Pleistocene Park
Ecological experiment to make an Ice Age-Like Reserve
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pleistocene Park (Russian: Плейстоценовый парк, romanized: Pleystotsenovyy park) is a nature reserve in northeastern Siberia, Russia, where Russian scientists Sergey and Nikita Zimov are attempting to re-create the Mammoth steppe that existed during the last glacial period by repopulating the area with large herbivores, in order to mitigate climate change.[1][2][3]
| Pleistocene Park | |
|---|---|
| Плейстоценовый парк | |
 Depiction of some mammals common in northern Eurasia during the late Pleistocene, by Mauricio Antón. From left to right: wild horse, woolly mammoth, reindeer, cave lion and woolly rhinoceros. | |
  Location within Russia | |
| Location | Russian Arctic, Sakha Republic |
| Nearest city | Chersky |
| Coordinates | 68°30′48″N 161°31′32″E |
| Area | 144 km2 (60 sq mi) |
| Established | 1988 / 1996 |
| Founder | Sergey Zimov |
| Director | Nikita Zimov |
| Website | pleistocenepark |
The Zimovs hypothesise that the change from tundra to grassland will cool the permafrost and reduce emission of greenhouse gases.[4][5] According to them, removal and trampling of snow by animals would reduce the insulation of the permafrost. Increased albedo in grasslands versus forests, would reflect more energy back and keep the ground cooler.[6] To study this, they released several species of large herbivores and monitored their effect on the local flora and permafrost. Preliminary results show that the ecologically low-grade tundra biome converted into a productive grassland biome.[7]
Overview
Pleistocene Park is located on the Kolyma River south of Chersky in the Sakha Republic which is in northeastern Siberia, Russia. It consists of willow brush, grasslands, swamps, forests and a multitude of lakes.[8]The average temperature in January is about –33 °C and in July +12 °C; annual precipitation is 200–250 mm.[9] The entire area of Pleistocene park is 144 km2 of which about 20 km2 are fenced in.[10]
The project is founded by Russian scientist Sergey Zimov and led by Nikita Zimov,[11][12] It is mostly funded by the Northeast Science Station. The goal is to recreate the northern subarctic steppe grassland ecosystem that flourished in the area during the last glacial period in order to mitigate climate change.[1][2] In order for the ecosystem to change from tundra to grassland, they raised the animal density artificially by fencing in and concentrating the existing large herbivores, and introducing species that are locally extinct.[8]
Scientific background
Permafrost degradation causes microbes to consume buried organic matter, excreting carbon dioxide and methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and has the potential to initiate a positive feedback cycle.[13][14][15]
The Zimovs believe that recreating the highly productive mammoth steppe ecosystem can delay permafrost thawing and that the mammoth steppe can be recreated by introducing herbivores.[8][9] Herbivores maintain the steppe ecosystem by increasing nutrient cycling by having the decomposition of plant matters take place in their warm stomachs. Grazing and trampling keeps slower growing competing plants like shrubs and mosses at bay and grasses form deep root systems in order to get their required water, resulting in dry, oxigenated soils.[17][18][19]
The Zimovs propose four different mechanisms by which the recreation of the mammoth steppe can cool the permafrost and increase carbon sequestration. These are permafrost preservation by snow trampling of animals, carbon sequestration under ground, albedo effect and methane emission reduction.[20][17][21]
Permafrost preservation by snow trampling of animals
In the winter in the Arctic, it can get up to -50 degrees Celsius. However, snow on the ground contains a lot of air so that it forms an insulating blanket over the permafrost. The Zimovs proposed that animals looking for forage trample the snow decrease the snow depth and thereby decrease ground temperature.[citation needed]
Carbon sequestration underground
Arctic grazing experiments show that grazing can improve productivity and soil nitrogen.[22] The mammoth steppe had a high ecosystem productivity.[17] This increase in productivity would accumulate carbon in the soil. Intense summer grazing stimulated the grass growth and vegetative reproduction. The limiting factor was water, therefore grasses form deep root systems all through the 1 meter deep active layer to the permafrost. When the grass dies, the carbon will stay in the soil in the form of roots. Animals will eat the grass off the top layer, making space for new grass, and the cycle repeats.[17] In this ecosystem, the soil could store up to 100 kg of carbon per square meter.[23][24][25][26]
