Sergey Aphanasievich Zimov (; born 18 July 1955) is a Russian

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...

who specialises in

arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

and

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

. He is the Director of Northeast Scientific Station (a research institute of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

), a senior research fellow of the Pacific Institute for Geography (an institute within the Far East Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FED RAS)), and one of the founders of Pleistocene Park (a 160 km² wildlife preserve and a research substation of the Northeast Scientific Station). He is best known for his work in advocating the theory that human overhunting of large herbivores during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

caused Siberia's grassland-steppe ecosystem to disappear and for raising awareness as to the important roles

permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

and

thermokarst Thermokarst is a type of terrain characterised by very irregular surfaces of marshy hollows and small hummocks formed when ice-rich permafrost thaws. The land surface type occurs in Arctic areas, and on a smaller scale in mountainous areas such ...

lakes play in the global carbon cycle. According to a colleague, Sergey Zimov is the most cited Russian earth scientist.

Life and work

Sergey Zimov, born 18 July 1955,Pleistocene Park
“Today is the 18th of July ...”
Facebook post of 18 July 2018. Retrieved 18 July 2018. is a Russian scientist who resides in Cherskii,

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He studied and received his degree in

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

from Far East State University, located in Vladivostok, Russia.Sergey A. Zimov
"Pleistocene Park: Return of the Mammoth's Ecosystem."
''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'', 6 May 2005, vol. 308, no. 5723, pp. 796–798. Zimov founded the Northeast Science Station near Cherskii in 1977."Pleistocene Park and the North-East Scientific Station,"
homepage of the official website, without date. Retrieved 2 November 2016. Twelve years later, in 1988, he began the Pleistocene Park project. In 1991, Sergei Zimov was awarded the Wolf Vishniac Award at the tenth International Symposium On Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB).William S. Reeburgh
"Meeting report."
Report on the Tenth International Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB-10). In: ''Geomicrobiology Journal'' 28 January 1992, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 73–74. (Full text a
eScholarship, UC
) Retrieved 3 November 2016.

Professional highlights and accomplishments

Northeast Science Station

Coordinates: 69 degrees 30 minutes North latitude, 161 degrees 30 minutes East longitudeEarth Exploration Toolbook

Without date. Retrieved 2 November 3016. Sergey Zimov is a co-founder and the director of the Northeast Science Station, F. Stuart ‘Terry’ Chapin III
"Northeast Science Station. Cherskii, Russia."terrychapin.org
12 November 2006. Retrieved 2 November 2016. one of the world's three largest Arctic stations.
Arctic.Ru, 5 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017 Located near Cherskii, Russia on the mouth of the

Kolyma River The Kolyma (, ; ) is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. The Kolyma is frozen to depths of several metres for about 250 days each year, b ...

, 150 kilometers south of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

, the station serves as a year-round base for international Arctic research. Its focus lies on carbon cycles, methane fluxes, paleoclimate, and the changing ecosystem.International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA)
"Cherskii, Russia. Observatory."
Without date. Retrieved 2 November 2016. Founded in 1977, the Northeast Science Station boasts three laboratories, a network of field sites, tools for data analysis and communication, transportation, accommodation for visiting researchers, and a year round staff of six.Polar Field Services
"Tag Archives: Northeast Science Station."
2010–2012. Retrieved 2 November 2016. A barge floating on the Kolyma River serves as a traveling dormitory and laboratory.

Permafrost and methane

In collaboration with Dr. Terry Chapin and Dr. Katey Walter-Anthony, Sergey Zimov has published a collection of scientific papers exposing the importance of

and high-latitude

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

and

methane emissions Increasing methane emissions are a major contributor to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, and are responsible for up to one-third of near-term global heating. During 2019, about 60% (360 million tons) of methane r ...

in the global carbon cycle. These papers identified methane ebullition from

lakes to be a significant source of

atmospheric methane Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth's atmosphere. The concentration of atmospheric methane is increasing due to methane emissions, and is causing climate change. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Methane's radiati ...

, a potent

greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...

