Re:Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years
by dotnet00 on Saturday July 23, 2022 @02:11PM
(#32205917)
Given our previous fairly mixed results with introducing foreign species into new habitats where they can flourish, this sounds like it'd most likely be pretty bad for the current ecosystems there.
Re:Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years
by kaba0 on Sunday July 24, 2022 @01:06PM
(#32215404)
While I generally agree, as far as I’m not mistaken they are not foreign to these regions at all - on the grand scheme of things they just disappeared from there very recently
Re:Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years
by dotnet00 on Monday July 25, 2022 @01:53PM
(#32228264)
I would expect that the current ecosystems there have adapted to Mammoths no longer existing?
Re:Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years
by kaba0 on Monday July 25, 2022 @06:39PM
(#32231898)
Maybe, though I doubt it would have had long enough time to alter too much - so I don’t think it would be anything similar to introducing an invasive species.
Re:Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years
by mytailorisrich on Saturday July 23, 2022 @02:17PM
(#32205980)
I'm not sure that the Arctic needs "rewilding", it is still a wild environment. What's definitely needed is protecting it.
Mammoths were adapted to the ice age while we are in a climate warming crisis... apparently they lived in steppes called "mammoth steps" that are very rare today [1]. So realistically this would just be a tourist attraction a la Jurassic Park.
Re:Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years
by mishkovski on Saturday July 23, 2022 @02:29PM
(#32206090)
> If these revived woolly mammoths eventually repopulate the Arctic, they would take down small trees and help repopulate the grasses they thrive on, Church said. Those grasses reflect sunlight better than the dark trunks of the conifer trees that live there. In addition, the woolly mammoths tamp down the snow, making it less insulating.
Those grasses would cool the ecosystem, in turn reducing the release of trapped methane gas from melting permafrost, a major contributor to global warming.
What ecological benefits would de-extincting mammoths and re-introducing them to the Arctic bring? Genuinely curious.