture content.

还要在一个非常准确的低湿度条件下。

And these seeds will be able to germinate,

这样这些种子才能发芽，

we believe, with many of the species,

我们认为，对很多种类来说，

in thousands of years,

在几千年后，

and certainly in hundreds of years.

并且在几百年后肯定可以发芽。

It's no good storing the seeds if you don't know they're still viable.

如果你不确定这些种子是否能孕育出植物，那么收藏它们是没有意义的。

So every 10 years we do germination tests

因此，每10年我们会做种子发芽试验

on every sample of seeds that we have.

即是对我们已经收藏的种子样本做测试。

And this is a distributed network.

如今的网络是分布性的，

So all around the world people are doing the same thing.

因此，分布于世界各地的人也会做同样的测试。

And that enables us to develop germination protocols.

而这使我们能够拟出种子发芽的草案。

That means that we know the right combination of heat

这意味着我们能够从测试数据中

and cold and the cycles that you have to get

得到冷热的适当结合，

to make the seed germinate.

以及这种冷热的循环使得种子发芽。

And that is very useful information.

这些都是非常有用的信息。

And then we grow these things,

然后我们把这些信息传播开来，

and we tell people, back in the countries where these seeds have come from,

分享给那些种子原产地国家的人们,

"Look, actually we're not just storing this

“看，其实我们不止是收藏这些数据

to get the seeds later,

来得到种子，

but we can give you this information about

但我们可以给你们一些启示

how to germinate these difficult plants."

即是如何让那些难以种植的植物更好的生长。”

And that's already happening.

而这个办法已经实现了。

So where have we got to?

那么我们现在已经达到了什么程度呢？

I am pleased to unveil that our three billionth seed --

我很高兴想大家宣布：我们的第30亿颗种子，

that's three thousand millionth seed --

即是第三千百万的那颗种子

is now stored.

已经成功储存了。

Ten percent of all plant species on the planet,

(这意味着)地球上所有植物物种的百分之十，

24,000 species are safe;

有24000的物种是安全存活的。

30,000 species, if we get the funding, by next year.

如果我们到明年能够得到足够的资金，安全存活的物种可以达到3万。

Twenty-five percent of all the world's plants, by 2020.

即是到2020年，数量可以达到全球植物总量的25%。

These are not just crop plants,

它们不止包括农作物，

as you might have seen stored in Svalbard in Norway --

这些农作物可以在挪威斯瓦尔巴特群岛的储存室看到。

fantastic work there.

那里的景象是非常壮观了。

This is at least 100 times bigger.

它的面积至少要比其他储存库大100倍。

We have thousands of collections that have been sent out

那里储存着成千上万的种子收藏，

all over the world:

这些种子曾经也被分布到世界各地。

drought-tolerant forest species sent to Pakistan and Egypt;

耐旱树种送到巴基斯坦和埃及。

especially photosynthetic-efficient plants

而那些需要光合作用的植物

come here to the United States;

就被送到美国。

salt-tolerant pasture species sent to Australia;

耐盐牧草物种就送到澳大利亚。

the list goes on and on.

这样的例子不胜枚举。

These seeds are used for restoration.

这些种子是用来恢复植被的。

So in habitats that have already been damaged,

比如那些动植物生存环境已经受到破坏的地区，

like the tall grass prairie here in the USA,

像美国的大草原，

or in mined land in various countries,

或者是许多国家的矿井地区，

restoration is already happening because of these species --

这些物种使得以上类似的地区在生态上得到了修复。

and because of this collection.

多亏了这些收藏，

Some of these plants, like the ones on the bottom

其中一些植物，如屏幕上，

to the left of your screen,

左下角的这些植物，

they are down to the last few remaining members.

它们是存活下来极少数的树，

The one where the guy is collecting seeds there on the truck,

而这些植物的种子正是收藏者在货车上与人交易得到的，

that is down to about 30 last remaining trees.

这是最后剩下的30棵树。

Fantastically useful plant,

它们及其重要，

both for protein and for medicine.

不管是对蛋白质还是药物提供都是很重要。

We have training going on in China, in the USA,

我们的植物组织培养正在中国，美国，

and many other countries.

已经其他国家进行。

How much does it cost?

这些培养费用共需要多少呢？

2,800 dollars per species is the average.

平均每个物种需要2800美元。

I think that's cheap, at the price.

我认为在价格方面还是比较便宜的。

And that gets you all the scientific data

因为很多科学数据

that goes with it.

都是从这些培养中得到的。

The future research is "How can we find

今后的研究是“我们该如何找到

the genetic and molecular markers

影响种子生命力的

for the viability of seeds,

基因和分子生物组成的迹象，

without having to plant them every 10 years?"

从而不需要每隔十年才确定可以种植？”

And we're almost there.

我们快要成功了。

Thank you very much.

非常感谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）