If you like this project, please support the Pleistocene and Permafrost non-profit Foundation, which helps to realize the Pleistocene Park across Siberia: pleistocenepark.de/en/donate/ or Support Pleistocene Park on patreon here: www.patreon.com/PleistocenePark
Just today I've seen a documentary (L’hypothèse de Zimov dir. Denis Snegirev) abt this project on Planet+ channel. So if anyone is interested I bet you'd be able to find in somewhere on the Canal+ platform or online
I think you are massively overlooking the younger dryas impact hypothesis while looking at the climate change argument. Human hunting is a joke, how close have the Africans come to eradicating the megafauna in 300,000 years. Hominids were hunting all over the world bar north America and Australia in the form of neaderthals, Denisovans and heidelbergensis for hundreds of thousands of years before humans. The idea that the European and North Asain megafauna went extinct from hunting because they'd not coevolved with hominids is demonstrably flawed.
I'd like to hear more about your opinion on the overkill theory. These species evolved to take advantage of an environment, that environment diminishes, the species follows. Just from a supply and demand perspective how could two million humans need that much? Especially when there are plenty of easier and far more reliable food sources. Actually, how could two million, unorganized, humans go about accomplishing that to begin with?
Ecology graduate here, Idid not even realise boreal forests and forests with low biodiversity actually sequestered less carbon than grasslands due to that mechanism.... awesome video!
What bothers me was all boreal forests were dismissed as unproductive the sheer biodiversity of birds within the north american boreal forest is also important North America's boreal forests are very different from the Siberian forests which are far younger. Plus this only focuses on the dead soil biomass rather than the living soil biomass much of which is still very poorly understood as part of the "uncultureable" microbial dark matter. I suspect the real picture looking at this would be much more nuanced. After all the role of megafauna in forest environments is also poorly studied made entirely worse as politics have lead to the last forest dwelling Proboscidean having long been treated as the same species as the African bush elephant. In the North American boreal forests mastodons mammoths forest dwelling cousins would have been the ecosystem engineers but none of them exist anymore. :( Much of the biomass in a forest is alive down within the mycorrhizae and most of that is still uncatalogued by science
@@lolcano2346 Technically the Younger Dryas impact theory has been met with pretty strong criticism since aside from the team that pushes for it no one has been able to independently verify the impact ejecta claims. There is the possibility it could be linked to the large crater beneath the Greenland Ice sheet which may or may not match the timing so it can't be ruled out or supported barring a direct core sample of the crater's stratigraphy. We know it is a crater as glacial deposits carry shocked quartz grains and abnormally high concentrations of platinum group elements strongly depleted in differentiated planets
@@Dragrath1 The team? There's many people independently pursuing it now and the human-caused extinction hypothesis has also been met with strong criticism, none of which was mentioned in this video And the crater itself is the least of what was presented, the melt-water flooding that took place is basically established fact just as the decline of human populations around that same time which poses further issues to the human-caused extinction hypothesis All this aside- to not even mention the Younger Dryas impact theory or to bring up criticisms of the human-caused extinction hypothesis makes this video EXTREMELY bias and this wouldn't be the first time Atlas Pro has put out content suffering from such bias You can bet that if there's a "humans suck" explanation of events, that will be the one Atlas Pro focuses on at the expense/ignorance of all other explanations/interpretations. It's almost as if he's vegan
@@lolcano2346 I think that response was needlessly hostile yes we can't say that it was humans for sure but the evidence for close overlap between human arrival and megafaunal collapse is only getting stronger with new evidence outside of Afro-Eurasia. Though Afro-Eurasia really does seem to be a bit more complicated. We do know the Younger Dryas happened the main issue with a Younger Dryas only model is that the event wasn't unique with similar past events that didn't involve a megafaunal extinction suggesting that couldn't be the sole cause. Whether a bolide was the contributing factor is more questionable but it seems pretty clear that humans did have an impact. Yes he did single that one out as what he favors but he did at least admit that its unsettled and that he is picking which one he thinks is most responsible. Could he have done a far better job? Absolutely he generally has a clear bias in his videos whenever there are multiple interpretations but he is honest in admitting it isn't settled. I have criticisms with this video but I at least tried to remain civil about it. Personally I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be all or nothing everytime we come up with a simple explaination for somthing we later find evidence that it is much more complicated. However with the evidence so far there definitely was a significant impact of humans on ecology when entering ecologically naïve environments. This is particularly apparent in the case of New Zealand the last significant major area to be uncolonized/discovered by humans, we can be very confident that the extinction of Moa was entirely the fault of overhunting of large megafauna. And I have noticed that the gap of time between the first evidence of people and the disappearance of megafauna has been shrinking over my lifetime.
I am as well, but alas I feel it might be decades before we see a mammoth. especially given the “impossibility” of cloning a mammoth given the lack of a living cell. This leaves us with Editing of an Asian elephant geneome.
It sounds like the mammoth is a crucial part of the mammoth steppe ecosystem. I have heard no introduction Of carnivores yet. I also see the rhino wooly wasn't nearly as crucial to the mix, impressive conclusion to your ice age anthology although I felt a little repetition in places I think it's important. Good work here. Looking forward to the progress in the park, the real science video, etc. I wonder how far they intend to stretch it's boundary, I see you only spoke on what you know.
It’s worth mentioning what occurred in Yellowstone National Park when apex predators (wolves) were reintroduced there. The populations of elk and deer were kept away from the wide open grassy areas that also had streams and/rivers. This did two things: first it allowed trees and shrubs to thrive there again and second it caused the streams/rivers to alter their courses. Also, the conditions of the various animal herds (elk,deer) improved due to the wolves culling them. The stream and rivers courses being altered was due in part to the herd animals no longer trampling all over the place and eating all the foliage causing soil erosion. There are several rather good documentaries on this subject and some of them can be found here on UA-cam.
It's also worth mentioning that those wolves came from Alberta, Canada,, and it didn't take long for a few of them to stray outside Park boundaries and for people to start killing them again.... so we had to send down more.........
Also important to note that there is no permafrost in yellowstone, the preservation of which was kinda the whole point of this video. I would say the mammoth steppe is as much of a bottom-up ecosystem as it is top-down, the point being that introducing large grazers improved biodiversity and ecosystem health in that community (he mentioned that biodiversity in Northeastern siberia kinda sucked big-time, BECAUSE of the sparse forest habitat). Yellowstone being a top-down ecosystem (wolves regulate everything below) meant that without them, biodiversity and ecosystem health declined. This is in contrast with the mammoth steppe, which functions well with large grazers because the grass and the grazers both limit and depend upon each other. It is also important to note the this area of siberia is actually becoming oversaturated with water because of rising temperatures. Most of the year large rivers and streams are absent (frozen until well into summer), and the reintroduced animals are adapted to this, unlike the 3/4 of the year when rivers flow in yellowstone that beavers etc depend on. You cant just take one ecosystems function and tack it to another because they have deer too.
I mean I get if you're trying to point out that reintroducing things is good because it has worked before, but its worded like 'they need to introduce predators to the steppe because this is damaging the current ecosystem'
They do have plants to introduce predators to the park, since historically there were many predators on the steppe. So then it would be the best of both worlds essentially, where predators could hunt near rivers and watering holes, reducing overgrazing near these places, allowing trees to grow and mitigating soil erosion, while the grazers also go on open plain lands compacting snow to prevent permafrost melt.
The fact that mammoths survived up until 2000 BCE on Wrangel Island amazes me. They lived through the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza and even the reign of Mentuhotep II. Just wow.
There are tribal people living in Siberia today who believe mammoths are still alive, and some even claim to have seen them. So maybe the mammoths aren't extinct after all.
@Lightbulb Man Siberia is a pretty huge place and there's vast tracks of land there where human beings almost never go. So I wouldn't dismiss the tribal people's claims without an investigation.
@@tomcollins5112 I'm sure mammoths to them are like bigfoot to us. Certainly not real, but a handful of people swear up and down that they've seen one. The only difference is that mammoths were indeed alive at one point and the natives of Siberia probably have folklore and tales about them that originated thousands of years ago. As vast as Siberia is, a mammoth is a very large creature that would have a noticeable impact on the environment, so I guarantee we aren't going to find any.
It has been a whole year since the release of this video. If possible I'd love for you to do a follow up or an update video. Since this video, hairy goats and bactrian camels were introduced as well and ate doing very well. This is a project a very much believe in and want to see succeed. Your channel is big and your bodice reaches a lot of people. I want to get the word out as much as possible
There won't be an update because nothing happened because nothing ever will. The mammoths are an ice age animal and despite the subtle lies he told about how they survived the quaternary extinction, they can't survive in today's earth. The temperatures are simply too hot for them, even where they want to make this mammoth steppe.
