A family of scientists from Yakutia is trying to recreate an Ice Age ecosystem in Siberia to slow down global warming
Scientist Sergei Zimov and his son Nikita want to recreate the Ice Age ecosystem in the region in order to slow down global warming. A researcher who has studied permafrost for decades is seeing the effects of climate change in real time: everything from mammoth bones to ancient vegetation frozen for millennia is slowly melting and decaying, threatening to release massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A Reuters correspondent visited the Zimovs’ reserve in the lower reaches of the Kolyma.
The scientist notes that the temperature in Siberia is rising three times faster than in the world. Emissions from melting permafrost, which covers 65% of our country, could eventually equal industrial emissions from the EU. In addition to environmental consequences, this process can cost the Russian economy dearly – according to preliminary forecasts, the economic damage from permafrost thawing by 2050 will be about ₽7 trillion. We are talking about the replacement and repair of infrastructure, which was created taking into account the fact that the permafrost will indeed be eternal.
To slow down the pace of warming, Zimov is populating a nature reserve in northeast Yakutia with large herbivores such as bison, horses and camels that trample the snow, making it much more compact, causing it to lose its insulating properties. The project was called the Pleistocene Park – since 1996, about 200 different species of animals have been inhabited in the territory in the lower reaches of the Kolyma. According to scientists, due to this, the average snow depth has decreased by half, and the average annual soil temperature by 1,9 ° C. Now the Zimovs are thinking about scaling the project to the entire territory of the Arctic and are watching with interest the attempts of scientists to revive the mammoth population.