Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density

Abstract Climate change will cause a substantial future greenhouse gas release from warming and thawing permafrost-affected soils to the atmosphere enabling a positive feedback mechanism. Increasing the population density of big herbivores in northern high-latitude ecosystems will increase snow dens...

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Autores principales: Christian Beer, Nikita Zimov, Johan Olofsson, Philipp Porada, Sergey Zimov
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2020
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/835fbb99e3b44ea4892cafabd2e0558f
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:835fbb99e3b44ea4892cafabd2e0558f2021-12-02T17:05:00ZProtection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density10.1038/s41598-020-60938-y2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/835fbb99e3b44ea4892cafabd2e0558f2020-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60938-yhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Climate change will cause a substantial future greenhouse gas release from warming and thawing permafrost-affected soils to the atmosphere enabling a positive feedback mechanism. Increasing the population density of big herbivores in northern high-latitude ecosystems will increase snow density and hence decrease the insulation strength of snow during winter. As a consequence, theoretically 80% of current permafrost-affected soils (<10 m) is projected to remain until 2100 even when assuming a strong warming using the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5. Importantly, permafrost temperature is estimated to remain below −4 °C on average after increasing herbivore population density. Such ecosystem management practices would be therefore theoretically an important additional climate change mitigation strategy. Our results also highlight the importance of new field experiments and observations, and the integration of fauna dynamics into complex Earth System models, in order to reliably project future ecosystem functions and climate.Christian BeerNikita ZimovJohan OlofssonPhilipp PoradaSergey ZimovNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2020)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Christian Beer
Nikita Zimov
Johan Olofsson
Philipp Porada
Sergey Zimov
Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density
description Abstract Climate change will cause a substantial future greenhouse gas release from warming and thawing permafrost-affected soils to the atmosphere enabling a positive feedback mechanism. Increasing the population density of big herbivores in northern high-latitude ecosystems will increase snow density and hence decrease the insulation strength of snow during winter. As a consequence, theoretically 80% of current permafrost-affected soils (<10 m) is projected to remain until 2100 even when assuming a strong warming using the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5. Importantly, permafrost temperature is estimated to remain below −4 °C on average after increasing herbivore population density. Such ecosystem management practices would be therefore theoretically an important additional climate change mitigation strategy. Our results also highlight the importance of new field experiments and observations, and the integration of fauna dynamics into complex Earth System models, in order to reliably project future ecosystem functions and climate.
format article
author Christian Beer
Nikita Zimov
Johan Olofsson
Philipp Porada
Sergey Zimov
author_facet Christian Beer
Nikita Zimov
Johan Olofsson
Philipp Porada
Sergey Zimov
author_sort Christian Beer
title Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density
title_short Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density
title_full Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density
title_fullStr Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density
title_full_unstemmed Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density
title_sort protection of permafrost soils from thawing by increasing herbivore density
publisher Nature Portfolio
publishDate 2020
url https://doaj.org/article/835fbb99e3b44ea4892cafabd2e0558f
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