Jonathan Drori: Why we're storing billions of seeds

譯者: Marie Wu 審譯者: Terry Lin

All human life,

所有人類，

all life, depends on plants.

所有生物，都倚賴植物過活。

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

讓我簡短地說明一下，

Just think for a moment.

試想一下，

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

不管你是住在非洲的某個小村莊，

or you live in a big city,

或是住在大城市，

everything comes back to plants in the end:

最終都要依靠植物。

whether it's for the food, the medicine,

不管是用來當作食物、藥物、

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

燃料、建築、衣物等這些顯而易見的用途，

or whether it's for the spiritual and recreational things

或是提供我們精神層面的補給

that matter to us so much;

或是對我們很重要的娛樂，

or whether it's soil formation,

或是幫助我們做好水土保持、

or the effect on the atmosphere,

改善空氣品質

or primary production.

及簡單的生產作業。

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

天啊，甚至連書本都是植物做成的。

All these things, they come back to plants.

所有的事都與植物有關，

And without them we wouldn't be here.

沒有植物，我們就不會存在。

Now plants are under threat.

現在，植物的生存受到威脅。

They're under threat because of changing climate.

氣候變遷對植物造成了威脅，

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

一同生存在地球上的人類

with people like us.

也對植物產生了威脅。

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

我們通常會做破壞植物生長的事，

and their habitats.

同時破壞他們的棲息地，

And whether that's because of food production,

不管是為了生產食物、

or because of the introduction of alien plants

或是在不恰當的地點

into places that they really oughtn't be,

引進新品種植物，

or because of habitats being used for other purposes --

或是將植物的棲息地移做他用，

all these things are meaning that plants have to adapt,

這些作為都表示植物必須去遷移、

or die, or move.

適應環境、或死去。

And plants sometimes find it rather difficult to move

要讓植物進行遷移也不是件容易的事，

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

因為可能會有城市或其他建築擋在遷移的路上。

So if all human life depends on plants,

如果人類那麼倚重植物，

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

我們是不是該嚐試拯救植物？

I think it does.

我認為是的。

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

我要告訴各位一項拯救植物的計畫，

And the way that you save plants

利用保存種子

is by storing seeds.

來拯救植物。

Because seeds, in all their diverse glory,

因為種子，這些各式各樣的種子，

are plants' futures.

是植物未來的希望。

All the genetic information for future generations of plants

植物未來世代延續的祕密

are held in seeds.

都隱藏在種子裡，

So here is the building;

所以我們建造了這個地方，

it looks rather unassuming, really.

看起來不像想像中的種子銀行，

But it goes down below ground many stories.

但是它深入地下好幾層。

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

這是世界上最大的種子銀行，

It exists not only in southern England,

我們不只在南英格蘭建立這樣的種子銀行，

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

也在世界各地推行這個計畫，待會兒我會再詳細說明。

This is a nuclear-proof facility.

這棟建築可以抵擋核爆，

God forbid that it should have to withstand that.

希望核爆不會發生，但這棟建築擋得住這種爆炸。

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

如果要建立一座種子銀行，

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

你就得思考要放什麼在裡頭，對不對？

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

所以我們決定，首要必須儲藏的是

are the species that are most under threat.

即將絕種的物種。

And those are the dry land species.

也就是面臨乾旱的物種。

So first of all we did deals

所以我們一開始

with 50 different countries.

就和50個不同的國家達成協議，

It means negotiating with heads of state,

也就是和來自

and with secretaries of state in 50 countries

50個不同國家的領袖

to sign treaties.

簽署協議。

We have 120 partner institutions all over the world,

我們和世界上其他120個類似的組織組成聯盟，

in all those countries colored orange.

他們散布在我標示為橘色的國家裡。

People come from all over the world to learn,

世界各地的人都來我們這裡學習，

and then they go away and plan exactly how

然後他們回去詳細地計畫

they're going to collect these seeds.

該如何蒐集種子。

They have thousands of people all over the world

世界各地還有數千人

tagging places where those plants are said to exist.

為這些種子可能存在的地域畫上標記，

They search for them. They find them in flower.

然後開始尋找，如果只找到這種植物的花，

And they go back when their seeds have arrived.

就等他們的種子成熟後再回去蒐集，

And they collect the seeds. All over the world.

他們在全世界各地蒐集這些種子。

The seeds -- some of if is very untechnical.

蒐集種子的過程，有些用不到什麼技術。

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

你可能就只是把種子鏟進袋子裡，將之乾燥，

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

然後貼上標籤。有時做一些高科技的事，

some low-tech things here and there.

