Norwegian Arctic Islands Hold Biodiversity Bank

It's a long-planned-for endeavor given new impetus by the threat of climate change to plants. The seed bank now opens next February. Each vault can store 1.5 million different seeds. Space is at a premium. There's 100,000 varieties of rice alone.

So we're here visiting a seed bank designed to ensure the world's biodiversity against the effects of climate change, but the plants that actually live here on Svalbard outside the vault are some of the first to feel the effects of global warming.

We accompanied Elisabeth Cooper into the tundra she and her students have studied for seven years. Not many botanists carry high-powered rifles, but then not many botanists study Arctic plants. And for those that do, polar bear attacks are an occupational hazard. Dr. Cooper is studying how climate change is affecting humble arctic flora like polar willow, mountain avens, and Arctic white bell heather.

ELISABETH COOPER, University Centre, Svalbard: This is one of my snow fences that I made last autumn.

ELISABETH COOPER: We have large areas of tundra which are likely to be affected by climate change which at the moment are holding huge amounts of carbon. But if their carbon balance is shifted, they might be releasing more carbon.

TOM CLARKE: Initial results suggest plants here might struggle, so as well as threatening this fragile ecosystem, further warming could turn the high Arctic from an area that helps keep our climate stable into one that makes it warmer still. And that would affect the whole planet, valuable crops and all.