Speaker 1: Five, four, three, two, one.
Cate Blanchett: You're probably wondering why you're hearing the sound of a
Cate Blanchett: rocket launch in a podcast about seeds. Well, it's because
Cate Blanchett: at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst's wild botanic gardens,
Cate Blanchett: scientists are sending seeds into space to test the boundaries
Cate Blanchett: of life as we know it. They're asking huge questions
Cate Blanchett: like what happens when a seed leaves the planet that
Cate Blanchett: shaped it? How might seeds help us adapt, survive, even
Cate Blanchett: thrive in environments beyond our own? And how might those
Cate Blanchett: answers help us adapt to our own very quickly changing
Cate Blanchett: world? It may sound like science fiction, but it's happening
Cate Blanchett: right now.
Anne Visscher: It's taken us our life on earth, more than three
Anne Visscher: billion years to send the first organisms into space. So,
Anne Visscher: I think it's good to start working on it now
Anne Visscher: and not wait until the last moment.
Cate Blanchett: Sending seeds into space is one way of testing the
Cate Blanchett: limits of life, another is far closer to home. Cryopreservation,
Cate Blanchett: plunging seeds into temperatures far below anything it'd ever encounter
Cate Blanchett: in nature, is pushing the boundaries of what's possible here
Cate Blanchett: on earth. And it's offering a lifeline for species that
Cate Blanchett: conventional storage can't protect.
Louise Colville: Inside are these racks, and as the racks are very cold,
Louise Colville: so even with my gloves on I can still feel
Louise Colville: it's quite cold to hold. And in here, I think
Louise Colville: there's space for thousands of samples inside each of these vessels.
Cate Blanchett: The choices we make now, the seeds we protect today,
Cate Blanchett: and the science that makes their preservation possible will shape
Cate Blanchett: the lives of generations to come. I'm Cate Blanchett, Kew's
Cate Blanchett: ambassador for Wakehurst, and this is Unearthed: The Need for
Cate Blanchett: Seeds. Episode three, The Future. If you're wondering, as I
Cate Blanchett: did, why with so many pressing challenges here on Earth,
Cate Blanchett: Wakehurst is casting their gaze out into space, I don't
Cate Blanchett: blame you. Space is perhaps the harshest environment imaginable, and
Cate Blanchett: certainly not the easiest to reach. But for Anne Visscher,
Cate Blanchett: a research fellow in the seed and stress biology team
Cate Blanchett: here at the MSB, putting seeds into space opens up
Cate Blanchett: an extraordinary spectrum of possibilities.
Anne Visscher: There are several aims for sending seeds into space, and
Anne Visscher: one of them is to have them included in life
Anne Visscher: support systems for human missions to Mars or the moon.
Anne Visscher: Another reason might be to store seeds as part of
Anne Visscher: small banks on the moon as a second backup for
Anne Visscher: use on earth, and those are called biorepositories. And then,
Anne Visscher: a third aim has been mentioned for years already is
Anne Visscher: the idea of maybe perhaps terraforming Mars in the distant future.
Cate Blanchett: Anne is at the heart of several remarkable space projects,
Cate Blanchett: two of which are destined for the International Space Station.
Anne Visscher: One will be housed on the outside, exposing 24 different
Anne Visscher: species to the actual outer space conditions, and then about
Anne Visscher: six species will be going to the inside of this station.
Cate Blanchett: And one is even set to journey to the moon.
Anne Visscher: And then there's a project that is preparing to send
Anne Visscher: seeds to the surface of the moon, first in a
Anne Visscher: dry state, and then a subsequent mission to do a
Anne Visscher: germination kind of experiment as well.
Cate Blanchett: Space is an environment so unforgiving that just surviving is
Cate Blanchett: a challenge, and that is exactly what Anne and her
Cate Blanchett: team are putting these seeds up against.
Anne Visscher: So, the conditions that our seeds will be exposed to
Anne Visscher: on the outside of the International Space Station will be
Anne Visscher: vacuum and radiation, and that way we can not only
Anne Visscher: look at the effect of vacuum, and radiation, and temperature
Anne Visscher: in combination, which will make it harder to understand what
Anne Visscher: each condition does for the seed, but we'll try to
Anne Visscher: separate them out and that way we can analyze the
Anne Visscher: effect of either vacuum on its own, the radiation on
Anne Visscher: its own, and temperature fluctuations we'll try to mimic on
Anne Visscher: the ground.
