Scientists found herd of European bison in Romania's mountains can help combat climate change

By Seda Sevencan

ISTANBUL (AA) - A recent scientific study shed light on the significant role of a herd of European bison reintroduced into Romania's Tarcu mountains in combating climate change.

According to a report published in the British daily The Guardian on Wednesday, scientists at the Yale School of the Environment discovered that a herd of 170 bison in the Tarcu Mountains could help store CO2 emissions equivalent to removing 43,000 US cars from the road for a year.

The study, which calculated the additional amount of atmospheric CO2 that wildlife species help to capture and store in soils through their interactions within ecosystems, found that the European bison herd grazing in an area of nearly 50 square kilometers (19.3 square miles) of grasslands within the larger Tarcu mountains could potentially capture an additional 54,000 tons of carbon a year.

This corresponds to the yearly CO2 released by a median of 43,000 average US petrol cars, or 84,000 using the higher figure, or a median of 123,000 average European cars, according to the researchers.

Oswald Schmitz, the report's lead author, told the Guardian: “Bison influence grassland and forest ecosystems by grazing grasslands evenly, recycling nutrients to fertilize the soil and all of its life, dispersing seeds to enrich the ecosystem, and compacting the soil to prevent stored carbon from being released.

“These creatures evolved for millions of years with grassland and forest ecosystems, and their removal, especially where grasslands have been ploughed up, has led to the release of vast amounts of carbon. Restoring these ecosystems can bring back balance, and ‘rewilded’ bison are some of the climate heroes that can help achieve this.”

Magnus Sylven, the director of science policy practice at Global Rewilding Alliance, highlighted in the report that “until now, nature protection and restoration has largely been treated as another challenge and cost that we need to face alongside the climate emergency.

“This research shows we can address both challenges: we can bring back nature through rewilding and this will draw down vast amounts of carbon, helping to stabilize the global climate.”

Sylven noted that the report on Romania’s European bison is the "first of its kind," providing “a very powerful tool at hand to give directions to wildlife reintroductions.”

Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania reintroduced European bison to the southern Carpathian mountains in 2014, after they were absent from Romania's wildlife for more than 200 years.

Nearly 170 bison have settled in the Tarcu Mountains, creating one of Europe's largest free-roaming populations.