ANTHROPOCENE
DAILY SCIENCE
Carbon has been accumulating in the world’s permafrost for millions of years.
To slow permafrost thawing, bring in the horses
New research shows that time-traveling back to the Pleistocene could ensure a cooler future.
By Cara Giaimo
As the Arctic warms and the permafrost melts, it’s seeping out again. Experts warn that thawing permafrost is releasing hundreds of millions of tons of carbon each year, on par with the entire
footprint of Japan.
But there may be a way to slow this process down: by bringing in the cavalry. Ongoing e
But there may be a way to slow this process down: by bringing in the cavalry. Ongoing e
xperiments in Siberia’s Pleistocene Park have shown that the presence of large herbivores—
like horses, bison, and reindeer—decelerates permafrost warming considerably. A recent
paper in Scientific Reports builds on this research, suggesting that if we let groups of
grazers roam throughout the Arctic, they could keep 80% of the world’s permafrost
intact until 2100.
Currently, the only large herbivores found in the Arctic are reindeer and musk ox,
Currently, the only large herbivores found in the Arctic are reindeer and musk ox,
and there aren’t very many of them—about 5 individuals per square kilometer.
But during the late Pleistocene, woolly mammoths, steppe bison, and other now-extinct
giants wandered all over what is now Northern Eurasia. Since 1996, researchers in
Siberia have tried to recreate that ecosystem on a small scale, keeping modern-day
herbivores, like horses and bison, in a 5000-acre area they call Pleistocene Park.
They then investigate soil temperature, moisture, and carbon content in order to
investigate what the new study’s authors call the “potential of big herbivores to save
permafrost from thawing.”
