Moss and Mammoths (Part 2)

About how permafrost can become, if not a “white fur animal”, then certainly a “black swan” who hid a half trillion tons of carbon — read the first part “Moss and Mammoths” .

About how you can stop the melting of permafrost, turn northern latitudes into a highly productive steppe with the help of shaggy four-legged comrades and about the “alternative” model of a planetary ecosystem - read / look under the cut.

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The nature that we see today on the planet is an unusual condition of ecosystems. This amount of forest has never been.



In the Late Pleistocene, the largest biome was the mammoth ecosystem.



It occupied all the middle and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. All that was not occupied by glaciers were pastures of mammoths, horses, bison.

Mammoths lived in the south of Spain, on the islands of Novaya Zemlya, in China, in Alaska, in California.
Today we see the polar desert, tundra, taiga, deciduous forests, steppes, subtropics. And before that there was the same ecosystem. In all these climatic zones there was one and the same nature.



It was a highly productive system. And during its existence it has accumulated hundreds of billions of labile organic matter in the permafrost.



Now the permafrost has begun to thaw and soon the permafrost of Siberia and Alaska can become the main source of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This process may be irreversible. Permafrost accumulated carbon for hundreds of thousands of years, and carbon is released over tens and hundreds of years, and it cannot be returned to permafrost anymore. Organic matter lies at a depth of 5-10-50 meters, and the soil accumulates carbon only in the upper layer half a meter-meter.



10-20 years ago there was controversy about how this ecosystem looked. Someone was sure that it looked like a polar desert with a supply of organic matter of the order of 100 grams per square meter. It is not clear how the mammoths fed in this ecosystem. But most artists have seen this ecosystem rich.

Why do we know about all these animals?



Their bones, and sometimes whole corpses in good condition. Every year they are found more and more often. In the permafrost, these bones are not so easy to meet. But where today the rivers, seas, lakes wash the banks, you can collect large collections of bones.



Duvan Yar. The main bone fees we spent here. Every year the river flushes several meters of permafrost and all the bones that were in the “wall” slide down, the current carries silt and all bones remain on the beach.



"Standard set" that remains from one mammoth.

You walk along the beach and it is easy to determine where the mammoth died. From it remains 5-10 bones, fragments of teeth, fragments of tusks, several vertebrae.

From bison remains less, 2-3 bones.

There is such an effect of “frost heaving” - frostbite tries to squeeze all the stones and bones to the surface, where everything quickly collapses.

Every 30-40 meters along the coast lies the skeleton of a mammoth. Bones are easy to count and restore the number of mammoths. The bones of other animals survive worse.



Here is a standard collection, collected from an area of ​​1 hectare. The vertebrae of the deer are only three, but how many horns. The horns are tasteless, nobody eats them, they are well preserved. And the vertebrae of the wolves and wolverines for one or two bites gnaw and swallow.



Thanks to large collections, we managed to find good dependencies. Bone weight, divided by its length, in degree 3/2. Good correlations. Blue - our points, red - Institute of Geology. According to such collections in various territories, it was possible to restore the density of dead animals in the area for the late Pleistocene.



On every square kilometer there lived such a number of animals. Plus one tiger / lion per 4 square kilometers. Not in every national park of Africa you will find such density. And this is the extreme-extreme north and the height of glaciation. In places where the polar desert is now, everything is littered with bones.



Calculation of methane sources. In the Late Pleistocene, the main source of methane was herbivores. Knowing the total emission and individually taken an animal, you can restore their number. The biomass of large herbivores reached two billion tons. Given the heart weight of 100-200-300 kg, we get 10 billion animals, which is equal to the biological productivity of land ecosystems of our planet.



And this is what northern ecosystems look like today. Feed no one. And in the past there were ecosystems not inferior to the African savannah. How can this be?

A bit of the atmosphere of Wrangel Island:





Nails - against arrogant bears.







Extremely harsh place.



But we swam like a soup. Nerpa everywhere. Fountains of whales. Bears on every ice floe. The most severe place in the world, but look what kind of biomass there. And on land - biological desert. For a week in the Arctic, I met a thousand times more animals than in life.





+4 temperature in July, and the grass ears like rice.



Grass in the north grows everywhere. The tractor drove - overgrown with grass. The reindeer herders stood one night - the next year they were overgrown with grass. The main thing is that someone moss trampled - and the grass will grow.



There were so many mammoths on Wrangel that they broke into two kinds. Large, who worked as a mammoth and there were small mammoths, which occupied a niche of horses.



Mid September. By our standards, it is already a harsh winter, and the grass is growing. For photosynthesis, temperatures are not needed, if only there was a plus. This is a photochemical reaction. And the grass grows. They need fertilizers - nitrogen and phosphorus.



In this place, the oxen were peeed and poked 8 times.



