Siberian rewilding

Trees are often thought to be the good guys when it comes to climate change. In Siberia, however, it's not always the case. The landscape was changed when humans arrived and the forest that took over from grasslands is causing problems. In Pleistocene Park, Russian scientists are carrying out a radical rewilding - removing trees and reintroducing species of grazing animals to help protect the permafrost - the deep frozen ground - from thawing and releasing methane into the atmosphere.

Tom Heap and Dr Tamsin Edwards consider how this ambitious idea could help in the fight against climate change.

Listen now on BBC Radio 4

What our expert says

We invited Society Fellow, Professor Vincent Gauci, a Professorial Fellow in Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, to offer some observations on the rewilding methods in Siberia discussed in the programme. His points take some of the themes of the programme a step further:

There could be other benefits beyond albedo effects on Siberian rewilding. My research into the topic found that trees can tap soil methane and emit it to the atmosphere and so removing trees may help to avoid those emissions. Moreover, trees are known to provide fresh carbon (from recent photosynthesis, root exudates and decomposing roots) to the old, accumulated carbon locked in the soil which may ‘prime’ the community of microbes to further degrade the old carbon that would otherwise be quite resistant.