@@ilayohana3150- There are remnant pockets in Asia -- in the Altaii-Sayan mountains -- of what is essentially mammoth steppe. Woly Mammoth could make a living there, without doubt.
Interesting video. We definitely need more grasslands. The answer isn’t always to plant trees, and I think most people think a forest is the peak of nature(like you mentioned). I have some land full of trees and almost nothing else grows beneath all the leaves and pine needles. It’s basically a six inch mulch bed everywhere. I think the best we can do is plant native plants and use prescribed burning intelligently. Food forests are also a great idea. We should definitely do something because the all important top soil is depleting quickly.
If you liked this, you might also be interested in the Savanna Institute in the united states. They're trying to get farmers to bring back savannahs as a farming method to more effectively create food for humans, while also providing the many other benefits of the biome.
Yep it’s crazy since they are trying to reintroduce bison all over the Midwest that we could then free-roam-farm partially and responsibly in place of relatively small-area cattle farms
@@paemonyes8299 it depends of course but some inventions of Life are just an answers to the same laws of physics as everywhere else in the universe. It is interesting if life could in fact thrive in any other environment than Earth. We don't know.
I figure hundreds of miles freezing cold Siberian tundra in every direction is a pretty good defense, but I also imagine any mammoths would also be under close surveillance until a working population is established
Shoot the fuckers is my opinion. It's the same on my opinion of murderers. Why should a person that has the ability and mindset to kill people be allowed to live? Why should a person that kills animals that are vital to our planet's survival be allowed to roam free?
@@michaellewis8849 100% agree. I understand they're trying to make money for themselves by killing but if they're willing to endanger future life on the planet then shoot the fuckers like you said.
Here in Florida we have a huge problem with lionfish because as an evasive species they destroy everything without any consequence and I've always imagine it was the same for humans when we migrated to new environments.
then recheck your geologic history ... this isnt global warming this is the same old end of an ice age and just before the next mass extinction ... where the dominant species dies off except the few thousand in the right niche and a new dominant species takes over .... btw homosapien is the current dominant species ... the last time this happened we had dinosaurs ... now we burn them in our gas guzzlers
Wonderful concise and informative video. You explain relatively complicated things so well and I am glad you give the Zimov brothers the credit they duly deserve. Thank-you.
I am so glad you not only mentioned the Overhunting Hypothesis but actually pointed out why it makes sense. I am writing a field guide to the extinct and extant large animals of my state and in the research I came to the same conclusion as this video. I had never heard of someone else actually stating openly why the hypothesis makes sense.
they coexisted with the megafauna in some places for a few hundreds of thousands of years like eurasia and in other places like north america for 10,000 or more years, only for them (and almost humans) to suddenly die out because of 3 huge temperature changes, some of them not even because of earth, plus mammoths survived in a northern part of mainland siberia until 3900 years ago, around the time wrangel island mammoths died out as well and also both of those places were one of the last places to lose the mammoth steppe, and humans had been in siberia for who knows how long
The over hunting hypothesis is full of holes. Absolute nonsense. At best it's one tiny variable in a much more complex situation. Also look up the Greenland impact hypothesis that's gaining traction. If humans over hunted all the mega fauna then why did modern humans almost die out approximately 10,000 years ago as well?
even better, they are buying horses that were about to be slaughtered, so they are saving them and giving them another purpose (info from the documentary: L’hypothèse de Zimov dir. Denis Snegirev)
There’s nothing ethically wrong about resurrecting the mammoth being that likely the reason they went extinct was due to humans. They will likely be dwarf hybrid mammoths according to all evidence out there but, I don’t see what the holdup is. They need to get started on it now. I’d love to see this before I die.
And to think many people still consider trees as the most crucial climate fighting ally. Grasslands are unfortunately severely underrated (unless you look at the megafauna-rich plains of the Serengeti)
The scientists behind this were featured on 60 minutes a while back, and I was really confused then. Honestly it felt too much like a ruse to resurrect mammoths to follow the rule of cool, but you cleared up for me how the permafrost is affected by snow, as well as how these grasslands seem like better carbon sinks than boreal forests. It seems like a not very intuitive but also a quite brilliant plan on the part of the people building this nature reserve.
Yeah though what bothers me is that this is a very Eurasia centric view over in North America the lack of east to west mountain ranges on the Eastern half of the continent meant that the endemic boreal forest ecosystem wasn't lost and thus there is fauna that is indigenous to the boreal forest that said the megafauna which lived within the boreal forests particularly Mastodons mammoths forest dwelling cousins are also gone for the same reasons. In fact much of the limited fauna that lives in boreal forests in Eurasia today is fauna that managed to colonize Eurasia from the surviving forest on the eastern seaboard of North America. The temperate forests we have here nowadays had been located further south in what has largely been flooded and claimed by the Gulf of Mexico.sadly with climate change we are going to lose even more of the continent to the Gulf including basically all of Florida Louisiana Alabama Mississippi, Arkansas coastal Texas, Georgia, and the Carolinas, the tidewater region of Virginia the Eastern shore of Virginia, Maryland Delaware New Jersey New York city pretty much the entire east coast is soon to join the Atlantic... .
@Tomáš Staněk The whole 60 minutes segment is on youtube. could be not available in your country though, but it's available in the US. ua-cam.com/video/nEzskUGJ_1I/v-deo.html
Did you miss the part where he said the Mammoth Steppes covered most of Northern North America? Obviously if the project is successful they will be implementing it globally in parts where the mammoth steppes were present.
The Greenland Impact theory has gotten a lot more attention recently since finding the impact area in western Greenland. The substrata confirms an impact in that time period as well. There is an iridium layer as well as shocked quartz and micro diamonds.
Well done, mate. This is one of the most exciting life science projects in the world. Much respect to the Zimov family for their long-term vision, especially Papa Zimov for just saying 'The hell with deliberation, I'm just going to make it and show you all."
There is actually a growing number of scientists worldwide who are beginning to see just how important steppe/savannah is to combatting climate change. It sure as hell makes far more sense than planting a massive amount of monocultured trees, which makes things actually worse.
The over hunting hypothesis becomes ridiculous when you start to figure human population sizes and activities. IMO, when hunter-gather humans have wiped out animal populations, it has been in isolated areas, like islands, and usually involves animals easily hunted, like flightless birds in New Zealand. IMO, this seems unlikely.
4 hours ago I started a Jurassic Park movie marathon and out of pure coincidence this video is released after I finish watching the first movie, my god your timing could not be better
This is a similar way how mammals can fight desertification in Africa. Their trampling seals the moisture in the ground and they're fertilizing the ground. Colonial animal hunting brought these systems out of balance accelerating desertification.
Their trampling also creates soil compaction. I don’t think it’s at all fair to blame colonists for climate change even if they did some questionable stuff by today’s standards.
Thank you for the video, this was incredibly interesting to watch and I learned a LOT from it. I didn't know about the park, but I'm glad it exists. Since a lot of the Arctic is barran an unused land, it's nice to see it given a natural purpose with many benefits for the creatures within. Hopefully it can live on for many generations, knowing his son is in helping as well is at least a good sign. EDIT: Also- when you said about the tanks pushing over trees, it connected in my head as just wild tanks, roaming the plains of Russia, crushing trees and eating them for fuel.
Now I understand why Minecraft Cows, Sheep, and Pigs spawn in the plains biome. Grasslands are really good at supporting megafauna, the more you know ig
Also worth pointing our there are or rather were megafauna within forests they tend to be smaller than their open plains cousins but they were there before we killed them. Mammoths were larger and lived in open environments but their cousins mastodons were forest animals of equal ecological importance. In Eurasia the boreal forests were largely lost thanks to the mountains blocking the forests retreat south North America where the mountains on the eastern side of the continent are north south aligned rather than east west didn't face the same losses and thus has a biologically very diverse boreal forests which are one of the worlds hot spots for biodiversity of birds. This was the land of the Mastodons the forest bison technically there would be a bit of blurring between the two ecosystems types resulting in a mosaic landscape of transition based on both climatic and ecological factors. It should also be noted that boars (wild pig species) tend to be quite common in forest environments and there are even entire species of mycorrhizae which rely on boars to propagate their spores known as truffles.
Back in 1978 I was out in Pawnee National Grassland in Colorado and the local ranger was showing me some small coulees that were fenced off from grazing by most species. In those coulees, even those only fenced off a few years earlier, there were many trees, delicious and especially coniferous growing up and quite tall for the short period of time. It was a good example of what was mentioned in the video of the removal of grazing pressure and the increase of woody plants thus changing the biome.