Cate Blanchett: Now stay with me here, it might sound far removed,
Cate Blanchett: but what we learn up there has real consequences for
Cate Blanchett: how we safeguard seeds back down here at the MSB.
Anne Visscher: Research on earth has shown that some species actually benefit
Anne Visscher: from being stored without oxygen or at even lower humidities
Anne Visscher: that we're using as a standard in the bank. Not
Anne Visscher: all species, but some show increased longevity, which means that
Anne Visscher: if you store them for a certain length of time
Anne Visscher: and try to germinate them afterwards, you see a larger
Anne Visscher: number of seeds still germinating than if you store them
Anne Visscher: with oxygen or at high water contents. So, some of
Anne Visscher: our findings that might come from our space research can
Anne Visscher: have an impact on how we store seeds on earth
Anne Visscher: in the bank.
Cate Blanchett: The team are sending seeds into the International Space Station
Cate Blanchett: to understand how the conditions there impact germination, and every
Cate Blanchett: single seed has been carefully chosen to be part of
Cate Blanchett: this experiment.
Anne Visscher: We've really tried to cover as much diversity as possible to
Anne Visscher: be able to see if those factors make a difference,
Anne Visscher: and these factors include the climate that they were collected
Anne Visscher: from. Also, the family. We are also trying to have
Anne Visscher: a range of different seed characteristics, so the size of
Anne Visscher: the embryo or whether they're dormant or not, thickness of
Anne Visscher: the seed coat.
Cate Blanchett: By including a wide range of seeds, Anne and her
Cate Blanchett: team can begin to understand which species are most resilient
Cate Blanchett: in space, but these aren't quick experiments. These are carefully
Cate Blanchett: planned long- term projects.
Anne Visscher: We've been working on this since 2014, so we're already
Anne Visscher: 11 years underway. So, it is really a practice in patience. Hopefully
Anne Visscher: it will fly in the next few years and we'll
Anne Visscher: get data back within five years. And it's always a
Anne Visscher: matter of reducing your expectations and seeing the long- term
Anne Visscher: picture, but taking it one step at a time.
Cate Blanchett: Closer to home, Anne is studying some of the most
Cate Blanchett: extreme environments on earth as part of the Western Global
Cate Blanchett: Tree Seed Bank, a project we first heard about in
Cate Blanchett: episode two from Nattanit Yiamthaisong, the PhD student from Thailand.
Anne Visscher: We are trying to identify species that can survive really
Anne Visscher: high temperatures during germination, over 40 degrees Celsius. And what
Anne Visscher: I'm doing there is screening over 100 different collections from
Anne Visscher: the Millennium Seed Bank by looking at the areas in
Anne Visscher: the world where we can see the highest average annual
Anne Visscher: temperature over 27 degrees. They're particularly interested in tree species,
Anne Visscher: and what I'm trying to do is identify ones that
Anne Visscher: have really high germination at 42 and a half degrees
Anne Visscher: Celsius. So, we've now screened approximately 50 collections and we've
Anne Visscher: discovered several that show really good percentages of germination at
Anne Visscher: that temperature. So, we are excited to hopefully discover species
Anne Visscher: that not only grow really well in the mature plant
Anne Visscher: state in those hot regions, but for which we also
Anne Visscher: know that they can survive really high temperatures in their
Anne Visscher: really early phase of germination, when the root tip first
Anne Visscher: comes out and the seedling then develops, because ultimately what
Anne Visscher: we're interested in is using our collections to restore habitats
Anne Visscher: and reforest regions.
Cate Blanchett: The team wanted to know if the temperature of the
Cate Blanchett: site where each seed was collected would predict how well
Cate Blanchett: it germinated under high heat, but the results are surprising.
Cate Blanchett: Seeds from hotter regions aren't automatically better at coping with
Cate Blanchett: extreme temperatures.
Anne Visscher: So, we were hoping that perhaps choosing seeds from plants
Anne Visscher: that grow in the hottest areas, even within these very
Anne Visscher: hot regions, we may have a higher amount of candidate
Anne Visscher: species that are also tolerant during germination, but that doesn't
Anne Visscher: seem to be necessarily the case. It seems relatively random,
Anne Visscher: which ones are the tolerant ones and which ones are
Anne Visscher: the sensitive ones. So, we really do need to do
Anne Visscher: this screen to find out.