.University of Alaska Fairbanks
"Methane Bubbling From Arctic Lakes, Now And At End Of Last Ice Age."
''ScienceDaily'', 26 October 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2016. Permafrost is a large global carbon reservoir which has remained frozen throughout much of the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

.Sergey A. Zimov, Edward A. G. Schuur, F. Stuart Chapin III
"Climate Change Permafrost and the Global Carbon Budget."
''

'', 16 June 2006, vol. 312, no. 5780, pp. 1612–1613. (Full text a
Heat is OnlineResearchGate
) Retrieved 2 November 2016. Due to recent

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, the permafrost is beginning to thaw, releasing stored carbon and forming thermokarst lakes. When the thawed permafrost enters the thermokarst lakes, its carbon is converted into carbon dioxide and methane and released into the atmosphere.K. M. Walter, M. E. Edwards, G. Grosse, S. A. Zimov, F. S. Chapin III
4 During the Last Deglaciation."">"Thermokarst Lakes as a Source of Atmospheric CH₄ During the Last Deglaciation."
''

'', 26 October 2007, vol. 318, no. 5850, pp. 633–636. (Full text a
ResearchGate
) Retrieved 2 November 2016.K. M. Walter, S. A. Zimov, J. P. Chanton, D. Verbyla and F. S. Chapin III

''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', vol. 443, no. 7107, 7 September 2006, pp. 71–75. (Full text a
ResearchGate
)S. A. Zimov, Y. V. Voropaev, I. P. Semiletov, S. P. Davidov, S. F. Prosiannikov, F. S. Chapin III, M. C. Chapin, S. Trumbore, S. Tyler
"North Siberian Lakes: A Methane Source Fueled by Pleistocene Carbon."
In: ''

'', 8 August 1997, vol. 277, no. 5327, pp. 800–802. (Full text a
ResearchGate
) Retrieved 2 November 2016. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and the methane emissions from thermokarst lakes have the potential to initiate a positive feedback cycle in which increased atmospheric methane concentrations lead to amplified global climate change, which in turn leads to more permafrost thaw and more methane and carbon dioxide emissions.

Pleistocene Park

Zimov began the Pleistocene Park project in 1988 in northeastern Siberia near the Northeast Science Station in Cherskii, Sakha Republic, Russia. Pleistocene Park seeks to test the hypotheses that large

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

s maintained the

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

and that

overhunting Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...

by humans caused both the animals and Pleistocene ecosystem to vanish. The grassland-steppe ecosystem, which dominated Siberia during the Pleistocene, disappeared 10,000 years ago and was replaced by mossy and forested

. Concurrently, many of the large herbivores that roamed Siberia during the Pleistocene, including

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

woolly rhinoceros The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that inhabited northern Eurasia during the Pleistocene epoch. The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna. The woolly rhinoceros was larg ...

es,

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

s, musk oxen, elk, saiga, and yaks, vanished from the region. Today,

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

and

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

are the only surviving large herbivores to roam Siberia. Zimov and colleagues believe that

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s, with their constantly improving technology, overhunted the large herbivores and led to their extinction and extirpation. Without herbivores grazing and trampling over the land, mosses, shrubs, and trees were able to take over and replace the grassland ecosystem. At Pleistocene Park, Zimov is attempting to re-create the

grasslands to demonstrate that the grasslands would have persisted into the

if humans did not overhunt the herds of Pleistocene herbivores that roamed and maintained the ecosystem. He has demonstrated that grasses take over the landscape 1–2 years after mosses are anthropogenically removed. According to Zimov, reintroducing large herbivores to Siberia would initiate a

positive feedback loop Positive feedback (exacerbating feedback, self-reinforcing feedback) is a process that occurs in a feedback loop where the outcome of a process reinforces the inciting process to build momentum. As such, these forces can exacerbate the effects ...

promoting the reestablishment of grassland ecosystems: "''The animals, their hooves, they disturb the moss and let grasses grow instead. The soil dries out, the animals deposit their fertilizer, the grass grows more, and more animals can graze''."Adam Fowler
"Siberian Window on the Ice Age."
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 2 July 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2016. Current efforts in the park include reintroducing surviving Pleistocene megafauna into the fenced enclosure until they reach densities to change the vegetation and soil to a steppe grassland ecosystem. Pleistocene Park currently covers an area of and contains less than 100 large mammals representing six major herbivore species (horses, moose, reindeer, muskox, elk, and bison). Zimov's goal for Pleistocene Park is to increase the number of large herbivores to 20 per square kilometer before then reintroducing predators, including