Loved the vid, however what you’re saying about carbon being trapped more efficiently in grasslands is highly contentious within the scientific community. Soils can only trap carbon until equilibrium is reached. This equilibrium of carbon or the maximum amount of carbon you can store within the soil is actually pretty close to what can be observed within soil in existing forest. Not to mention roots of large trees are extremely massive carbon based tissue that are ubiquitous throughout the soils of forest. So if the soils within the two ecosystems are pretty close in terms of carbon mass, then all that’s to be compared is the carbon content that’s being stored above ground. Obviously forest wins in this case. You could make the point that the animals in a grassland are a large carbon storing element, but comparatively they are insignificant compared to the mass of carbon stored within trees. I like Pleistocene park, but only for its ability to preserve permafrost storing methane, the argument that grassland stores more carbon than forest in almost any other case is very debatable.
I don't know much about this but key word there might be can? Forests can store just as much carbon as grassland but do they? I mean that might be a dumb question as I said I don't know much about this
@@TheScourge007 “grazed and confused” is a research paper that was released two or three years ago comparing forests and grazed grassland in terms of carbon sequestration. They concluded that native forests could store much, much more carbon.
Love this. I did a couple essays about Pleistocene Park a few years ago, and I’m happy to see you touched on everything I wrote about. Fingers crossed mammoths will be brought back in the near future to take that region over
The video of American Bison while talking about Ecological Naïvité is so perfect, subtle way to give historic example of it. I don't know how many people caught that, but I'm sure that was a conscious decision, that the person is quite proud of and should be
I can totally relate to how boreal forests create an ecological impact. In California near the Sequoia national parks, (Im not sure if they are considered boreal forest) the pine trees blanket the soil with dead needles that don't effectively decompose. Fortunately, the fires that have gone through the park have helped burn the needles and shrubs revealing the untouched soil, allowing new life (like grass) to spring up and provide food to the deers and other native species.
It is amusing that people get angry about forest fires in California. I understand the loss of your home is upsetting. I referring to backcountry fires. The reality is the fires are necessary for removal of undergrowth that the animals don't eat. The releases of seeds from many trees. Like you said the needles take a long time to decompose. Where as when grasses grow after the fires. The soil is locked down. The animals graze and fertilize the ground with dung. The fires are a necessary fact of California's ecology. I like what some cities around the bay are doing. They have goat and sheep herders. Bring in their flocks. The goats decimate the undergrowth and fertilize the ground. It keeps the fire Hazzard down and provides for new growth.
You're correct- people 100% believe forests are the panicle of a natural environment. But, grasslands, savannahs, and wetlands in most cases, especially in temperate regions are far more important, productive, and in greatest danger of disappearing. Logging isn't always bad either...
What a marvelous presentation. I’ve never been a believer in the proposition that man was the operative factor in the extinction of megafauna after the last ice age, but now I’m not so sure. That naivety to the dangers posed by people could indeed have made a huge difference in the percentage of successful hunts. That in turn may have been the driving force in the northward migration of early man. Big game. Easy kills. What’s not to like? Lots of food for thought here. Thanks for posting.
Thank you for covering this!! I’ve been following Pleistocene Park for some time, and I’m ECSTATIC to see it get some love and coverage! (I donated to them when they were attaining Plains Bison)
Me too man, I feel like the ethical argument is kinda bullshit cuz like sure we don’t want to have a Jurassic Park scenario but we took it out of this world we should probably bring it back. Same with the White Rhinos of Africa and many other similar species.
Your channel is criminally underrated. You are as good as Kurzgesagt and VSauce in popularizing science. You should have at least 2 millions subscribers. I've got a feeling you will reach that number this year.
the siberian tiger is truly a *survivor*. it survived the largest mass extinction event in 5 million years, while the smilodons, cave lions, and its larger relatives the ngandong and bornean tigers, died out
I was always taught that to fight "climate change", plant a tree... "🎶Tree's, Tree's part of the Arbor Day Foundation, spread the word around the nation about Tree's🎶, Tree's are Terrific"...
i think he is making some pretty big assumptions, like how the animals population suddenly dropped around the time humans arrived... Thats not exactly fact or hard evidence... the animals could of been wiped out by a virus or predator population growth Its not like everything is perfectly balanced until we rock up, its always shifting and changing and species are going extinct and emerging
The graph survival level hits 100% far too early. To assume populations flatline at 100 percent and decline without without curves is incredibly deceptive. The full data set, including the dip in Africa, would show drop off occuring on the Younger Dryas boundary. The only exception here is Australia, which starts much earlier than that the Younger Dryas boundary, but much later than his purposefully distorted "immediately after" claim, which even here, shows it occuring good 20-30k after human arrival. But this can be explained with the beginning with well documented human induced mass burning of the region. The icing on the paleolithic cake is his 13ka North American arrival date, which as anybody paying attention now know, has undisputedly been pushed back tens of thousands of years earlier. But mentioning that, probably wouldn't fit the narrative being pushed by his professional opinion.
@@dr.floridaman4805 Do you have anything of substance to add, or are you just upset by the progression of time and need a place to vent against change?
@@Victor_aeternus002 that's great news! I dearly hope they consider the Saigas too, since in their current reach and their critically low numbers, they are very prone to extinction.
@@depressionbomb they consider saigas as far as I know somewhen at the late stages of the whole thing, but right now I think it's very unlikely just due to the saiga's lack of whole/fur/something keep them warm through the Siberian winter (but for Siberian summer they would be okay though xD and probably even thriving, but season is too short and they would be too faraway to migrate quickly from harsh temperatures anywhere from Siberia now :c)
@@tentwoXII You can read and get updated on info on their Facebook and Instagram pages. They post about travelling and aquiring new animals very often. In june they got bactrian camels to the park, and now they are getting more bison.
What I wouldn't give to be apart of something like this. I'm passionate about a lot of things, but animals, nature, and the outdoors always just struck in a chord in my heart so to speak. To continually see fellow man rape the natural world, and knowing what the next couple of decades means for us and every other living thing, it's paramount we spread the word and take action.
Very cool. Glad you did this in detail. Especially speaking on the carbon sinks created by grassland communities. Thank you. Wapiti is pronounced wah-pah-tee btw.
Thank God you did this!! I've been a fan/advocate of this project for years but it never really got a lot of press or popular awareness. I recommend it months ago to this channel cuz I really believe it could make a difference if more people were involved and donated money, time, resources. And this channel seemed like a perfect fit. Now that a popular UA-cam channel has covered it. Hopefully it will become a more mainstream topic of discussion, get more press attention and donations. Maybe even more volunteers and animal donations from breeders, reservations etc.
it sucks that even though the current warming happening right now is the smallest and slowest climate change in the entire holocene, it is still negatively effecting a lot of people, probably because of how big our populations are. in my opinion its probably why mega civilizations in the past couldnt last too long, because one big swing in climate and boom it collapses
Why dont you collab with Tierzoo. It would literally be perfect ! Your my favourite biogeography channel and is my favourite zoology channel. You 2 will be excellent together
This is so interesting. I always thought deforestation was the major problem since the trees are what takes up the Co2, which it still is but, the fact that grasslands hold Co2 better is something I would have never thought of. When I first started watching the video, I couldn't believe what I was hearing thinking that the problem would be bringing back extinct species and having grasslands instead of forests, but it now makes sense. Thank you for sharing this knowledge. I think I am now on team mammoth. :)
I've been following pleistoscene park for many years now (6+ years at least). It was one of the things that inspired me to study ecology and conservation. I love checking in every so often to look at the progress.
I have noticed that in planted pine forests, the deer tend to be skinnier than in hardwood forests with lots of acorns, berries, and leaves and things of the like.
This project is awesome on so many levels, yet with a beautiful simplicity. Team Mammoth steppe! And thanks to Atlas pro for another incredibly informative video!
Return the treatylands to American Indians. Before the Europeans came here they massacred the herds that produced the grassland to starve us onto the concentration camps known as reservations. Indigenous lifestyles and preservation of our planet is the only way we can heal from the damage
Just wanted to drop by and say that besides really enjoying the content of the video itself, the production value on your videos are amazing! Your editing, choice of stock footage and style are super well done!
I just wanted to throw out there that natural boreal forests house incredibly high biodiversity of saproxylic beetles, mosses and fungi! So it would be good to save a bit of it, not convert the whole thing to steppe :)
I got into an argument with someone about whether or not it would be viable to bring back mammoths. I said it would be a waste, but they linked this video and wow!
