Renewal of the eukaryotic fauna

Some Russian and American scientists are planning to recreate the ecosystem, including mammoths that have disappeared from the earth more than 10,000 years ago. These projects will directly impact biodiversity and reduce the greenhouse effect.

Photo: Thinkquest

Sergei Zimov, director of the Tcherski Scientific Research Station of the Russian Academy of Sciences in northern Siberian East, is planning to recreate the landscape that disappeared completely from the earth 10,000 years ago and revive the giant mammoth herd. With the project called Pleistocene Park (Zoological Park), Zimov wants to answer questions about the impact of modern humans on the environment, and find solutions to save the planet.

About 10,000 years ago, many large mammals disappeared completely from the earth when humans appeared. This change marked the end of the Eternal Life that appeared 1.6 million years ago. After this period, thousands of large mammals disappeared from the northern continent of Asia - Europe, the Americas, Australia and Madagascar. The North American region is most heavily affected, with 70% of large mammals genocidal.

Theoretically, thawing changes climate and plants, and impacts chains to large herbivores. The disappearance of these animals subsequently reduced the number of predators, including the tooth-tailed tiger, the cave lion. But Zimov does not fully agree with the above explanation. According to him, people with their hunting activities are the culprits that cause large mammals to disappear.

The National Park of Life project was launched in 1989 in the Republic of Iakoutia in the Russian Federation, located on the Siberian edge. This park is spread over 160 km2 of steppe and forest downstream of the Kolyma River, about 30 km south of Tcherski. The purpose of this project is to recreate the 'mammoth prairie ecosystem', which was previously present in Northeastern Siberia, Western Europe, Canada and northern China.

Russian biologist intends to create an ecosystem characterized by cold and dry steppes covered with undulating plants to house many herds of herbivores like mammoths. , bison, elk, rhino, yak, antelope, bullock, horse, reindeer. After herbivores, or at least mammals that exist today, then there will be predators like wolves, bears, lynx, even Siberian tigers, that will also be raised in this park.

Sergei Zimov's project is not the only project in the world. In the US, a group of researchers headed by Cornell University Professor Josh Dolan developed a similar plan in 2005. According to Josh Dolan's disclosure in an article published in Nature, the item The aim of this project is to encourage the development of large vertebrate species in North America.

The regeneration of the Eternal animal system will be carried out through a series of interventions on ecosystem management, by feeding species closely related to the major Paleozoic vertebrate species. has become extinct. This will change the principle of natural protection, such as managing the extinction of species and actively regenerating natural processes. For example, raising in the area project the Asian donkey horse (a wild donkey), Przewalski horse, Turkestan camel, mane, Asian elephant, African elephant and lion. This work will take at least a century but can create one or more ecological historical parks covering the entire western part of the Midwest state (USA). Reconstruction of the Eternal animal will be an optimistic solution to save animals from extinction.

Sergei Zimov's project has a more ambitious goal. In an article published in Science, he explained that if widely deployed, his idea would allow to reduce hundreds of gigatons (1 gigaton = 9 billion tons) of carbon gas currently still in closed regions. regular tape. Therefore, it can repel the greenhouse effect. According to him, humans can avoid greenhouse effects by restoring the natural conditions of the Era. These ecosystems have the ability to reflect very high sun rays, helping to reduce global warming. In addition, snow ice will last longer. In short, it means that the regeneration of green ecosystems that exist in the Era can reduce some of the negative effects of the greenhouse effect.

What about the mammoth rebirth? According to Professor Adrian Lister, expert researcher on mammalian mammals at the University of London, scientists from Russia and Japan have planned for breeding mammoth clones by using elephants from elephants. now combined with DNA from mammoth corpses found in regular freezing areas. However, this seems unthinkable because this breeding cannot succeed with existing 'poor and discrete' DNA. Although optimistic, Mr. Zimov is very realistic: 'In the future, it is possible that in the next decades, if someone successfully reborn mammoths, Pleistocene Park will be the best place to feed them.'

Russian scientists do not exclude that this park will open to adventure tourists. ' We can organize hunts there, but people can only use stone weapons ,' he said.