Can the Mammoth Save the Arctic Environment?

New research estimates around 48,000 mammoths could thrive on the North Slope of Alaska alone. Reintroducing this keystone species could reshape Arctic ecosystems.

Interest continues to grow in Arctic megafaunal ecological engineering, but since the mass extinction of megafauna, important physiographic variables and available forage continue to change.

Researchers therefore attempted to assess the extent to which modern Arctic ecosystems contribute to the rewilding of megaherbivores, using a woolly mammoth proxy as a model species.

"We conservatively estimate that Alaska's North Slope can support densities of 0.0–0.38 woolly mammoth km−2 (average 0.13) across a range of habitats. These results can inform innovative rewilding strategies," the researchers write in the research report on Nature.com.

The researchers show how modified vegetation architecture and species composition, increased albedo and therefore cooling, long-distance seed dispersal, and improved nutrient cycling/productivity and carbon storage each represent a special class of scalar effects that are primarily active when megaherbivores are present.

However, they emphasize that rewilding of de-extinct functional proxies for ecological engineering purposes promts important philosophical considerations.

"This strategy's ability to restore lost ecosystem functionality must be balanced with the potential unintended consequences of reintroducing extinct species into more modern environments and the allocation of resources for de-extinction alongside ongoing conservation efforts of existing species and habitats."

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