Tourism doesn’t actually generate global wealth, it’s just a means for people with money to give other people money... producing necessities is a far more tangible method of producing revenue
I think it was a combination of over hunting and climate change that did in the megafauna. During a climate shift large animals are vulnerable and often drop in population, but if they are hardy or lucky enough they will bounce back eventually. However if we come in and start hunting them when they are most vulnerable, it creates a one-two punch that the megafauna couldn't survive.
probably yeah, i find it strange that mammoths managed to survive in the yukon until 5000 years ago, and in a northern part of mainland siberia until 3900 years ago
nothing here mentioned about the Younger Dryas impact theory of the mega-fauna extinction or how human populations all around the world ALSO took a massive hit around this time 12k years ago. Atlas Pro is absolutely biases
@@lolcano2346 That's because it's against the narrative. The Younger Drias proves that the Earth's climate fluctuates like crazy with or without us. It's not just this guy though it's the environmental science community in general. "NO, Humans are EVIL and UNSTOPPABLE, we ruin everything we touch". We're not capable of destroying the Planet and if we were we couldn't without destroying ourselves, The Earth'll shake us off like a cold and in a few million years (less for smaller, simpler species) evolution will replace us and everything we drove to extinction.
@@NamelessKing1597 First off the Younger Drias was caused by an influx of fresh water in the ocean, most likely by an asteroid. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any asteroids recently, and yet temperatures are rising... Such blatant writing off of all popular climate theories of the actual scientists (the people who dedicate their lives to this) seems like a silly decision. Why would they push the idea that humans have to do work to protect the environment and slow carbon emissions unless it was actually necessary? Just for a laugh? Are they all looking for revenge against the oil industry? Is China paying all of them? I think it's more likely you don't want to believe the idea we could impact the Earth, and thus shut out information to the contrary. It's a normal reaction, I used to be a creationist and ignored all the mountains of evidence for evolution, but it is important as a well rounded individual to acknowledge and overcome these mental blocks to see the truth. You're probably fuming through this comment, but that would kinda prove my point of that mental barrier, eh? Think on my words.
@@lukesewell8294 I wasn't denying those theories, I was just saying that there may be other factors involved in our changing climate than ourselves that need to be looked into, that there still may be new information to be found. I welcome new information but scientists are human too and are capable of getting too attached to their previous work and facing the same mental barriers you're speaking of, if new information comes out that invalidates their life's work they may suppress it. Your comment actually doesn't bother me at all. I put my opinions forth with the intention of having them challenged.
@@NamelessKing1597 Ok, let me give you the rundown. Climate change happens with, or without humans. No one has denied this, scientists agree. What happens is that humanity, since the 1800s with the industrial revolution, has caused a sudden and massive increase of temperature. In 200 years, we've increased the global temperature by about 1°C. That's massive, and usually takes, at the very least, a couple thousand years. We have no records of the temperature fluctuating _this quickly_ at any point in the ice layers.
Interesting thoughts and presentation! I agree with most of it, but what about peatlands? In the boreal and arctic, they exist next to and even under forests and tundra, the further north the more in combination with permafrost. They are actually the densest biological carbon store (excluding coal, oil and such) and are also a form of soil. Could you consider that in your next videos about northern biomes? They are massively underrated ecosystems that store immens carbon stocks =)
Thank you for making this video! I have never heard anything of this kind of nature preservation but I am so eager to find out more now. I don't know if De-Extinction is the way to go though. I am on team "help nature sustain itself and then just leave it be". Thanks again.
Scifi stories and pop culture like Star Trek talked about terraforming and world manipulation to better suit people as an off hand ‘this exists in the future’ dream. This is real now. This is terraforming in action, with real thought and reason behind it. It’s both awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time
I think this video gives the message of ‘forests are bad, grasslands good.’ Which isn’t the real argument it should be making. It should be ‘diverse and healthy ecosystems are good’ because more bio diverse ecosystems in general take in more carbon rather than just grasslands
If you like this project, please support the Pleistocene and Permafrost non-profit Foundation, which helps to realize the Pleistocene Park across Siberia: pleistocenepark.de/en/donate/
or
Support Pleistocene Park on patreon here: www.patreon.com/PleistocenePark
Awesome
Since your video was released they’ve seen 1,000 dollars more per month in their Patreon, you’ve helped raise awareness for a good cause!
Just today I've seen a documentary (L’hypothèse de Zimov dir. Denis Snegirev) abt this project on Planet+ channel. So if anyone is interested I bet you'd be able to find in somewhere on the Canal+ platform or online
I think you are massively overlooking the younger dryas impact hypothesis while looking at the climate change argument.
Human hunting is a joke, how close have the Africans come to eradicating the megafauna in 300,000 years.
Hominids were hunting all over the world bar north America and Australia in the form of neaderthals, Denisovans and heidelbergensis for hundreds of thousands of years before humans.
The idea that the European and North Asain megafauna went extinct from hunting because they'd not coevolved with hominids is demonstrably flawed.
I'd like to hear more about your opinion on the overkill theory. These species evolved to take advantage of an environment, that environment diminishes, the species follows. Just from a supply and demand perspective how could two million humans need that much? Especially when there are plenty of easier and far more reliable food sources. Actually, how could two million, unorganized, humans go about accomplishing that to begin with?
Ecology graduate here, Idid not even realise boreal forests and forests with low biodiversity actually sequestered less carbon than grasslands due to that mechanism.... awesome video!
What bothers me was all boreal forests were dismissed as unproductive the sheer biodiversity of birds within the north american boreal forest is also important North America's boreal forests are very different from the Siberian forests which are far younger. Plus this only focuses on the dead soil biomass rather than the living soil biomass much of which is still very poorly understood as part of the "uncultureable" microbial dark matter. I suspect the real picture looking at this would be much more nuanced. After all the role of megafauna in forest environments is also poorly studied made entirely worse as politics have lead to the last forest dwelling Proboscidean having long been treated as the same species as the African bush elephant. In the North American boreal forests mastodons mammoths forest dwelling cousins would have been the ecosystem engineers but none of them exist anymore. :(
Much of the biomass in a forest is alive down within the mycorrhizae and most of that is still uncatalogued by science
Younger Dryas impact theory not even mentioned.. I wouldn't say this is a great video at all
@@lolcano2346 Technically the Younger Dryas impact theory has been met with pretty strong criticism since aside from the team that pushes for it no one has been able to independently verify the impact ejecta claims. There is the possibility it could be linked to the large crater beneath the Greenland Ice sheet which may or may not match the timing so it can't be ruled out or supported barring a direct core sample of the crater's stratigraphy. We know it is a crater as glacial deposits carry shocked quartz grains and abnormally high concentrations of platinum group elements strongly depleted in differentiated planets
@@Dragrath1 The team? There's many people independently pursuing it now and the human-caused extinction hypothesis has also been met with strong criticism, none of which was mentioned in this video
And the crater itself is the least of what was presented, the melt-water flooding that took place is basically established fact just as the decline of human populations around that same time which poses further issues to the human-caused extinction hypothesis
All this aside- to not even mention the Younger Dryas impact theory or to bring up criticisms of the human-caused extinction hypothesis makes this video EXTREMELY bias and this wouldn't be the first time Atlas Pro has put out content suffering from such bias
You can bet that if there's a "humans suck" explanation of events, that will be the one Atlas Pro focuses on at the expense/ignorance of all other explanations/interpretations. It's almost as if he's vegan
@@lolcano2346 I think that response was needlessly hostile yes we can't say that it was humans for sure but the evidence for close overlap between human arrival and megafaunal collapse is only getting stronger with new evidence outside of Afro-Eurasia. Though Afro-Eurasia really does seem to be a bit more complicated.
We do know the Younger Dryas happened the main issue with a Younger Dryas only model is that the event wasn't unique with similar past events that didn't involve a megafaunal extinction suggesting that couldn't be the sole cause.
Whether a bolide was the contributing factor is more questionable but it seems pretty clear that humans did have an impact.
Yes he did single that one out as what he favors but he did at least admit that its unsettled and that he is picking which one he thinks is most responsible. Could he have done a far better job? Absolutely he generally has a clear bias in his videos whenever there are multiple interpretations but he is honest in admitting it isn't settled. I have criticisms with this video but I at least tried to remain civil about it.
Personally I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be all or nothing everytime we come up with a simple explaination for somthing we later find evidence that it is much more complicated.
However with the evidence so far there definitely was a significant impact of humans on ecology when entering ecologically naïve environments.
This is particularly apparent in the case of New Zealand the last significant major area to be uncolonized/discovered by humans, we can be very confident that the extinction of Moa was entirely the fault of overhunting of large megafauna.
And I have noticed that the gap of time between the first evidence of people and the disappearance of megafauna has been shrinking over my lifetime.
Awesome video! The more I learn about it the more I am on team "lets bring back the mammoth (once we figure out how to do it)"
It's only a matter of time I hear!
I am as well, but alas I feel it might be decades before we see a mammoth. especially given the “impossibility” of cloning a mammoth given the lack of a living cell. This leaves us with Editing of an Asian elephant geneome.
Looking forward to the upcoming video!
It sounds like the mammoth is a crucial part of the mammoth steppe ecosystem. I have heard no introduction Of carnivores yet. I also see the rhino wooly wasn't nearly as crucial to the mix, impressive conclusion to your ice age anthology although I felt a little repetition in places I think it's important. Good work here. Looking forward to the progress in the park, the real science video, etc. I wonder how far they intend to stretch it's boundary, I see you only spoke on what you know.
