Pleistocene Park
The Pleistocene Park ( Russian Плейстоценовый парк ) is a scientifically accompanied ecological experiment in Eastern Siberia in the lower reaches of the River Kolyma south of the settlement Tscherski . A typical landscape of the Pleistocene is to emerge here on an area of around 160 square kilometers . Yakut horses , reindeer and elk live here in a fenced area of around 16 square kilometers . In addition, musk oxen arrived from Wrangel Island in autumn 2010 , and European bison and Altai marale in spring 2011 . The settlement of Siberian tigers is also being considered. The park has two long-term goals. One is the restoration of a Pleistocene primeval landscape, which, according to the megaherbivore hypothesis, was typical of the area, but which has been lost through the loss of large herbivores. The other is a decrease or at least a delay in global warming .
Restoration of the steppentundra
It is believed that the tundra and taiga areas of the park will be transformed into a mammoth steppe by the large number of grazing animals , which disappeared along with numerous large animal species at the end of the Pleistocene. A fence is supposed to prevent the animals from leaving the area until their populations have established themselves. One is already toying with the idea of introducing the woolly mammoth as the most important type of character of the mammoth steppe, in case it could one day be awakened by genetic engineering.
Reducing global warming
The Pleistocene Park experiment is not only about resurrecting the steppe tundra (a grass cold steppe) with its megaherbivore fauna, but also an important experiment in the context of avoiding (or at least delaying) global warming. In the permafrost of the Arctic is double bonded about as much carbon as the time is freely available worldwide in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. As part of global warming, the permafrost is now beginning to thaw and release the bound carbon. Partly as carbon dioxide, but to a considerable extent as methane gas , which has a greenhouse effect many times stronger than carbon dioxide. Through the restoration of the steppentundra with its high animal density, the thawing of the permafrost should be prevented or at least delayed, and global warming should be dampened. The underlying theory is that, on the one hand, the megaherbivore herds destroy the insulating snow cover in winter and thus the ground can cool down considerably more, and on the other hand, the steppe tundra created by the megaherbivores has a much higher albedo (sunlight reflection) all year round than the existing tundra and Taiga, so the ground warms up less.
Plans for 2017
The purchase of prairie bones and house yaks is planned for 2017 . The money for the purchase, transport and care of the animals was raised through a crowdfunding campaign that ran from March to the beginning of April 2017.
A first expedition has already taken place. On June 9, ten house yaks from Irkutsk Oblast arrived in the Pleistocene Park. A calf was born two days after arrival, and a second a few days later.
A second expedition to bring the prairie bisons is expected to take place in autumn 2017.
literature
- Emma Marris: Conservation biology: Reflecting the past. In: Nature 462, 30-32 (2009).
- Adele Peters: Home, home on the ферма. Meet The Father-Son Duo Importing American Bison To Siberia To Save The Planet. In: Fast Company , March 21, 2017.
- Jenni Doering: A Way to Refreeze the Arctic. In: Living on Earth , Public Radio International , transcription of a radio report broadcast in March 2017.
- Animal People, Inc: An Interview with Nikita Zimov, Director of Pleistocene Park. In: Animal People Forum , April 2, 2017.
- Noah Deich: Mammoths, Permafrost & Soil Carbon Storage: A Q&A about Pleistocene Park. Center for Carbon Removal, April 3, 2017.
Web links
- The Pleistocene Park Foundation Inc.
- Official website - www.pleistocenepark.ru/en
- "Wild Field" manifesto , Sergej A. Simow (founder of the Pleistocene Park), 2014.
- Grant Slater, Ross Andersen: “Creating Pleistocene Park.” Video, 26:01 minutes. 2016.
- Barbara Lohr: "Siberia: The heroes of primeval times." ARTE report, France 2017. 36:00 minutes, available as a live stream from the ARTE media library
Individual evidence
- ↑ corresponds to an area of approx. 2,241 soccer fields
- ^ "Pleistocene Park Underway: Home for Reborn Mammoths?", National Geographic, May 17, 2005
- ↑ SA Zimov, YV Voropaev, IP Semiletov, SP Davidov, SF Prosiannikov, FS Chapin III, MC Chapin, p Trumbore, S. Tyler: "North Siberian Lakes: A Methane Source Fueled by Pleistocene Carbon." Science , August 8 1997, Volume 277, Number 5327, Pages 800-802. doi: 10.1126 / science.277.5327.800
- ↑ KM Walter, SA Zimov, JP Chanton, D. Verbyla, FS Chapin III: “Methane bubbling from Siberian thaw lakes as a positive feedback to climate warming.” Nature , September 7, 2006, number 443, pages 71-75. doi: 10.1038 / nature05040
- ↑ KM Walter, ME Edwards, G. Grosse, SA Zimov, FS Chapin III: "Thermokarst Lakes as a Source of Atmospheric CH4 During the Last Deglaciation." Science , October 26, 2007, Volume 318, Number 5850, Pages 633-636 . doi: 10.1126 / science.1142924
- ↑ Sergey A. Zimov, “Pleistocene Park: Return of the Mammoth's Ecosystem.” Science , May 6, 2005, Volume 308, Number 5723, Pages 796-798. doi: 10.1126 / science.1113442
- ↑ Sergei Zimov (2007): "Mammoth Steppes and Future Climate." Science in Russia , 2007, edition not known, pages 105–112 (article in: www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/ - Materials. )
- ↑ SA Zimov, NS Zimov, AN Tikhonov, FS Chapin III: "Mammoth steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon." Quaternary Science Reviews , Volume 57, 4 December 2012, pages 26-45.
- ^ The Pleistocene Park Foundation: "Pleistocene Park: an ice-age ecosystem to save the world." Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, March / April 2017.
- ↑ David Addison: "A steppe towards a new age of restoration. If you learned that, today, you had the opportunity to back a mammoth effort to restore one of the world's biggest ecosystems, would you take it? ” Virgin , March 15, 2017.
- ↑ Adele Peters: “Home, home on the ферма. Meet The Father-Son Duo Importing American Bison To Siberia To Save The Planet. " Fast Company , March 21, 2017.
- ↑ Pleistocene Park Facebook message, June 13, 2017.
- ↑ Pleistocene Park Facebook message, June 24, 2017.
- ↑ The Pleistocene Park Foundation: "Expedition to bring animals to the Pleistocene Park is about to start." In: Pleistocene Park: an ice-age ecosystem to save the world , Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign March / April 2017, update no. 10, May 16, 2017.
Coordinates: 68 ° 30 ' N , 161 ° 23' E