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Seed banks preserve genetic diversity by storing seeds from a vast range of plant varieties, including many traditional crop strains that have been displaced by a small number of high-yield commercial varieties in modern agriculture. Seeds are typically dried to low moisture content and stored at sub-zero temperatures, conditions that dramatically slow the biochemical processes that would otherwise cause seeds to lose viability over time. Periodically, stored seeds must be germinated, grown to maturity, and their offspring reharvested and re-stored, since even under ideal conditions viability gradually declines. This regeneration cycle is labor-intensive and represents one of the largest ongoing costs of running a seed bank. Advocates argue that this stored diversity functions as a form of insurance, offering plant breeders genetic traits, such as drought tolerance or disease resistance, that could prove essential if widely planted commercial varieties fail.