Could the bison help mitigate climate crisis? Check out this study - The Indian Express

Could the bison help mitigate climate crisis? Check out this study | World News - The Indian Express

A herd of 170 bison could help store CO2 emissions equivalent to removing almost 2m cars from the road for a year, research has found, as per a report published by The Guardian.

The latest research, which has not yet undergone peer review, utilized a new model developed by scientists at the Yale School of the Environment. This model calculates the additional amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) that wildlife species help to capture and store in soils through their interactions within ecosystems.

Bison stimulate plant growth, secure carbon stored in soil

“Bison influence grassland and forest ecosystems by grazing grasslands evenly, recycling nutrients to fertilise the soil and all of its life, dispersing seeds to enrich the ecosystem, and compacting the soil to prevent stored carbon from being released,” the lead author of the research, Prof Oswald Schmitz of the Yale School of the Environment in Connecticut, told The Guardian.

The researchers studied the European bison roaming Romania’s Țarcu mountains. The species disappeared from Romania around 200 years ago, but the species was introduced to the southern Carpathian mountains in 2014. Today, the Țarcu mountains, boast one of the largest free-roaming populations in Europe.

Bison are near threatened

Bison are near threatened in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Their status is largely due to their dependence on conservation efforts.

As per the International Fund for Animal Welfare, bison are native to both North America and Europe. The large bovines tend to live in smaller herds, but every now and then, herds come together to form much larger groups, which can number in hundreds.