The Mammoth Steppe was once the most extensive biome, with similar animal biomass and plant productivity to today’s African Savannah. Mammoths knocked down trees and kept them down, encouraging grasslands to grow and other herbivores to thrive. As grasses grew, they fixed carbon from the atmosphere and pushed roots deep down into the ground. Herbivores digested grasses and transferred that carbon (as dung) to the soil for future grasses and animals to grow. With each passing season, carbon was transferred to the soil and locked into permafrost by the chilling winter air. That deep freeze remained frozen during the summer months, and carbon stayed locked under ice. This relationship between flora (plants) and fauna (animals) acted as a carbon sink until 12,000 years ago when the number of mammoths were hunted to the point where they could no longer manage grasslands for the large populations of herbivores.
Because of the mammoth’s disappearance, trees grew and forests pushed the grassland animals out by removing their food supply. While grasses reflect solar energy back into the sky, trees absorb solar energy and transfer it down to the soil as heat. This contributes to increased temperature of the permafrost and encourages thawing. Gases and mercury escape, and newly exposed grasses and roots are decomposed by activated soil bacteria, adding even more gas to the atmosphere.
With the reintroduction of this keystone species, an extinct ecosystem may once again be allowed to thrive and bring stability to carbon cycling and thawing permafrost. As more animals reoccupy the receding tundra, the insulating winter snow will be trampled, exposing the soil to arctic winter air and decreasing permafrost temperature for the warmer summer months.
Because the woolly mammoth and Asian elephant are so similar, these animals face similar threats. The effort to modify Asian elephant cells into woolly mammoth has also stimulated research to protect both animals from pathogens and fertility issues. At present, multiple labs are working on a treatment for a highly fatal virus (EEHV), and establishing elephant stem cell protocols, respectively. Advances will also be needed to increase population sizes, either in the form of captive breeding or artificial womb technology. Advances in any of these fields will only help both animals and environmental conservation in the long run.
Anyone who would like to make a tax deductible charitable donation to help fund the research necessary in this mammoth effort can do so by selecting “George Church’s Lab” at the donation page of our non-profit partner, Revive & Restore: https://reviverestore.networkforgood.com/projects/32106-woolly-mammoth-revival 