Cate Blanchett: Anne's work depends on the seeds safely stored here at
Cate Blanchett: the Millennium Seed Bank, and many of these seeds come
Cate Blanchett: through the MSB's international partners, collecting locally, banking locally, and
Cate Blanchett: sending duplicates back here to Wakehurst. But the work here
Cate Blanchett: isn't just about storing seeds, it's thinking about how to
Cate Blanchett: make collections stronger for the long term. One way this
Cate Blanchett: is happening is through the new trainer certification scheme, which
Cate Blanchett: trains local collectors. The idea is simple, but powerful. Equip
Cate Blanchett: people globally with the skills to collect and care for
Cate Blanchett: seeds in their own backyards so knowledge and seeds don't
Cate Blanchett: stay in one place.
Meg Engelhardt: My name is Meg Engelhardt, and I'm the seed bank
Meg Engelhardt: manager for the Missouri Botanical Garden. One project that we're
Meg Engelhardt: working on right now is we're able to pull orchid
Meg Engelhardt: seeds from the past that are in populations that don't
Meg Engelhardt: really exist anymore or we haven't seen them in a
Meg Engelhardt: long time, and we're working on reintroducing those back into
Meg Engelhardt: their native landscapes in central Missouri. And we have woodlands
Meg Engelhardt: and glades there that are part of the Ozarks, and so
Meg Engelhardt: we're working on those areas specifically. Kew was a big
Meg Engelhardt: inspiration for our founder, so we've been peer institutions over
Meg Engelhardt: time, and in more recent decades, that's really turned into
Meg Engelhardt: a heavy focus on plant conservation and trying to halt
Meg Engelhardt: this biodiversity loss.
Cate Blanchett: Meg's excited to take what she's learned here at the MSB,
Cate Blanchett: and share that knowledge back home.
Meg Engelhardt: Now I get to come back here and help develop
Meg Engelhardt: this program so that we can take it to our
Meg Engelhardt: home countries and adapt to the people that are going
Meg Engelhardt: to use it in our specific areas, but also the
Meg Engelhardt: most exciting part for me is that we're all working
Meg Engelhardt: from the same standards that have been set by the
Meg Engelhardt: Millennium Seed Bank. And so, when I get home I'll
Meg Engelhardt: be able to train people who are leading their own
Meg Engelhardt: programs or maybe just starting a small program, all the
Meg Engelhardt: way down to practitioners who are maybe a seed collector,
Meg Engelhardt: who then grow seeds out that people can use for
Meg Engelhardt: restoration. So, it will apply to professionals down to practitioners.
Cate Blanchett: Meg says that the knowledge sharing is crucial, it's the
Cate Blanchett: key to stopping the decline of species and ecosystems.
Meg Engelhardt: Halting the loss of biodiversity has been at the forefront
Meg Engelhardt: of our institution's work, and this is going to have
Meg Engelhardt: such a strong impact in our ability to collaborate and
Meg Engelhardt: share that knowledge, and not keep that knowledge just to
Meg Engelhardt: the people who have access but make sure that everyone
Meg Engelhardt: that can contribute to this really difficult problem have that
Meg Engelhardt: knowledge and experience.
Louise Colville: In this room we have three silver vessels, which look
Louise Colville: a bit like the vats you might see in a
Louise Colville: brewery. Each of them contain liquid nitrogen. So, liquid nitrogen
Louise Colville: temperature is minus 196 degrees Celsius, but on these vessels
Louise Colville: you can see the temperature gauge is around minus 170
Louise Colville: degrees Celsius. So, that's the temperature of the liquid nitrogen vapor in
Louise Colville: which the seeds are stored.
Cate Blanchett: This is Louise Colville, senior research leader in seed biology,
Cate Blanchett: guiding us through one of the most futuristic looking parts
Cate Blanchett: of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, the cryopreservation storage room. Wearing
Cate Blanchett: thick gloves and safety goggles, she opens one of the
Cate Blanchett: enormous metal barrels and a cloud of swirling vapor pours out.
