150 percent more carbon than all the rainforests (Zimov 2007, 111). If this permafrost world’s melts it will trigger releases of huge quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas with 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. In the summertime, grasslands are light in color and have a much higher albedo than dark forests, keeping the ground cooler. In addition, research shows that what determines the accumulation or thawing of permafrost in the first weeks of spring is whether the grassland surface is blanketed by white snow, or whether black tree trunks reach above the surface, absorbing sunlight (Wolf 2008, 67). In the wintertime, it is actually the absence of snow that helps protect permafrost. Herds of herbivores will trample through the wintertime snow cover, exposing the ground to colder temperatures and preventing the permafrost from melting. Thus the urgent and primary goal of the work at Pleistocene Park is not just ecosystem restoration but the prevention of runaway global warming. Zimov and his research partners continue to live and work in one of the harshest climates on Earth because they believe that restoring mammoth steppes may offer the best chance of preventing climate catastrophe. Sources January 18, Field Notes: The Polar Field Services Newsletter, Davis, Marcy. “Pleistocene Park.” 2011. June 2007: Scientific American, Donlan, C. Josh. “Restoring America’s Big, Wild Animals.” Fraser, Caroline. 298–99. Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009. September/October 2008: 63–69. Stanford, Wolf, Adam. “The Big Thaw.” Zimov, Sergei. Park: Return of the vol. 308 Science, “Pleistocene Mammoth’s Ecosystem.” (May 6, 2005): 796–98. Zimov, Sergei. and 2007: 105–12. Science in Russia, “Mammoth Steppes Future Climate.”
150 percent more carbon than all the world’s rainforests (Zimov 2007, 111). If this permafrost melts it will trigger releases of huge quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas with 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. In the summertime, grasslands are light in color and have a much higher albedo than dark forests, keeping the ground cooler. In addition, research shows that what determines the accumulation or thawing of permafrost in the first weeks of spring is whether the grassland surface is blanketed by white snow, or whether black tree trunks reach above the surface, absorbing sunlight (Wolf 2008, 67). In the wintertime, it is actually the absence of snow that helps protect permafrost. Herds of herbivores will trample through the wintertime snow cover, exposing the ground to colder temperatures and preventing the permafrost from melting. Thus the urgent and primary goal of the work at Pleistocene Park is not just ecosystem restoration but the prevention of runaway global warming. Zimov and his research partners continue to live and work in one of the harshest climates on Earth because they believe that restoring mammoth steppes may offer the best chance of preventing climate catastrophe. Sources Davis, Marcy. “Pleistocene Park.” Field Notes: The Polar Field Services Newsletter, January 18, 2011. Donlan, C. Josh. “Restoring America’s Big, Wild Animals.” Scientific American, June 2007: Fraser, Caroline. Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution, 298–99. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009. Wolf, Adam. “The Big Thaw.” Stanford, September/October 2008: 63–69. Zimov, Sergei. “Pleistocene Park: Return of the Mammoth’s Ecosystem.” Science, vol. 308 (May 6, 2005): 796–98. Zimov, Sergei. “Mammoth Steppes and Future Climate.” Science in Russia, 2007: 105–12.
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