Life....finds a way
It’s worth mentioning what occurred in Yellowstone National Park when apex predators (wolves) were reintroduced there.
The populations of elk and deer were kept away from the wide open grassy areas that also had streams and/rivers.
This did two things: first it allowed trees and shrubs to thrive there again and second it caused the streams/rivers to alter their courses. Also, the conditions of the various animal herds (elk,deer) improved due to the wolves culling them. The stream and rivers courses being altered was due in part to the herd animals no longer trampling all over the place and eating all the foliage causing soil erosion.
There are several rather good documentaries on this subject and some of them can be found here on UA-cam.
It's also worth mentioning that those wolves came from Alberta, Canada,, and it didn't take long for a few of them to stray outside Park boundaries and for people to start killing them again.... so we had to send down more.........
Also important to note that there is no permafrost in yellowstone, the preservation of which was kinda the whole point of this video. I would say the mammoth steppe is as much of a bottom-up ecosystem as it is top-down, the point being that introducing large grazers improved biodiversity and ecosystem health in that community (he mentioned that biodiversity in Northeastern siberia kinda sucked big-time, BECAUSE of the sparse forest habitat). Yellowstone being a top-down ecosystem (wolves regulate everything below) meant that without them, biodiversity and ecosystem health declined. This is in contrast with the mammoth steppe, which functions well with large grazers because the grass and the grazers both limit and depend upon each other. It is also important to note the this area of siberia is actually becoming oversaturated with water because of rising temperatures. Most of the year large rivers and streams are absent (frozen until well into summer), and the reintroduced animals are adapted to this, unlike the 3/4 of the year when rivers flow in yellowstone that beavers etc depend on. You cant just take one ecosystems function and tack it to another because they have deer too.
I mean I get if you're trying to point out that reintroducing things is good because it has worked before, but its worded like 'they need to introduce predators to the steppe because this is damaging the current ecosystem'
They do have plants to introduce predators to the park, since historically there were many predators on the steppe. So then it would be the best of both worlds essentially, where predators could hunt near rivers and watering holes, reducing overgrazing near these places, allowing trees to grow and mitigating soil erosion, while the grazers also go on open plain lands compacting snow to prevent permafrost melt.
A true balanced ecosystem
The fact that mammoths survived up until 2000 BCE on Wrangel Island amazes me. They lived through the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza and even the reign of
Mentuhotep II. Just wow.
Yup its insane i wish those egpytians found put and wrote it down
There are tribal people living in Siberia today who believe mammoths are still alive, and some even claim to have seen them. So maybe the mammoths aren't extinct after all.
@Lightbulb Man Nothing wrong with a little nonsense lightbulb.
@Lightbulb Man Siberia is a pretty huge place and there's vast tracks of land there where human beings almost never go. So I wouldn't dismiss the tribal people's claims without an investigation.
@@tomcollins5112 I'm sure mammoths to them are like bigfoot to us. Certainly not real, but a handful of people swear up and down that they've seen one. The only difference is that mammoths were indeed alive at one point and the natives of Siberia probably have folklore and tales about them that originated thousands of years ago. As vast as Siberia is, a mammoth is a very large creature that would have a noticeable impact on the environment, so I guarantee we aren't going to find any.
So Basically:
Reject Boreal Tree, Return to Grass
dont forget the animals
Deforestation is back on the menu, boys.
hahahaha
reject civilization, return to cave...
@@Albiom reject cave return to tree
It has been a whole year since the release of this video. If possible I'd love for you to do a follow up or an update video. Since this video, hairy goats and bactrian camels were introduced as well and ate doing very well.
This is a project a very much believe in and want to see succeed. Your channel is big and your bodice reaches a lot of people. I want to get the word out as much as possible
Agreed
There won't be an update because nothing happened because nothing ever will. The mammoths are an ice age animal and despite the subtle lies he told about how they survived the quaternary extinction, they can't survive in today's earth. The temperatures are simply too hot for them, even where they want to make this mammoth steppe.
Hard to do updates with the War in Ukraine.
I want a picture of the Bodice that reaches many people. Is the Bodice natural or was surgery required to have a Bodice thats so far reaching?
@@ilayohana3150- There are remnant pockets in Asia -- in the Altaii-Sayan mountains -- of what is essentially mammoth steppe. Woly Mammoth could make a living there, without doubt.
So the mammoth steppe was basically a cold version of the Savannah
yes
Lazy developer lol. Just add snow and fur
@@sendoh7x and then the devs remove the skin and now want us to pay for the expansion pack, smh
yep and with colder climate comes bigger animals. Imagine african fauna x2, Not gonna lie thatd be so cool to see in person
fluffy savannah
As someone who has the Mammoth Steppe as a portion of their fantasy world, this video is prime worldbuilding fodder for me. Thank you!
Worldbuilding is amazing, I wish you the best of luck!
do you have your existing work ?
Yes, good to know I'm not the only one that just NEEDS to have mammoths in my stories.
Lol Nerd
@@123495734 👑
Interesting video. We definitely need more grasslands. The answer isn’t always to plant trees, and I think most people think a forest is the peak of nature(like you mentioned). I have some land full of trees and almost nothing else grows beneath all the leaves and pine needles. It’s basically a six inch mulch bed everywhere. I think the best we can do is plant native plants and use prescribed burning intelligently. Food forests are also a great idea. We should definitely do something because the all important top soil is depleting quickly.
If you liked this, you might also be interested in the Savanna Institute in the united states. They're trying to get farmers to bring back savannahs as a farming method to more effectively create food for humans, while also providing the many other benefits of the biome.
Some efforts are being made to do the same in Africa as well.
And what exactly are you savanna huggers going to eat....mammoth?
@@greatplainsman3662 Meat is meat.
@@greatplainsman3662 meat grown in a vat I E fake meat , this is Klaus Schwab fourth Riech, the great reset. You will own anything and be happy.
Yep it’s crazy since they are trying to reintroduce bison all over the Midwest that we could then free-roam-farm partially and responsibly in place of relatively small-area cattle farms
Climate: savanna but cold.
Evolution: same but with fur.
It makes sense, but it's also hilarious
basically arctic au
Look into convergent evolution. It is the truest mind trip.
Is shows that evolution isn't so random as people think. In fact when it started once again it would probably give humans again.
@@defocytus do you think that perhaps alien life looks more or less the same as the ones on earth.... and “sentient” aliens literally look like us
@@paemonyes8299 it depends of course but some inventions of Life are just an answers to the same laws of physics as everywhere else in the universe. It is interesting if life could in fact thrive in any other environment than Earth. We don't know.
What I'm curious about is if they have a plan yet on how to protect these mammoths from poaching.
I figure hundreds of miles freezing cold Siberian tundra in every direction is a pretty good defense, but I also imagine any mammoths would also be under close surveillance until a working population is established
Shoot the fuckers is my opinion. It's the same on my opinion of murderers. Why should a person that has the ability and mindset to kill people be allowed to live? Why should a person that kills animals that are vital to our planet's survival be allowed to roam free?
Fear of going to the Gulag lol
@@michaellewis8849 100% agree. I understand they're trying to make money for themselves by killing but if they're willing to endanger future life on the planet then shoot the fuckers like you said.
they need to get the locals in on conservation
Grasslands are super underated by mainstream ecological educators. Thanks for making this!
If I had a dollar for every positive feedback loop in atlaspro's videos I'd be a millionaire
No, that would require one million feedback loops which would be unfeasible.
You're welcome to try!
lol, i was about to comment on his feedback loop thing
Hahaha
@@thedude4795 I think they meant him saying the word 'positive feedback loop'
I say billionaire
Here in Florida we have a huge problem with lionfish because as an evasive species they destroy everything without any consequence and I've always imagine it was the same for humans when we migrated to new environments.
Here’s my vote for an Atlas Pro documentary deal.
But he already are doing documentaries. Here. On this channel. You just watched it.
@@ArchieStiglitz what a success for democracy
He's one of the best UA-camrs that will ever be!
Liked
Altaspro's graphics skills are second to none!
These complicated relationships is why i am such a geography geek
I like Geography because it is complex, we don't understand a lot yet. I love a good mystery
Hahahahahahhahahhahaga
then recheck your geologic history ... this isnt global warming this is the same old end of an ice age and just before the next mass extinction ... where the dominant species dies off except the few thousand in the right niche and a new dominant species takes over .... btw homosapien is the current dominant species ... the last time this happened we had dinosaurs ... now we burn them in our gas guzzlers
@@0623kaboom To whom did you reply with this comment?
@Weasel don't forget about elephants, for all the reasons Atlas Pro mentioned.