Louise Colville: So, in here we have our racks which are filled
Louise Colville: with our samples, so that noise was the fan to
Louise Colville: clear the vapor because we can just see a big
Louise Colville: cloud of vapor now. And inside are these racks, and
Louise Colville: in each rack there'll be storage boxes which contain our
Louise Colville: samples. The racks are very cold, so even with my
Louise Colville: gloves on I can still feel it's quite cold to
Louise Colville: hold. And in here, I think there's space for thousands
Louise Colville: of samples inside each of these vessels. So, they contain
Louise Colville: quite a lot of our short- lived orthodox seed collections,
Louise Colville: which are duplicated from the seed bank.
Cate Blanchett: Cryopreservation is reserved for seeds that don't take kindly to the
Cate Blanchett: usual drying and storage process. The more tricky ones are
Cate Blanchett: called recalcitrant seeds, ones that we touched on briefly with
Cate Blanchett: seed curator, Sian McCabe, in the previous episode.
Louise Colville: Recalcitrant seeds tend to be larger, they also contain a
Louise Colville: lot of water, and they tend to have thin seed
Louise Colville: coats as well. So, if we think about something which
Louise Colville: probably lots of people are familiar with acorns from oak
Louise Colville: trees, also chestnuts. So, you tend to find species which
Louise Colville: produce recalcitrant seeds in wetter environments. So for example, trees
Louise Colville: in rainforests, and the same with species like sea grass,
Louise Colville: so they're grown in marine environments and produce recalcitrant seeds.
Cate Blanchett: And different seeds have different needs.
Louise Colville: The cryopreservation process typically has to be optimized or adapted
Louise Colville: for each species. So, there's not one approach which works
Louise Colville: for everything, which is one of the major challenges with
Louise Colville: using cryopreservation. So, what we do is we take out
Louise Colville: the part of the seed called the embryonic axis, and
Louise Colville: that's the part of the seed which develops into the
Louise Colville: new plant. And because it's much smaller, it means we
Louise Colville: can then very rapidly partially dry that tissue to a
Louise Colville: point where we remove the water, which will form ice.
Louise Colville: And then, once we've reached that point we can then
Louise Colville: very rapidly freeze it using liquid nitrogen.
Cate Blanchett: The embryonic axis is that little white part you see
Cate Blanchett: inside a seed. It's what I saw when we cut
Cate Blanchett: one open with Ted Chapman and Isabel Negri in the
Cate Blanchett: previous episode. It's basically the heart of a seed. It's
Cate Blanchett: the part that will grow into a new plant, which
Cate Blanchett: is why Louise and her team focus on preserving it
Cate Blanchett: so carefully, but it comes with its own challenges. You
Cate Blanchett: can't just germinate these cryo- preserved seeds like you would
Cate Blanchett: a regular seed. They need in vitro techniques, essentially coaxing
Cate Blanchett: the seed to grow from scratch in a Petri dish.
Louise Colville: That is very complicated, and I think one of the
Louise Colville: challenges as well is that if we can regenerate after
Louise Colville: cryo using in vitro techniques, it's then moving on from
Louise Colville: that to be able to take those plants into the
Louise Colville: nursery, because obviously they've become quite used to their nice
Louise Colville: protected conditions, and then to go out where they're exposed
Louise Colville: to further stress is a big step for them.
Cate Blanchett: Louise and her team are still in the research phase,
Cate Blanchett: working out how different species respond to this type of
Cate Blanchett: preservation. It's crucial that they get it right, because each
Cate Blanchett: seed is different, and some very important seeds rely on
Cate Blanchett: this specific method to remain viable.
Louise Colville: Although only around 10% of the world's seed- bearing plants produce
Louise Colville: recalcitrant seeds. In some regions such as tropical rainforests, around
Louise Colville: 50% of tree species will produce recalcitrant seeds, and most
Louise Colville: of those species will also be under greater threat of
Louise Colville: extinction. So, I think there's a real pressure here that
Louise Colville: we should be conserving not just orthodox seeds that we
Louise Colville: can conserve quite easily, but also looking at addressing the
Louise Colville: challenges of conserving these more difficult to preserve species. Most
Louise Colville: of our work so far has been on UK trees,
Louise Colville: and actually oaks. So quercus robur, the English oak, is
Louise Colville: quite difficult to cryopreserve and we're not really sure why.
