A Herd of 170 Bison May Be the Unlikely Climate Warriors We've Needed All Along
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When it comes to carbon sequestration and the natural world, many efforts go into planting more trees. But large land mammals also have a significant role to play.
A new study analyzing the climate impacts of a small herd of European bison in Romania discovered that the bovine increased the surrounding grasslands’ carbon capture capacity by a factor of 10.
This is thanks in large part to the animals’ immense bulk, as their hooves regularly compact the soil, which allows it to trap more carbon.
Bovines often get a bad rap as big emitters of methane, an ultra potent greenhouse gas. It’s estimated that livestock contribute to roughly 14.5 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions, largely due to burps and other bodily excretions. However, other, more wild members of the family Bovidae are actually a net positive in the world’s fight against rising temperatures.
Take, for instance, the European bison (Bison bonasus). The largest herbivore in Europe, this majestic bovine once roamed vast stretches of the continent until human poaching dwindled their numbers to extinction in the wild. Thankfully, captive breeding programs reintroduced the species in several parts of Europe in the 2010s.
One of those areas was a region of Romania that hadn’t seen European bison for more than 200 years. In 2014, 17 of these bison arrived at the Țarcu mountains in the southern Carpathians, and now their numbers have climbed tenfold. That continued increase, according to researchers, could have a big impact on carbon sequestration.
As such a large species, the bison have an equally large impact on their environment. They fertilize grasses and spread seeds, which promotes plant growth and further carbon removal. However, they’re greatest contribution just might be their huge bulk. That’s because bison compact soil as they roam across Europe, which allows it to lock away more carbon.
According to a non-peer reviewed modeling study (based on a peer-reviewed model), the Țarcu grasslands currently lock away 10 times more carbon that they did when the bison were absent from the ecosystem. To put some numbers to it, that means that 20 square miles of grassland are locking away 54,000 tons of carbon—roughly the annual CO2 emissions of 43,000 cars.
“These creatures evolved for millions of years with grassland and forest ecosystems, and their removal, especially where grasslands have been plowed up, has led to the release of vast amounts of carbon,” Oswald Schmitz, the lead author of the study, told The Guardian. “Restoring these ecosystems can bring back balance, and ‘rewilded’ bison are some of the climate heroes that can help achieve this.”
And the bison aren’t the only heroes. A previous study by Schmitz revealed that if humanity only focused on rewilding nine specific animal groups—marine fish, whales, sharks, gray wolves, wildebeest, sea otters, musk oxen, African forest elephants, and American bison—the planet could absorb an additional 6.4 billion tons of carbon. That’s close to the annual carbon footprint of the U.S.—the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses.
Conservationists will continue to try to protect and rewild all species for their myriad benefits outside of carbon sequestration, but this study reiterates how large land mammals can play a big role in tackling CO2 emissions. While the millions of cows kept in captivity around the world is still an undeniable climate disaster, this small-yet-mighty herd of bison shows that bovines also have a positive role to play in the fight against a warming world.
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