Wonderful concise and informative video. You explain relatively complicated things so well and I am glad you give the Zimov brothers the credit they duly deserve. Thank-you.
The forests be like: What are you doing steppe biome?
Underrated.
@@twojacksandanace3847 fr
Pleisto[hub]
Junipers looking at the juicy brush-steppe biome: let me in.. LET ME IIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
🤣🤣🤣
The amount of my mind expanding each time I watch a video from this channel is unfathomable
ok nice
I am so glad you not only mentioned the Overhunting Hypothesis but actually pointed out why it makes sense. I am writing a field guide to the extinct and extant large animals of my state and in the research I came to the same conclusion as this video. I had never heard of someone else actually stating openly why the hypothesis makes sense.
they coexisted with the megafauna in some places for a few hundreds of thousands of years like eurasia and in other places like north america for 10,000 or more years, only for them (and almost humans) to suddenly die out because of 3 huge temperature changes, some of them not even because of earth, plus mammoths survived in a northern part of mainland siberia until 3900 years ago, around the time wrangel island mammoths died out as well and also both of those places were one of the last places to lose the mammoth steppe, and humans had been in siberia for who knows how long
The over hunting hypothesis is full of holes. Absolute nonsense. At best it's one tiny variable in a much more complex situation. Also look up the Greenland impact hypothesis that's gaining traction. If humans over hunted all the mega fauna then why did modern humans almost die out approximately 10,000 years ago as well?
"Mr. Zimov, why are all these Yakutian horses in your trucks?"
"Those horses are gonna save the world."
Yell yeah
Looks like something I’ve heard from a movie
even better, they are buying horses that were about to be slaughtered, so they are saving them and giving them another purpose (info from the documentary: L’hypothèse de Zimov dir. Denis Snegirev)
There’s nothing ethically wrong about resurrecting the mammoth being that likely the reason they went extinct was due to humans. They will likely be dwarf hybrid mammoths according to all evidence out there but, I don’t see what the holdup is. They need to get started on it now. I’d love to see this before I die.
@@amoshillmusic there were many mammoth species, even a tiny pygmy mammoth
Western Environmentalist: "Hug a tree! Save the rainforest!"
Russian Environmentalist: "I crush the wood beneath the treads of my tank."
And now imagine the best of the both worlds. Crushing a tree by the tank, while some tree hugger hugs it. Win-win.
@@AB8511 don't give me ideas. that sound really tempting if not for the ethical problem
Позвольте, но это просто глупость..
@@AB8511 pretty image. I would not mind seeing that ;-)
@Dieter Gaudlitz EARTH DID NOT NEED TREES they just came up and it became number 1 it was ferns
And to think many people still consider trees as the most crucial climate fighting ally. Grasslands are unfortunately severely underrated (unless you look at the megafauna-rich plains of the Serengeti)
The scientists behind this were featured on 60 minutes a while back, and I was really confused then. Honestly it felt too much like a ruse to resurrect mammoths to follow the rule of cool, but you cleared up for me how the permafrost is affected by snow, as well as how these grasslands seem like better carbon sinks than boreal forests. It seems like a not very intuitive but also a quite brilliant plan on the part of the people building this nature reserve.
Yeah though what bothers me is that this is a very Eurasia centric view over in North America the lack of east to west mountain ranges on the Eastern half of the continent meant that the endemic boreal forest ecosystem wasn't lost and thus there is fauna that is indigenous to the boreal forest that said the megafauna which lived within the boreal forests particularly Mastodons mammoths forest dwelling cousins are also gone for the same reasons. In fact much of the limited fauna that lives in boreal forests in Eurasia today is fauna that managed to colonize Eurasia from the surviving forest on the eastern seaboard of North America. The temperate forests we have here nowadays had been located further south in what has largely been flooded and claimed by the Gulf of Mexico.sadly with climate change we are going to lose even more of the continent to the Gulf including basically all of Florida Louisiana Alabama Mississippi, Arkansas coastal Texas, Georgia, and the Carolinas, the tidewater region of Virginia the Eastern shore of Virginia, Maryland Delaware New Jersey New York city pretty much the entire east coast is soon to join the Atlantic... .
@Tomáš Staněk The whole 60 minutes segment is on youtube. could be not available in your country though, but it's available in the US. ua-cam.com/video/nEzskUGJ_1I/v-deo.html
@@Dragrath1 i think he talked about eruasha because you know.. The park is IN sibera
Did you miss the part where he said the Mammoth Steppes covered most of Northern North America? Obviously if the project is successful they will be implementing it globally in parts where the mammoth steppes were present.
4:23 thats a lie
Is it worrying that I find these videos more interesting than 10 years of science class?
Maybe you should ask atlas pro to be your teacher
public education is shit
because its geography class, not science class
No UA-camrs are much more fun too watch. Also, you can choose. *Also,* school is shit
no, that's perfectly normal.
The Greenland Impact theory has gotten a lot more attention recently since finding the impact area in western Greenland. The substrata confirms an impact in that time period as well. There is an iridium layer as well as shocked quartz and micro diamonds.
Yes! Someone else is hip to this!
Well done, mate. This is one of the most exciting life science projects in the world. Much respect to the Zimov family for their long-term vision, especially Papa Zimov for just saying 'The hell with deliberation, I'm just going to make it and show you all."
Normal people: Plant more trees.
These Russians: Reject trees, return to grass.
Whatever fits the climate
In a normal world trees hampers tanks, in Soviet Russia tanks hampers trees.
And then, return to monkeh.
There is actually a growing number of scientists worldwide who are beginning to see just how important steppe/savannah is to combatting climate change. It sure as hell makes far more sense than planting a massive amount of monocultured trees, which makes things actually worse.
@@Wasserkaktus Sounds like to me we need to move the woodcutters to the steppe and away from the amazon. Its litterally a win-win
The over hunting hypothesis becomes ridiculous when you start to figure human population sizes and activities. IMO, when hunter-gather humans have wiped out animal populations, it has been in isolated areas, like islands, and usually involves animals easily hunted, like flightless birds in New Zealand. IMO, this seems unlikely.
4 hours ago I started a Jurassic Park movie marathon and out of pure coincidence this video is released after I finish watching the first movie, my god your timing could not be better
Yeah coincidence, …Definitely not google listening to you.
How about a Prehistoric Park marathon afterward? :D
This is a similar way how mammals can fight desertification in Africa. Their trampling seals the moisture in the ground and they're fertilizing the ground. Colonial animal hunting brought these systems out of balance accelerating desertification.
Desertification in Africa has more to do with deforestation. Trees are felled for fuel at an industrial rate to fuel hearth fires.
Their trampling also creates soil compaction. I don’t think it’s at all fair to blame colonists for climate change even if they did some questionable stuff by today’s standards.
@@alcibiades4716 key words
Today’s Standards
@@alcibiades4716 why are you simping for colonists?
@@LeeLonnieLove they were based
Thank you for the video, this was incredibly interesting to watch and I learned a LOT from it.
I didn't know about the park, but I'm glad it exists. Since a lot of the Arctic is barran an unused land, it's nice to see it given a natural purpose with many benefits for the creatures within. Hopefully it can live on for many generations, knowing his son is in helping as well is at least a good sign.
EDIT:
Also- when you said about the tanks pushing over trees, it connected in my head as just wild tanks, roaming the plains of Russia, crushing trees and eating them for fuel.
These videos are so well made and are so informative I just can’t get enough!
Same
Yeahhh man I feel these at their fullest
Now I understand why Minecraft Cows, Sheep, and Pigs spawn in the plains biome. Grasslands are really good at supporting megafauna, the more you know ig
Also worth pointing our there are or rather were megafauna within forests they tend to be smaller than their open plains cousins but they were there before we killed them.
Mammoths were larger and lived in open environments but their cousins mastodons were forest animals of equal ecological importance. In Eurasia the boreal forests were largely lost thanks to the mountains blocking the forests retreat south North America where the mountains on the eastern side of the continent are north south aligned rather than east west didn't face the same losses and thus has a biologically very diverse boreal forests which are one of the worlds hot spots for biodiversity of birds. This was the land of the Mastodons the forest bison technically there would be a bit of blurring between the two ecosystems types resulting in a mosaic landscape of transition based on both climatic and ecological factors.
It should also be noted that boars (wild pig species) tend to be quite common in forest environments and there are even entire species of mycorrhizae which rely on boars to propagate their spores known as truffles.
@@Dragrath1 there’s also 2 types of North American bison. Plains bison and forest bison
Sheep also spawn in taiga and forest biomes
the weird thing is, they changed the dogs in minecraft and they now spawn in those polar-like biomes
@@Dragrath1 we definitely killed them, we didnt kill them to extinction though
Back in 1978 I was out in Pawnee National Grassland in Colorado and the local ranger was showing me some small coulees that were fenced off from grazing by most species. In those coulees, even those only fenced off a few years earlier, there were many trees, delicious and especially coniferous growing up and quite tall for the short period of time. It was a good example of what was mentioned in the video of the removal of grazing pressure and the increase of woody plants thus changing the biome.