In Pleistocene Park, they compared highly grazed areas to non grazed comparable areas in two different types of landscape: the thermokarst basin, and the upland area. They found that the carbon accumulation in the top layer of highly grazed areas was six time higher in the thermokarst basin and twice as high in the upland area. This was observes after 23 years of grazing.[16][27]
Albedo effect
Albedo is the fraction of sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface. The lighter the surface, the higher the albedo and the more energy is reflected back to space. This has a cooling effect. Snow and ice have a very high surface albedo and absorbed shortwave radiation is about three times lower than over non-snow-covered surfaces.[28]
Vegetation changes albedo dramatically. Trees are darker and absorb more solar radiation than other vegetation, leading to warmer winter temperatures.[30][31] Even though planting trees is often used as a climate mitigation strategy because of their ability to sequester carbon, in many places in the world the lower albedo of forests could completely negate the positive climate effects and can even be a net negative, creating a warming effect instead.[29]
Trees in the arctic do not sequester a lot of carbon because they grow extremely slowly and are subject to forest fires. This means that in many places in the arctic, the positive effects of trees in the arctic are minimal, while the negative effects from the decreased albedo are larger.[29][32]
Herbivore grazing changes the vegetation from shrubs to grasses and hereby increase albedo.[32][33] Several years of year-round measurement of albedo in Pleistocene Park show substantially higher albedo compared with most modern ecosystems like larch forest and shrublands with the most dramatic difference in April and early May.[34]
Methane emissions reduction
Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 24 times as potent as CO2. Permafrost produces methane underwater, in anaerobic conditions. Fast growing grasses need a lot more water than trees because they evaporate more water through photosynthesis. They will drain the soil and reduce the methane production.[25] Methane production has been shown to be significantly reduced in the park, compared to a similar area outside of the park that hadn’t been subjected to grazing.[27][35]
History
1988–2004
The first grazing experiments began in 1988 at the Northeast Science Station in Chersky with Yakutian horses.[7] In 1996, they built a 50 ha (125 acre or 0,5 km2) enclosure.[9] As a first step in recreating the ancient landscape, the Yakutian horses were introduced, as horses had been the most abundant ungulates on the northeastern Siberian mammoth steppe.[36] Of the first 40 horses, 15 were killed by predators and 12 died of eating poisonous plants. More horses were imported, and they learned to cope with the environment.[37] In 2006 approximately 20 horses lived in the park,[38] and by 2007 more horses were being born annually than died.[37] By 2013, the number had risen to about 30.[39] Moose, already present in the region, were also introduced.[citation needed] The effects of large animals (mammoths and wisents) on nature were artificially created by using an engineering tank and an 8-wheel drive Argo all-terrain vehicle to crush pathways through the willow shrub.[40][41][42]
The vegetation in the park started to change. In the areas where the horses grazed, the soil has been compacted[43] and mosses, weeds and willow shrub were replaced by grasses.[7][11][44][45] Flat grassland is now the dominating landscape inside the park.[42] The permafrost was also influenced by the grazers. When air temperature sank to −40 °C (−40 °F) in winter, the temperature of the ground was found to be only –5 °C (+23 °F) under an intact cover of snow, but −30 °C (−22 °F) where the animals had trampled down the snow. The grazers thus help keep permafrost intact, thereby lessening the amount of methane released by the tundra.[7][17]
2004–2011
In the years 2004–2005, they erected a new fence, creating an enclosure of 16 km2 (6 sq mi).[44] The new enclosure finally allowed a more rapid development of the project.[44] After the fence was completed, reindeer were brought into the park from herds in the region.[citation needed] To increase moose density in the park, special constructions were added to the fence in several places that allow animals outside the fenced area to enter the park, while not allowing them to leave. Besides that, wild moose calves were caught in other regions and transported to the park.[citation needed]