The 30s were the years of the warming of the Arctic. Towns wrong 30-50 times.



The animals just appeared, the bio-circle became active, manure appeared, grass grew, the feed became more.

When discussing the question “Why were there so many animals before?” The main hypothesis was that the “special” climate was in the north.

But look at the climatic field. On one axis, the amount of precipitation, on the other axis - the radiation balance (how much the Sun shines).

In the center - a line showing that the heat comes so much to evaporate all precipitation. All that is above - an excessively humid climate, below - dry.

All weather stations in Eastern Siberia, where the radiation balance is monitored. The current climate of Eastern Siberia is a dry steppe climate.

And why do we see so many swamps? And because nothing grows. In the wild, almost nothing evaporates from the surface of the earth. Evaporates from the surface of plants. On poor soils mosses and lichens grow, without roots. They can not dry the soil.

Today’s climate is excellent for pasture ecosystems. But why steppe died?



As the climate varied from -18,000 to -9,000 years. The transition period is Holocene . 13,000 years ago, a sharp jump in climate occurred. The amount of snow for 1 year increased from 6 to 25 cm of snow. There was a sharp climate moistening. There was a warming and feed has become more. The biomass of animals has changed. mammoths have not changed, horses (equus) have not changed, the number of bison has increased dramatically. The number of deer (cervus) has increased dramatically.

Then the climate began to return to its original state. But birch (betula), which nobody eats, began to grow. There was a fundamental change in pastures in the bush-forest communities. Why?

The first man appeared in Alaska ...

All the horses disappeared immediately. Mammoths quickly disappeared. The number of bison and deer has sharply decreased. Degraded pastures and flooded forests. The climate did not play a role, except for the one that became warmer, and it became easier for a person with his snotty children to survive in the north. The warming provoked the expansion of people to the north and after that the natural ecosystem collapsed.

The man did not have to exterminate everyone, it was enough to reduce the number - and they would no longer be able to maintain their pastures. Pastures suede, overgrown with shrubs.



Today there is a lot of pastures in the north. Reindeer is not visible, such a tall grass. "Brooms" 2 meters 30 cm. Grow at a speed of 14 cm per day. If only there was nitrogen in the soil. At least a little bit.



Hay can be mowed.

Millions of herbivores maintained their pastures. Herbs without herbivores are unstable.

What is a bio circle? This is photosynthesis, and then decomposition. All nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus should return to the soil. If you do not return - a new grass will not grow. Photosynthesis by temperature is not limited, and decomposition is limited. At the sweater cold and dry. Until the grass rot, the new one will not grow. In the meantime, rotting, mosses and lichens will clog pastures. There are no problems with photosynthesis, but how to quickly decompose organic matter is a problem. Coldly. But in the warm stomachs of large animals, in any climate, in the middle of winter, any organic matter decomposes in 24 hours. Large herbivores sharply activate decomposition and provide a high speed of circulation.

While there were animals — there were rich ecosystems, there was a lot of grass that fed many millions of animals.



Mammoth soils are fertile. The dirt creeps, and the grass grows on it.





An example is the Filippovka river. A fire passed, the moss layer burned out, all the soil crawled into the river. On the area less than 1%, but the whole river turned into a mud flow.

Imagine that in the Kolyma River basin 1% will begin to melt? The whole Kolyma will turn into a mud flow. All the dirt will flow into the ocean, and the white ice will cease to be white.



The permafrost thawed out at 6 meters, and see what kind of vegetation is juicy, tasty.



The climate today is the most suitable. The pastures are full and there will be more of them every year. And almost all the animals survived. Lost only mammoth and rhino.

A look into the future:



I have long explained to artists when someone sheds, as the grass should be cut.



And this is a photo. We have in the north.



Here was a forest, trees are drying out and see what kind of grass instead of moss. They wrote three times and poked eight times, that was enough.



And then there was a swamp, but now everything is drier and drier. Oxygen penetrates the entire soil profile.



And it does not require a lot of money, you just have to do it.



Previously, spring was like this.



So today like this. Eaten everything "under zero." Only heaps of dung. All that has grown over the summer, over the winter returns nutrients to the soil.



This ecosystem affects both the soil and the gas regime of the soil, the composition of vegetation, and the climate.



Dark forest, light pastures.



And in the winter black / white.

Today the “dark” in winter dominates, and earlier - in winter and summer there were light pastures.

The task is to save the permafrost. And the temperature of the permafrost depends not only on the average annual air temperature, but also on the snow. On the street -40 and -10 under the snow. In winter, the soil does not freeze through.

Under untouched snow -10, and on pastures where animals loosen snow -30. During the winter, the soils are cooled so that the temperature of the permafrost decreases by an average of 4 degrees.

Just let the animals and you have 4 degrees in stock.

If the permafrost suddenly begins to thaw, it will immediately overgrow with grass. You just have to have a bunch of animals ready to drive them there. Technically simple.





