Russian Scientists Hope to Restore Ice Age Steppe with 'Pleistocene Park.' Will It Work?

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | December 20, 2018 07:14am ET

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of years ago, the chilly Siberian steppes were vibrant grassland ecosystems, supporting diverse communities of lumbering herbivores such as mammoths, woolly rhinos, moose, horses and bison. But after most of those species disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) the grassland habitats foundered, with much of the grasses disappearing.

Today, a team of Russian scientists is working to re-create that ancient landscape. In a fenced-off zone in northern Siberia named "Pleistocene Park," researchers seek to restore a vanished world where oversized grass-eaters roamed 20,000 years ago. In doing so, the scientists also hope to address the global problem of climate change, according to research presented on Dec. 12 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). [Image Gallery: 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts]

In the Arctic, permafrost cover is currently vulnerable to melt, and melting permafrost releases stored greenhouse gases, said Nikita Zimov, a researcher with the Pacific Institute for Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the director of Pleistocene Park. An estimated 1,400 gigatons of carbon — 1 gigaton is equal to 1 billion tons — is thought to be frozen in Earth's permafrost, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

But reintroducing large herbivores to the Siberian park and bringing back grasslands to the steppes could help protect the permafrost, Zimov said at AGU. Establishing healthy, productive grasslands could also create a more efficient system for storing atmospheric carbon in the soil, he added.

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