By Jame Dalton
The burning question (click here) now is whether DNA extracted from Buttercup can be used to clone the long-extinct woolly mammoth.
...In exceptionally cold areas such as the Arctic, (click here) the air is even colder than the earth, and thick blankets of snow act as insulation on land, protecting it from the air and keeping it milder.
But grazing animals can keep the ground cool by dispersing snow and compressing the land, according to the study, published in the nature journal Scientific Reports.
When permafrost melts, it releases heat-trapping gases that have been buried for tens of thousands of years back into the atmosphere, so accelerating the climate crisis.
Last month scientists discovered the polar ice caps are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s.
The new study was carried out by Professor Christian Beer and a team at the University of Hamburg, who replicated the impact of animals in the northern hemisphere over a year using data from the area.
“This type of natural manipulation in ecosystems that are especially relevant for the climate system has barely been researched to date, but holds tremendous potential,” Prof. Beer said...