Louise Colville: We think part of it is down to the chemistry
Louise Colville: of the seed. So, as soon as we remove the embryonic acid
Louise Colville: it's starting to oxidize. As you watch, you can see
Louise Colville: them start to brown. So, it's at that point where
Louise Colville: the challenge starts, so we need to use antioxidants to
Louise Colville: help prevent that browning before we can then move into
Louise Colville: our cryopreservation process. But even then, even if you have
Louise Colville: a successful protocol, survival might only be 40% after cryopreservation,
Louise Colville: and that would be considered quite good.
Cate Blanchett: The team anticipate that cryo- preserved seeds will endure far
Cate Blanchett: longer than those in conventional seed bank storage, though the long-
Cate Blanchett: term data isn't in yet. Still, this approach could offer
Cate Blanchett: a lifeline for plants that don't produce seeds at all.
Louise Colville: So, cryopreservation is not just for seeds, but it's also an
Louise Colville: approach that can be used for the conservation of a
Louise Colville: much wider range of plants, mosses and ferns, seaweeds, for
Louise Colville: example. These don't produce seeds, but they instead reproduce via
Louise Colville: spores. Over half of the UK native species do not
Louise Colville: produce seeds. So, by using cryopreservation we can really scale
Louise Colville: up the diversity of the British flora that we can conserve.
Cate Blanchett: Cryopreservation gives us a way to protect a huge variety
Cate Blanchett: of plant life, and Louise's research is a prime example
Cate Blanchett: of the innovation happening at the MSB. But of course,
Cate Blanchett: preservation and conservation aren't confined to the UK. Around the
Cate Blanchett: world, MSB partners are working to safeguard their own local
Cate Blanchett: ecosystems. Cutting edge science and on the- ground action go
Cate Blanchett: hand in hand.
James Amponsah: My name is James Amponsah, I'm working with the Forestry
James Amponsah: Research Institute of Ghana, and specifically that institute has a
James Amponsah: national seed bank called the National Tree Seed Center. I'm
James Amponsah: in charge of managing seed conservation, especially with forest seeds
James Amponsah: in Ghana. So, we are expected to supervise and undertake
James Amponsah: seed collections across the country.
Cate Blanchett: As a partner of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, the Forestry
Cate Blanchett: Research Institute of Ghana has collaborated on joint research projects
Cate Blanchett: and contributed seeds to the MSB. But back home, their
Cate Blanchett: National Tree Seed Center is also actively involved in restoring
Cate Blanchett: land across Ghana, including rehabilitating former mine sites.
James Amponsah: Ghana is currently facing a lot of problems with small
James Amponsah: scale illegal mining, polluting water bodies and degrading our forest
James Amponsah: resources. And so, we have been involved in selecting species
James Amponsah: and making sure that we have the right framework species
James Amponsah: for restoring these degraded forests back to their natural states.
Cate Blanchett: James is part of the very first cohort to take
Cate Blanchett: part in the new trainer certification scheme. And just like Meg
Cate Blanchett: says, he's bringing those skills back home to help others
Cate Blanchett: and make a real difference on the ground.
James Amponsah: This certification program for me is taking our partnership to
James Amponsah: another level. It's really going to help contribute to our
James Amponsah: seed bank's ability to train others. So, I think it's
James Amponsah: very important. This training is really beneficial for us as
James Amponsah: participant. We have come in thinking that it's going to
James Amponsah: be more of training on the standards, but in going
James Amponsah: beyond that we are now being trained with how to
James Amponsah: deliver high quality training, how to engage with our participants,
James Amponsah: how to make our training back home more impactful.
Cate Blanchett: For James and for everyone he trains back in Ghana,
Cate Blanchett: tapping into local knowledge is just as important as any
Cate Blanchett: lab experiment.
James Amponsah: When we use local knowledge in seed conservation, it's really
James Amponsah: helpful. Sometimes local people know best where we could find
James Amponsah: best sources for seed collection. They may even have traditional
James Amponsah: ways of pre- treating their seeds for better germination. And so,
James Amponsah: when you ignore that you will be losing out actually
James Amponsah: as a research scientist. And so, local knowledge is very
James Amponsah: critical for seed conservation at all levels. The work of the
James Amponsah: MSP is really enhancing biodiversity conservation. With climate change and
James Amponsah: with biodiversity losses on the rise, working hard to conserve
James Amponsah: seeds is actually helping us to safeguard our plant biodiversity. It is
James Amponsah: also a way of ensuring that seed banks across the
James Amponsah: world will get to know of improved standards to help
James Amponsah: us benefit nature and people in the end. And this
James Amponsah: for me is great. It's really a way of empowering
James Amponsah: us to deliver our best in terms of seed conservation
James Amponsah: across our country, and even across Africa.