有時也會做一些低科技的事。

And the main thing is that you have to dry them

最重要的是乾燥的過程，

very carefully, at low temperature.

你必須非常小心地用低溫來乾燥種子。

And then you have to store them

然後把種子儲存於

at about minus 20 degrees C --

攝氏零下20度，

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

大概是華氏負四度吧...

with a very critically low moisture content.

然後要嚴格控制溼度。

And these seeds will be able to germinate,

我們相信，有一天這些種子

we believe, with many of the species,

會再度萌芽，許多植物會再生，

in thousands of years,

也許在數千年，

and certainly in hundreds of years.

或是數百年之後。

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

如果種子不具備發芽的能力，那麼儲存種子就變得沒有意義。

So every 10 years we do germination tests

所以每十年，我們會針對我們所儲存的每一種種子

on every sample of seeds that we have.

進行發芽測試，

And this is a distributed network.

和我們的聯盟組織同步測試，

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

所以全世界這類型組織的人都在做同樣一件事，

And that enables us to develop germination protocols.

這樣我們就能瞭解種子發芽的條件。

That means that we know the right combination of heat

也就是我們會知道

and cold and the cycles that you have to get

種子發芽所需的溫度

to make the seed germinate.

及發芽所需的期間，

And that is very useful information.

這些是很重要的資訊。

And then we grow these things,

然後我們把發芽的種子種進土裡，

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

並告訴種子來源地的人民，

"Look, actually we're not just storing this

"看，我們不只是為未來

to get the seeds later,

儲存種子而已，

but we can give you this information about

我們還能告訴你們

how to germinate these difficult plants."

該怎麼種植這些難以存活的植物。"

And that's already happening.

這是目前正在發生的事。

So where have we got to?

那麼我們現在的進度到哪裡了？

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

我很高興能告訴各位，

that's three thousand millionth seed --

我們目前已經儲存了

is now stored.

30億顆種子，

Ten percent of all plant species on the planet,

也就是目前世界上所有植物種類的百分之十，

24,000 species are safe;

二萬四千種植物受到安全保障，

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

若我們明年能籌到資金，我們就能成功保存三萬種植物種子。

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

在2020年之前，我們計畫儲存所有植物種類的百分之二十五。

These are not just crop plants,

這並不只限於農業種子，

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

我們並不像挪威斯瓦巴種子銀行，

fantastic work there.

他們做得很成功，

This is at least 100 times bigger.

但我們的規模至少是他們的100倍以上，

We have thousands of collections that have been sent out

我們所蒐集的種子將被送往

all over the world:

世界各地，

drought-tolerant forest species sent to Pakistan and Egypt;

耐旱的森林植物會被送到巴基斯坦和埃及，

especially photosynthetic-efficient plants

能有效進行光合作用的植物

come here to the United States;

則被送往美國，

salt-tolerant pasture species sent to Australia;

耐鹽的牧草則送往澳洲，

the list goes on and on.

不同植物將被送往不同地點。

These seeds are used for restoration.

這些種子是用來恢復植被的，

So in habitats that have already been damaged,

如果某塊土地已經被破壞了，

like the tall grass prairie here in the USA,

像是美國的大草原牧場

or in mined land in various countries,

或是其他國家的廢棄礦坑，

restoration is already happening because of these species --

我們利用這些種子成功地復育了這些土地。

and because of this collection.

這要歸功於我們的蒐集行動。

Some of these plants, like the ones on the bottom

有些植物，像是螢幕左下角的

to the left of your screen,

這種植物，

they are down to the last few remaining members.

目前只剩下幾棵殘存的植株。

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

有個人站在卡車上蒐集種子的植物，

that is down to about 30 last remaining trees.

目前只剩下大約30棵，

Fantastically useful plant,

那是很有用的植物，

both for protein and for medicine.

可以提供豐富的蛋白質，也可以提煉成藥材。

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

我們在中國、美國和世界上其他國家

and many other countries.

提供訓練，

How much does it cost?

花費是多少呢？

2,800 dollars per species is the average.

平均每一種植物要花費2千8百美元，

I think that's cheap, at the price.

我覺得以金額來計算的話，那很便宜。

And that gets you all the scientific data

這個計畫讓我們取得了

that goes with it.

許多科學數據，

The future research is "How can we find

未來的研究重點在於，如何從種子本身

the genetic and molecular markers

來發掘出生長標記，

for the viability of seeds,

讓我們知道種子可以發芽，

without having to plant them every 10 years?"

而不用每十年進行一次測試？

And we're almost there.

我們就快做到了，

Thank you very much.

謝謝各位。

(Applause)

(掌聲)