In 2007, a 32 meter (105 foot) high tower was built in the park that constantly monitors the levels of methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor in the park's atmosphere.[37][citation needed]
In September 2010, they introduced 6 male muskox from Wrangel Island, but 2 muskoxen died in the first months: one from unknown causes, and the other from infighting among the muskoxen.[37][46] Seven months later, in April 2011, 6 Altai wapiti and 5 wisents arrived at the park, the wapiti were from the Altai Mountains and the wisents from Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve, near Moscow.[47] The enclosing fence proved too low for the wapiti, and by the end of 2012 all 6 had jumped the fence and run off.[48]
2011–2016
In the years 2011–2016, progress slowed down as most energy was put into the construction of a 150 ha (370 ac) branch of Pleistocene Park near the city of Tula in Tula Oblast in Europe.[39]
2017–2020
In 2017 they shifted their attention back to the further development of Pleistocene Park. A successful crowdfunding effort provided funding for further animal acquisitions.[49][50][51] Later that year 12 domestic yak and 30 domestic sheep were brought to the park.[citation needed]
In 2018, they bought 15 Kalmykian cows, which arrived in Pleistocene Park in the autumn.[52]
In February of 2020, Pleistocene Park started a Patreon page[citation needed] and in the spring there was a successful expedition to get 10 new Yakutian horses. They traveled 800 km by truck over ice roads to the village of Aleko Kuel. The journey was filmed by Denis Sneguirev for the documentary The Zimov Hypothesis.[citation needed]
Administration
Pleistocene Park is owned and administered by a non-profit corporation, the Pleistocene Park Association, consisting of the ecologists from the Northeast Science Station in Chersky and the Grassland Institute in Yakutsk.[53] The present park area was signed over to the association by the state and is exempt from land tax.[12] The reserve is surrounded by a 600 km2 buffer zone that will be added to the park by the regional government once the animals have successfully established themselves.[53]
Visitors
The park is a hub for international scientists and students, who come from around the world to conduct their own ecological research and experiments.[7]
Reception
A point of concern is doubt that the majority of species can be introduced in such harsh conditions. For example, according to some critics, the Yakutian horses, although they have been living in the park for several generations, would not have survived without human intervention. They normally tolerate –60 °C, but are said to cope poorly with an abundance of snow and possibly would have died of starvation in the first snowy winter. However, horses of much less primitive stock abandoned by the Japanese Army have been living feral on some uninhabited Kuril Islands since 1945. Despite the deep snows (two to three times deeper than in Yakutia), they have successfully survived all the winters without feeding. And in Pleistocene Park, while some of the Yakutian horses accept supplementary feeding, others keep away and survive on their own.[37]
Positive reception
The Zimovs' concept of Pleistocene Park and repopulating the mammoth steppe is listed as one of the "100 most substantive solutions to global warming" by Project Drawdown.[54] The list, encompassing only technologically viable, existing solutions, was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars, scientists, policymakers, business leaders and activists;[55] for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050, the total and net cost to society, and the total lifetime savings were measured and modeled.[56]
In January 2020, a study co-authored by Nikita Zimov and three University of Oxford researchers assessed the viability of the park's goals when implemented on a larger scale. It was estimated that if three large-scale experimental areas were set up, each containing 1000 animals and costing 114 million US dollars over a ten year period, that 72,000 metric tons of carbon could be held and generate 360,000 US dollars in carbon revenues.[21]
A feature-length documentary, Pleistocene Park, was released in 2022, directed by Luke Griswold-Tergis.[citation needed]