Cate Blanchett: Insightful words from James, and another reminder of how seed
Cate Blanchett: banking really is a global effort. But back here in
Cate Blanchett: the labs, researchers Anne and Louise are tackling a different type
Cate Blanchett: of challenge, cracking the secrets of seed dormancy. Their work
Cate Blanchett: centers around what makes a seed stay asleep and what
Cate Blanchett: wakes it up or start to germinate. Imagine a seed
Cate Blanchett: in autumn. It survives the winter lying in the soil
Cate Blanchett: until bursting into life and spring. Now, sometimes that awakening
Cate Blanchett: depends on a nudge from the environment, a physical cue
Cate Blanchett: to tell it the time is right.
Anne Visscher: It can be through wetting and drying, and over time this
Anne Visscher: creates small cracks. It can also be by passage through
Anne Visscher: animals, by the seeds being eaten. It can also happen
Anne Visscher: through temperature fluctuations, again, causing small morphological changes and then
Anne Visscher: eventually cracks. Or it can be a molecular reason where
Anne Visscher: there are certain hormones that are really high at that
Anne Visscher: time that stop other processes from happening so that the
Anne Visscher: whole germination growth process doesn't start. Temperature is a well-
Anne Visscher: known trigger, for example in these temperate climates that we're
Anne Visscher: living in here in the UK, so some seeds are dispersed
Anne Visscher: in the autumn but they won't germinate during the winter,
Anne Visscher: and it's often because of their dormancy. And what happens
Anne Visscher: is that after a certain number of cold hours that
Anne Visscher: they experience, they are then ready to germinate under the
Anne Visscher: spring conditions.
Cate Blanchett: But with climate change altering weather patterns, many seeds aren't
Cate Blanchett: reaching the temperatures they need to break dormancy. That's where
Cate Blanchett: Louise's team is turning to an unexpected solution.
Louise Colville: Plasma is the fourth state of matter. So we have
Louise Colville: solid, liquids, gases and plasma. It's actually the most abundant
Louise Colville: state of matter in the universe. Plasma consists of highly
Louise Colville: reactive molecules and ions. It's produced by either heating or
Louise Colville: applying an electric charge to a gas. So, plasma's very abundant
Louise Colville: in stars, for example. On earth, when lightning strikes, that
Louise Colville: generates plasma.
Cate Blanchett: Yeah, plasma. It's the same stuff that makes your TV
Cate Blanchett: glow, only a bit more alive.
Louise Colville: Plasma consists of these reactive molecules. We know that these
Louise Colville: interact with the molecular pathways which control seed dormancy and
Louise Colville: germination. We're interested in whether plasma could be used to
Louise Colville: treat seeds and break dormancy.
Cate Blanchett: Tree species often belong to the long dormancy club. Many
Cate Blanchett: species need months of cold before they're ready to germinate.
Louise Colville: We were interested in whether we could use plasma treatments
Louise Colville: to accelerate the process of dormancy break, perhaps shorten the
Louise Colville: requirement for the cold treatment or maybe eliminating it altogether.
Louise Colville: We were working with Hazel, Rowan, and Beech, so those
Louise Colville: seeds all require long periods of cold stratification to germinate.
Louise Colville: And then we also used free shallow dormant species, which
Louise Colville: was Scots pine, downy birch, and common alder. And so,
Louise Colville: they require just a short period of cold stratification.
Cate Blanchett: The team applied two different styles of plasma treatments, the
Cate Blanchett: first is very direct.
Louise Colville: The seeds are put on a conveyor belt and they're
Louise Colville: passed underneath a plasma generator, and you can see little
Louise Colville: purple lightning strikes of plasma discharges connecting with the seed.
Cate Blanchett: And the second is indirect, using air and water.