The Wild Field Manifesto (PDF)





There was a long arms race between plants and animals. As a result, they have a huge liver to digest all the protective poisons - nicotine, caffeine, strychnine, morphine. 20 million years ago, cereals appeared that did not waste time on defense, they freed up a lot of resources that they directed to rapid growth. Some herbs grow 1 meter per day. A new survival strategy has appeared: I am ready to feed a lot of horses, but I need a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus. A symbiosis between animals and plants. Plants feed animals, animals return fertilizers and at the same time trample / eat out “competitors”.

Spruce needles live 10 years, bitter, no one eats. They fall to the ground, where their mushrooms are laid out for 20 years. The turnaround time is decades. On pasture - weeks. The rate of biocircular rotation increased 100-1000 times. There are super-aggressive ecosystems.



Captured the whole world.





The task of the elephant / mammoth is to provide himself and others with water. Dig a hole, dig up the ice.



Let the beasts into the forest:



In a year:



Ate all the bark.

2-3 years and mighty forests disappear. Mammoths are not needed, deer cope.



No bark at all. The ecosystem is super-aggressive. All perepashut, trimmed, zakakut, record.



In the absence of animals - all overgrown with trees.



Alan Savori promotes that moderate grazing contributes to grass overgrowing. A couple of slides from his presentation. This is Africa already.

It was:



It became:



It was:



It became:



It was:



It became:



It was:



It became:





Let's return from Africa to general issues.



How does a predator hunt in such a situation? Complete confusion.

With such productivity on each square kilometer 2-3 large cats, 2-3 wolves, one wolverine, 2 ferrets, 1 neck, 6 crows. To dial half a ton. How to make the stability of the biocycle at such a high density?

There must be a complex social organization.



Each predator has its own territory, it’s not a problem to eat, there is no need to hunt. If you protect your flock - children will survive. They did not eat their cattle thoughtlessly, sometimes alien, sometimes nomadic "lost".

A good host will never cut the best chicken, pig. They - on the tribe. Wolves do not slaughter large livestock in the summer. They eat mice, bunnies, lizards. Large cattle by need, in the fall. Cattle is also "understood." While I am near the owner, he will not touch me.

If someone began to "throw", then it just bite, because otherwise bite his neighbor.



In the wild - a social contract. You behave like this, we are so, no one is impudent. We ourselves will give the sick and the crazies to the predators.



Wolves graze herds for millions of years. This dogs taught people to feed herds.



How did people survive? Being the slowest and weakest. Having so many children. How animals survived with this amount, and so on. predators?



Family of wolves: 10 puppies are born every year. A year has passed - puppies are already hunters. A person has 1 child per year, after 15 he has learned to move more or less, he has become a hunter after 20. A pack of wolves may risk.



The man did not hunt.



Survival guarantee - if you have your own trick, when you can do something that no one can take away.

In onions - 20% sugar.

If onions, horseradish, garlic, do not exterminate - they will score all pastures. There must be “sweepers”. Only a person can eat this stuff. And then there was a fire. 450,000 years ago.

The man was a pasture sweeper and no one offended him. Smelly, nasty, but let him live.



When the buffalo was inundated, everyone ate and even all the crows scattered, the “boys” dabble the tibia, radial bones, skulls and go home. At home, in the hole, the bone was disassembled and ate the most delicious. Only a person can easily split bones.

The man had two food niches where he was king - the bones of large animals, and large animals in the radius of the review died every day. Plus smelly and bitter roots.



The man was "untouchable." Thanks to this and survived. But then he developed himself into a weapon, and already there he “recouped”.



In Africa - 8, in Eurasia exterminated 9 species of large animals, in North America - 33.



Some elephants in North America were 4 species - all "soaked."

What large animals do you know in South America? None Only mediocre llamas and tapirs. But the Big One used to be full. Man destroyed all. And in Australia he exterminated everyone (21 species), only kangaroo survived.

Przhevalsky killed all the animals he saw.



Man began to make new, managed pasture ecosystems. The first person to kill - large cats, who defended "their" herds. They survived in dense forests, inaccessible mountains, in a waterless desert.



Man fiercely fought with wildlife.





Whales killed a million. Each 100 tons.

50 million bison killed 500 hunters in 10 years.

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Before the advent of man, there was "military democracy." All were armed. with the advent of the hegemon, the dictatorship of the proletariat.



We practically know no other nature than the forest.







Our civilization is based on easily accessible oil. The available oil will run out, and it will be necessary to invent something new.

The most valuable is the gene pool. He has gained millions of years, and losing him is easy.



And let's give the debt to nature. Let's make a natural park not in the most miserable, but in the most convenient place.

















I bought land, built a fence, brought cattle - the system worked.

Now tens of millions of hectares of fields are overgrown.

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