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

s, and

Siberian tiger The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies ''Panthera tigris tigris'' native to Northeast China, the Russian Far East, and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korea, Korean Peninsula, but currently ...

s. In 2007 a 35-meter high flux tower was erected in the park which constantly monitors the levels of methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy (temperature) in the park's atmosphere. The data among others contributes to the Global Monitoring Division of

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

's Earth System Research Lab.International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA)
"Pleistocene Park."
Without date. Retrieved 2 November 2016. Zimov’s concept of Pleistocene Park and repopulating the mammoth steppe is listed as one of the “100 most substantive solutions to global warming” by Project Drawdown.Project Drawdown (w/o date)
“Repopulating the Mammoth Steppe.”
Retrieved 16 March 2017. The list, encompassing only technologically viable, existing solutions, was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars, scientists, policymakers, business leaders and activists;Book Passage (w/o date)
“Paul Hawken - Drawdown (San Rafael).”
Retrieved 16 March 2017.Project Drawdown homepage.
Retrieved 16 March 2017. for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050, the total and net cost to society, and the total lifetime savings were measured and modelled.Project Drawdown (w/o date)
“Solutions.”
Retrieved 16 March 2017.Joel Makower (2014)
“Inside Paul Hawken’s audacious plan to ‘drawdown’ climate change.”
GreenBiz, 22 October 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2017.

Filmography

« L'hypothèse de Zimov » feature-length documentary (90 and 52 min) ; international co-production involving Arturo Mio, 13 Productions, ARTE France (France), Take Five, RTBF (Belgique) and Ethnofund (Russia). Film written and directed by Denis Sneguirev, in Russian and English; in post-production for a release scheduled for November 2021. (Film site; ARTE Germany)

Selected publications

* :: This paper estimates that 33-87% of high-latitude increases in atmospheric

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

originate from

lakes. It is suggested that sediments which have been frozen since the

, called

yedoma Yedoma () is an organic-rich (about 2% carbon by mass) Pleistocene-age permafrost with ice content of 50–90% by volume. Yedoma are abundant in the cold regions of eastern Siberia, such as northern Sakha Republic, Yakutia, as well as in Alaska ...

, will have high methane-releasing potential as they thaw due to

. * :: This paper quantifies

emissions from

lakes in North

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Most of the methane is sourced to thawing

from the lake margins. *
PDF
:: This essay outlines the concept behind Pleistocene Park, Sergei Zimov's research site in which he seeks to demonstrate that human overhunting of Pleistocene

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

led to the disappearance of the Pleistocene's grassland-steppe ecosystem. * :: This paper suggests that increasing high-latitude ecological disturbances such as

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

s and

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

contribute to the long-term increase in atmospheric

. * :: This paper contends that

represents a significant global

carbon sink A carbon sink is a natural or artificial carbon sequestration process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere". These sinks form an important part of the natural carbon cycle. An overar ...

. As

causes permafrost to thaw, the stored

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

will be released and amplify global climate change. * :: This paper identifies

-aged soils, referred to as

, as being a major

source for

emissions from

lakes in North Siberia.

References

External links

Person

* Dmitry Solovyov (2007)
"Arctic science outpost a refuge from the world."
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

'', Science News, 24 September 2007. Accessed 2 November 2016. * Eli Kintisch (2015)
"Born to rewild. A father and son's quixotic quest to bring back a lost ecosystem – and save the world."
In: ''

'', 4 December 2015, vol. 350, no. 6265, pp. 1148-1151.
Alternative version
on the

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an American news media organization established in 2006 that sponsors independent reporting on global issues that other media outlets are less willing or able to undertake on their own. The center's go ...

website.) Accessed 2 November 2016. * Roscongress (2016): "Sergey Zimov. Archaeoresuscitation." I
''Roscongress, Sochi 2016'', Special Edition of the International Investment Forum "Sochi 2016"
, pp. 54–57 (pp. 56–59 of the PDF). Accessed 2 November 2016.

Projects

Official Pleistocene Park and Northeast Science Station Website

IASOA: Cherskii Observatory
*
IASOA: Northeast Science Station
*
IASOA: Pleistocene Park
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimov, Sergey Russian geophysicists Russian ecologists 1955 births Living people People from the Sakha Republic Russian scientists