Loved the vid, however what you’re saying about carbon being trapped more efficiently in grasslands is highly contentious within the scientific community. Soils can only trap carbon until equilibrium is reached. This equilibrium of carbon or the maximum amount of carbon you can store within the soil is actually pretty close to what can be observed within soil in existing forest. Not to mention roots of large trees are extremely massive carbon based tissue that are ubiquitous throughout the soils of forest.
So if the soils within the two ecosystems are pretty close in terms of carbon mass, then all that’s to be compared is the carbon content that’s being stored above ground. Obviously forest wins in this case. You could make the point that the animals in a grassland are a large carbon storing element, but comparatively they are insignificant compared to the mass of carbon stored within trees. I like Pleistocene park, but only for its ability to preserve permafrost storing methane, the argument that grassland stores more carbon than forest in almost any other case is very debatable.
This is an interesting debate I'd like to read some more about. Do you have any suggestions for papers or authors to look on on the topic?
I don't know much about this but key word there might be can? Forests can store just as much carbon as grassland but do they? I mean that might be a dumb question as I said I don't know much about this
Probably you need to specifically mention which type of forest. As AtlasPro said, tropical rainforest is better, but not the boreal forest
animals are also a source of methane so it's a little funny to use them to try and stop the release of methane.
@@TheScourge007 “grazed and confused” is a research paper that was released two or three years ago comparing forests and grazed grassland in terms of carbon sequestration. They concluded that native forests could store much, much more carbon.
Love this. I did a couple essays about Pleistocene Park a few years ago, and I’m happy to see you touched on everything I wrote about. Fingers crossed mammoths will be brought back in the near future to take that region over
Is there a way how i can read those essays? Its really interesting
The video of American Bison while talking about Ecological Naïvité is so perfect, subtle way to give historic example of it. I don't know how many people caught that, but I'm sure that was a conscious decision, that the person is quite proud of and should be
I can totally relate to how boreal forests create an ecological impact. In California near the Sequoia national parks, (Im not sure if they are considered boreal forest) the pine trees blanket the soil with dead needles that don't effectively decompose. Fortunately, the fires that have gone through the park have helped burn the needles and shrubs revealing the untouched soil, allowing new life (like grass) to spring up and provide food to the deers and other native species.
It is amusing that people get angry about forest fires in California. I understand the loss of your home is upsetting. I referring to backcountry fires. The reality is the fires are necessary for removal of undergrowth that the animals don't eat. The releases of seeds from many trees. Like you said the needles take a long time to decompose. Where as when grasses grow after the fires. The soil is locked down. The animals graze and fertilize the ground with dung. The fires are a necessary fact of California's ecology. I like what some cities around the bay are doing. They have goat and sheep herders. Bring in their flocks. The goats decimate the undergrowth and fertilize the ground. It keeps the fire Hazzard down and provides for new growth.
Not boreal forest.
Montane forest, specifically “Sierran lower montane forest”.
You're correct- people 100% believe forests are the panicle of a natural environment. But, grasslands, savannahs, and wetlands in most cases, especially in temperate regions are far more important, productive, and in greatest danger of disappearing. Logging isn't always bad either...
What a marvelous presentation. I’ve never been a believer in the proposition that man was the operative factor in the extinction of megafauna after the last ice age, but now I’m not so sure. That naivety to the dangers posed by people could indeed have made a huge difference in the percentage of successful hunts. That in turn may have been the driving force in the northward migration of early man. Big game. Easy kills. What’s not to like?
Lots of food for thought here. Thanks for posting.
Thank you for covering this!! I’ve been following Pleistocene Park for some time, and I’m ECSTATIC to see it get some love and coverage! (I donated to them when they were attaining Plains Bison)
I really hope I'm alive when the first mammoth is born/grown.
same
You will. If your 40 or younger
And if you don't die to other causes like diseases or accidents
Me too man, I feel like the ethical argument is kinda bullshit cuz like sure we don’t want to have a Jurassic Park scenario but we took it out of this world we should probably bring it back. Same with the White Rhinos of Africa and many other similar species.
@@ZonarohGaming Ya no kidding
If these places weren’t so isolated, I’d say that the logging industry could be a solution to the overabundance of these tundra forests
Your channel is criminally underrated. You are as good as Kurzgesagt and VSauce in popularizing science. You should have at least 2 millions subscribers. I've got a feeling you will reach that number this year.
Unfortunately it somehow seems not everyone else has realised his brilliance yet
i agree he knows a lot about it, however he is incorrect on some things
And so we understand what the Siberian Tiger should be eating
@Hans Katzgeld Not a weakend one, or an old one, or a young seperated from its group
And why we have bushfires
Now what we doin with the lions
No seriously, what we doin
Chinese poachers?
the siberian tiger is truly a *survivor*. it survived the largest mass extinction event in 5 million years, while the smilodons, cave lions, and its larger relatives the ngandong and bornean tigers, died out
I was always taught that to fight "climate change", plant a tree...
"🎶Tree's, Tree's part of the Arbor Day Foundation, spread the word around the nation about Tree's🎶, Tree's are Terrific"...
"When humans arrived on the scene" is a deceptively simple statement.
You give yourself to much credit
i think he is making some pretty big assumptions, like how the animals population suddenly dropped around the time humans arrived...
Thats not exactly fact or hard evidence... the animals could of been wiped out by a virus or predator population growth
Its not like everything is perfectly balanced until we rock up, its always shifting and changing and species are going extinct and emerging
@@hindugoat2302 ah a germ theory sitting duck moron.
Theory of cells is where it is at.
The graph survival level hits 100% far too early. To assume populations flatline at 100 percent and decline without without curves is incredibly deceptive.
The full data set, including the dip in Africa, would show drop off occuring on the Younger Dryas boundary.
The only exception here is Australia, which starts much earlier than that the Younger Dryas boundary, but much later than his purposefully distorted "immediately after" claim, which even here, shows it occuring good 20-30k after human arrival. But this can be explained with the beginning with well documented human induced mass burning of the region.
The icing on the paleolithic cake is his 13ka North American arrival date, which as anybody paying attention now know, has undisputedly been pushed back tens of thousands of years earlier. But mentioning that, probably wouldn't fit the narrative being pushed by his professional opinion.
@@dr.floridaman4805 Do you have anything of substance to add, or are you just upset by the progression of time and need a place to vent against change?
Bactrian Camels and Saiga Antelopes would be interesting additions to Pleistocene Park, as well.
They are currently transporting bactrian camels to the park.
@@Victor_aeternus002 that's great news! I dearly hope they consider the Saigas too, since in their current reach and their critically low numbers, they are very prone to extinction.
@@depressionbomb they consider saigas as far as I know somewhen at the late stages of the whole thing, but right now I think it's very unlikely just due to the saiga's lack of whole/fur/something keep them warm through the Siberian winter (but for Siberian summer they would be okay though xD and probably even thriving, but season is too short and they would be too faraway to migrate quickly from harsh temperatures anywhere from Siberia now :c)
@@Victor_aeternus002 how do u know? i want to read more into this
@@tentwoXII You can read and get updated on info on their Facebook and Instagram pages. They post about travelling and aquiring new animals very often. In june they got bactrian camels to the park, and now they are getting more bison.
Friend : Dude are you up to go to Jurassic Park?
Me : Let's gooo! But what about we go to Pleistocene Park?
Also Friend : We go to what?
16:04 The elephant takes a moment to admire his work.
This is such an underrated, underfunded field of study.
What I wouldn't give to be apart of something like this. I'm passionate about a lot of things, but animals, nature, and the outdoors always just struck in a chord in my heart so to speak. To continually see fellow man rape the natural world, and knowing what the next couple of decades means for us and every other living thing, it's paramount we spread the word and take action.
I'll be honest with you I was hoping to find out when we will get Mammoths back when I clicked on this video!
14:50 SAYAN Mountains... That must be the mountain area where all the Dragon Ball Fights take place...
I thought the same
@senzei that cant be true. are they at least drunk z fighters or giny force or something?
I came across their Instagram page a few days ago, this video made things much clearer for me!
Using a decomissioned Tank to clear forest is the most Russian way to fight climate change i have ever heard. Love it
Sergei Zimov is a truly fascinating character. Highly recommend looking up a documentary/interview he did about his life-long project
Very cool. Glad you did this in detail. Especially speaking on the carbon sinks created by grassland communities. Thank you. Wapiti is pronounced wah-pah-tee btw.