Louise Colville: So, we treated air with plasma and then exposed the
Louise Colville: seeds to that plasma treated air, and we did the
Louise Colville: same with water. So, we plasma treated water and then
Louise Colville: soaked the seeds in that plasma treated water. And what
Louise Colville: we found is that for three of the species, for
Louise Colville: Rowan, Hazel, and downy birch, we found that the plasma
Louise Colville: treated air was effective at breaking dormancy. It improved the
Louise Colville: germination in combination with a cold treatment compared to not
Louise Colville: having the plasma treatment.
Cate Blanchett: Now, the team didn't see this coming, and they suspect
Cate Blanchett: it might have something to do with how the plasma
Cate Blanchett: interacts with the plant's own hormones.
Louise Colville: So what we're thinking, and we still need to work
Louise Colville: further on this, is that the plasma- treated air treatment
Louise Colville: in particular is interacting with the molecular pathways controlling dormancy.
Louise Colville: So, dormancy is particularly controlled by the balance of two
Louise Colville: hormones, and we think that the plasma is interacting with
Louise Colville: the molecular pathways which are controlling the balance of the
Louise Colville: plant hormones to help to break dormancy.
Cate Blanchett: Now, it might sound a bit like science fiction, but
Cate Blanchett: this treatment could have real world impact.
Louise Colville: The reason that we started working on it is that
Louise Colville: the UK government has tree planting targets, and in order
Louise Colville: to meet those targets we need to scale up tree
Louise Colville: production in nurseries. But one of the key barriers to
Louise Colville: that is germination. So, dormancy represents a block to basically
Louise Colville: scaling up nursery production of trees, and the reason we
Louise Colville: chose plasma treatments is because you can treat lots of
Louise Colville: seeds at once.
Cate Blanchett: Innovations like plasma treatments show just how science can tackle
Cate Blanchett: real world challenges, and the work being done in the
Cate Blanchett: cryogenic space and even in space itself all feels pretty
Cate Blanchett: futuristic. But I guess 25 years ago the idea of
Cate Blanchett: the Millennium Seed Bank in itself was futuristic. We heard
Cate Blanchett: from Roger Smith in the first episode, how the initial
Cate Blanchett: idea for the seed bank was seen as being a
Cate Blanchett: little radical or out there. However, the ambition was also
Cate Blanchett: huge, to build something that would last for 30 generations,
Cate Blanchett: a whole other millennium. So in that respect, the MSB
Cate Blanchett: is really only just getting started. From cutting edge labs
Cate Blanchett: to the people protecting their ecosystems across the world, the
Cate Blanchett: seed bank is a reminder that the future of plant
Cate Blanchett: conservation is being written right now. It's a story that
Cate Blanchett: is still unfolding and one that is full of passionate
Cate Blanchett: people, pushing boundaries of what is possible in a united
Cate Blanchett: mission to protect the future of our planet.
Speaker 7: The threats that we're facing are global and they are
Speaker 7: large, and there is so much more to be done
Speaker 7: that we really need to scale our work. There's been a
Speaker 7: lot of technological advances since we started 25 years ago,
Speaker 7: and we need to be embracing some of those and
Speaker 7: bringing them into the ways that we're working. The work
Speaker 7: that happens in this seed bank is literally saving plants
Speaker 7: and stopping us losing them. So, to me there can't
Speaker 7: be any better reason to get out better than that.
Speaker 8: I love plants, they're our drugs, they're our food, they
Speaker 8: are lots of people's livelihoods, and they're under so much
Speaker 8: threat from land loss and climate change. We need to
Speaker 8: save these seeds, we need to keep them alive, we
Speaker 8: need to turn them into plants. I feel like it's
Speaker 8: such a privilege to be able to help a little
Speaker 8: bit towards that, and I'm really proud to work here.
Anne Visscher: Working at the Millennium Seed Bank allows me to make
Anne Visscher: a more active and creative contribution to stopping biodiversity loss.
Anne Visscher: Nowhere else on earth do we have access to 40,000
Anne Visscher: wild plant species to ask questions about which species are
Anne Visscher: good for restoration and reforestation, and then even beyond the
Anne Visscher: earth.
Speaker 9: The MSB is like a treasure in the future for everyone.
Speaker 10: We all come from different cultures, different countries, but we're
Speaker 10: all striving for the same goal, whether it's conserving biodiversity,
Speaker 10: ending the extinction crisis, ensuring food security in the future,
Speaker 10: and that's what I find is very rewarding.