Thank God you did this!! I've been a fan/advocate of this project for years but it never really got a lot of press or popular awareness. I recommend it months ago to this channel cuz I really believe it could make a difference if more people were involved and donated money, time, resources. And this channel seemed like a perfect fit.
Now that a popular UA-cam channel has covered it. Hopefully it will become a more mainstream topic of discussion, get more press attention and donations. Maybe even more volunteers and animal donations from breeders, reservations etc.
it sucks that even though the current warming happening right now is the smallest and slowest climate change in the entire holocene, it is still negatively effecting a lot of people, probably because of how big our populations are. in my opinion its probably why mega civilizations in the past couldnt last too long, because one big swing in climate and boom it collapses
Why dont you collab with Tierzoo. It would literally be perfect ! Your my favourite biogeography channel and is my favourite zoology channel. You 2 will be excellent together
Big brain idea
How would he collab? What would they do?
@@user-yj4qz5lo6k some smart thing that we would all like
Could you recommend some other channels that make videos about biogeography?
he already did??
This is so interesting. I always thought deforestation was the major problem since the trees are what takes up the Co2, which it still is but, the fact that grasslands hold Co2 better is something I would have never thought of. When I first started watching the video, I couldn't believe what I was hearing thinking that the problem would be bringing back extinct species and having grasslands instead of forests, but it now makes sense. Thank you for sharing this knowledge. I think I am now on team mammoth. :)
I've been following pleistoscene park for many years now (6+ years at least). It was one of the things that inspired me to study ecology and conservation. I love checking in every so often to look at the progress.
Seeing as I make videos myself now I don't have much time to watch other UA-camrs or patience but Atlas Pro is the exception!!!
I have noticed that in planted pine forests, the deer tend to be skinnier than in hardwood forests with lots of acorns, berries, and leaves and things of the like.
This project is awesome on so many levels, yet with a beautiful simplicity. Team Mammoth steppe! And thanks to Atlas pro for another incredibly informative video!
Pleistocene Park....HAVEN'T WE LEARNED ANYTHING FROM JURASSIC PARK!!!???
I'm all for this. Where do I donate!? Bring back MAMMOTHS too!
To think, the answer was under our feet the whole time....GRASS!!!
Return the treatylands to American Indians. Before the Europeans came here they massacred the herds that produced the grassland to starve us onto the concentration camps known as reservations. Indigenous lifestyles and preservation of our planet is the only way we can heal from the damage
Great video! Now a patreon of pleistocene park :)
Tell them I sent you!
I've been looking for a video like this for ages since I heard of Pleistocene park last year! Now you've made my day!!!
Him: Instead of the Rhinoceros, there was the-
Me: HIGH CAPACITY ASSAULT UNICORN
High capacity Russian assault unicorn
YES! I was hoping you'd talk about Pleistocene Park one day!
Just wanted to drop by and say that besides really enjoying the content of the video itself, the production value on your videos are amazing! Your editing, choice of stock footage and style are super well done!
That elephant: “ay tree, what did you say to me? You wanna throw down cause you’re about to go down bro!”
I just wanted to throw out there that natural boreal forests house incredibly high biodiversity of saproxylic beetles, mosses and fungi! So it would be good to save a bit of it, not convert the whole thing to steppe :)
I am seriously impressed with the quality of your videos. It shows how much time and effort you poured into this. Amazing work! :)
Just wow, image the amount of people that will be wishing to visit Pleistocene Park. I hope they have a coupon day.
Russia's animal: Bear.
Russia's future animal: Cave Bear.
lmaoo
I got into an argument with someone about whether or not it would be viable to bring back mammoths. I said it would be a waste, but they linked this video and wow!
This needs to go viral
Imagine going on safari in Russia and seeing Mammoths, Cave Lions and Sabertooth Tigers. This could generate a huge amount of income from tourism.
Imagine.....
I don't think they will allow any humans inside the steppe, because.....you know how humans act
Or you can create mongols riding mammoth nomads
@@wonderman7166 well it wont be worth the cost of maintaining security for it if there are no tourism for it
Tourism doesn’t actually generate global wealth, it’s just a means for people with money to give other people money... producing necessities is a far more tangible method of producing revenue
Video suggestion- what makes a river great?
that's a nice suggestion :)
Water...
@@jacobgapol2131 haha touche
I think it was a combination of over hunting and climate change that did in the megafauna. During a climate shift large animals are vulnerable and often drop in population, but if they are hardy or lucky enough they will bounce back eventually. However if we come in and start hunting them when they are most vulnerable, it creates a one-two punch that the megafauna couldn't survive.
probably yeah, i find it strange that mammoths managed to survive in the yukon until 5000 years ago, and in a northern part of mainland siberia until 3900 years ago
When my favorite channel uploads, I have no choice but to click immediately
Some russian family is out there creating a new biome with a tank
Hey dude, thanks for the interesting vid. I would recommend looking at the younger dryas event as better theory on populations.
For a hot second at 5:30 I thought you were bout to drop some Pleistocene bars on us.
LOL
Here comes our dose of quality content!
where ... he got it all wrong ...
@@0623kaboom he definitely got some things wrong like the arrival of humans into continents, but idk about everything
Never heard of this, I'm awestruck. Great video!
Im amazed about how good we humans are at killing and unkilling things. With a great power came a great responsability.
nothing here mentioned about the Younger Dryas impact theory of the mega-fauna extinction or how human populations all around the world ALSO took a massive hit around this time 12k years ago. Atlas Pro is absolutely biases
@@lolcano2346 That's because it's against the narrative. The Younger Drias proves that the Earth's climate fluctuates like crazy with or without us. It's not just this guy though it's the environmental science community in general. "NO, Humans are EVIL and UNSTOPPABLE, we ruin everything we touch". We're not capable of destroying the Planet and if we were we couldn't without destroying ourselves, The Earth'll shake us off like a cold and in a few million years (less for smaller, simpler species) evolution will replace us and everything we drove to extinction.
@@NamelessKing1597 First off the Younger Drias was caused by an influx of fresh water in the ocean, most likely by an asteroid. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any asteroids recently, and yet temperatures are rising... Such blatant writing off of all popular climate theories of the actual scientists (the people who dedicate their lives to this) seems like a silly decision. Why would they push the idea that humans have to do work to protect the environment and slow carbon emissions unless it was actually necessary? Just for a laugh? Are they all looking for revenge against the oil industry? Is China paying all of them? I think it's more likely you don't want to believe the idea we could impact the Earth, and thus shut out information to the contrary. It's a normal reaction, I used to be a creationist and ignored all the mountains of evidence for evolution, but it is important as a well rounded individual to acknowledge and overcome these mental blocks to see the truth. You're probably fuming through this comment, but that would kinda prove my point of that mental barrier, eh? Think on my words.
@@lukesewell8294 I wasn't denying those theories, I was just saying that there may be other factors involved in our changing climate than ourselves that need to be looked into, that there still may be new information to be found. I welcome new information but scientists are human too and are capable of getting too attached to their previous work and facing the same mental barriers you're speaking of, if new information comes out that invalidates their life's work they may suppress it. Your comment actually doesn't bother me at all. I put my opinions forth with the intention of having them challenged.
@@NamelessKing1597 Ok, let me give you the rundown.
Climate change happens with, or without humans. No one has denied this, scientists agree.
What happens is that humanity, since the 1800s with the industrial revolution, has caused a sudden and massive increase of temperature. In 200 years, we've increased the global temperature by about 1°C. That's massive, and usually takes, at the very least, a couple thousand years. We have no records of the temperature fluctuating _this quickly_ at any point in the ice layers.
I can't wait to see an update to this video when you research the Younger Dryes impact hypothesis.
I’m supporting them on patreon. Thank you for making this.
Interesting thoughts and presentation! I agree with most of it, but what about peatlands? In the boreal and arctic, they exist next to and even under forests and tundra, the further north the more in combination with permafrost. They are actually the densest biological carbon store (excluding coal, oil and such) and are also a form of soil. Could you consider that in your next videos about northern biomes? They are massively underrated ecosystems that store immens carbon stocks =)
Thank you for making this video! I have never heard anything of this kind of nature preservation but I am so eager to find out more now. I don't know if De-Extinction is the way to go though. I am on team "help nature sustain itself and then just leave it be". Thanks again.
Scifi stories and pop culture like Star Trek talked about terraforming and world manipulation to better suit people as an off hand ‘this exists in the future’ dream.
This is real now. This is terraforming in action, with real thought and reason behind it. It’s both awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time
Bs
The youngar-dryas, impact hypothesis theory. And the recent crater found under a glacier in greenland.
I think this video gives the message of ‘forests are bad, grasslands good.’ Which isn’t the real argument it should be making. It should be ‘diverse and healthy ecosystems are good’ because more bio diverse ecosystems in general take in more carbon rather than just grasslands
Eyyy we now actually have a reason to bring back mammoths!