Louise Colville: The MSB is the only global program of its type, and it's not
Louise Colville: just about the collections that we've acquired over the last
Louise Colville: 25 years and the partnerships we've made, but it's also
Louise Colville: about the knowledge that we've generated as well, whether it's in
Louise Colville: restoration or conservation. We're hopeful for the future and that
Louise Colville: what we're doing is good.
Speaker 11: I think when you work in conservation, it can sometimes
Speaker 11: be hard to feel like you're having an impact, but
Speaker 11: a seed bank, to take seed from the wild, store
Speaker 11: it, keep it safe, study it, understand it, and then
Speaker 11: reintroduce it, it's really just a tangible thing that we
Speaker 11: can do to support plant conservation, and that makes it
Speaker 11: very satisfying and meaningful to me.
Speaker 12: When I think of the Millennium Seed Bank, I think the
Speaker 12: strength is there's so many people working together and connecting,
Speaker 12: collaborating, and that's what allows us to be so strong,
Speaker 12: even in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Speaker 11: Always talk about options for the future, and that's really
Speaker 11: what it feels like. It's a hopeful, optimistic approach to
Speaker 11: conservation, I think.
Speaker 13: I'm proudest of the fact that a strange ragbag of
Speaker 13: individuals, in which I include myself quite happily, should come
Speaker 13: together and do something that had global significance.
Cate Blanchett: Often we think of us as humans as being part
Cate Blanchett: of the destruction of nature. But here at Wakehurst we're
Cate Blanchett: poignantly reminded of our part, and what a responsible and
Cate Blanchett: exciting and positive part we can play in the regeneration
Cate Blanchett: of nature. And every single person I spoke to, you
Cate Blanchett: can tell from their engagement in the natural world and
Cate Blanchett: in the collection of seeds, how positive they are about
Cate Blanchett: the outlook that the natural world has. And they feel
Cate Blanchett: a really strong responsibility of playing their role within that,
Cate Blanchett: which was really inspiring to hear. I've always known that
Cate Blanchett: the seed bank is an important place, and the work
Cate Blanchett: that goes on here is deep time and meticulous, but
Cate Blanchett: to be out in the field with Ted and Isabel,
Cate Blanchett: and watch the process from the beginning right through the
Cate Blanchett: process of sorting, and cleaning, and collection, and freezing, it
Cate Blanchett: reminds me how hopeful one can be, that the work
Cate Blanchett: is actually happening and that it's happening not only here
Cate Blanchett: in this country but around the world, and the hub
Cate Blanchett: of that work is Wakehurst. And I just think everyone
Cate Blanchett: needs to come here, and look in the windows and
Cate Blanchett: see that that work is being done, because what it
Cate Blanchett: leaves me with is wanting to go back out and
Cate Blanchett: grow a beautiful garden and be thankful for what we
Cate Blanchett: all have, and help in our own small way outside
Cate Blanchett: of these grounds to help preserve and protect it. Often
Cate Blanchett: we think, " Well, it's all over. There's nothing we can
Cate Blanchett: do." But it starts with a seed, and often that seed
Cate Blanchett: is infinitesimal and then it will grow into a beautiful
Cate Blanchett: orchid, or a massive redwood, or a Wollemi. Just walking
Cate Blanchett: through the garden you're reminded of the role that science
Cate Blanchett: can play in the restoration of things that are natural.
Cate Blanchett: They're not antithetical, they're inextricably linked. A huge, huge thank
Cate Blanchett: you to everyone who has participated in this story, and
Cate Blanchett: everyone I've spoken to, the scientists, seed collectors, students, and
Cate Blanchett: local communities whose dedication has made this series possible. Every
Cate Blanchett: seed collected, every experiment tested, every partnership built is a
Cate Blanchett: step towards regenerating nature and protecting biodiversity for generations to
Cate Blanchett: come. And you can be part of it too. By
Cate Blanchett: supporting Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, you're helping protect the seeds of
Cate Blanchett: our planet and the future they promise. Together, we can
Cate Blanchett: grow a world where nature not only survives, but thrives.
Cate Blanchett: As we said at the start, life begins with seeds,
Cate Blanchett: and so does our best chance to save it. I'm
Cate Blanchett: Cate Blanchett, Kew's ambassador for Wakehurst, and this has been
Cate Blanchett: Unearthed: The Need for Seeds. Thanks for listening.