Editing Siberia (section)

====Global warming====
Researchers, including Sergei Kirpotin at [[Tomsk State University]] and Judith Marquand at [[Oxford University]], warn that [[West Siberian Plain|Western Siberia]] has begun to thaw as a result of [[global warming]]. The frozen [[peat bog]]s in this region may hold billions of tons of [[methane gas]], which may be released into the atmosphere. Methane is a [[greenhouse gas]] [[Global warming potential|22 times more powerful]] than [[carbon dioxide]].<ref>Ian Sample, "[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/aug/11/science.climatechange1 Warming hits 'tipping point']". ''[[The Guardian]]'', 11 August 2005.</ref> In 2008 a research expedition for the [[American Geophysical Union]] detected levels of methane up to 100 times above normal in the atmosphere above the Siberian [[Arctic]], likely the result of [[methane clathrate]]s being released through holes in a frozen "lid" of seabed [[permafrost]] around the outfall of the [[Lena (river)|Lena]] and the area between the [[Laptev Sea]] and [[East Siberian Sea]].<ref>{{cite news | url= https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html | title= Exclusive: The methane time bomb |last= Connor |first= Steve |date= 23 September 2008 |newspaper= [[The Independent]] |access-date= 3 October 2008}}</ref><ref>N. Shakhova, I. Semiletov, A. Salyuk, D. Kosmach, and N. Bel'cheva (2007), [http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU2007/01071/EGU2007-J-01071.pdf?PHPSESSID=e Methane release on the Arctic East Siberian shelf], ''Geophysical Research Abstracts'', '''9''', 01071.</ref>

Since 1988, experimentation at [[Pleistocene Park]] has proposed to restore the grasslands of prehistoric times by conducting research on the effects of large herbivores on permafrost, suggesting that animals, rather than climate, maintained the past ecosystem. The nature reserve park also conducts climatic research on the changes expected from the reintroduction of grazing animals or large herbivores, hypothesizing that a transition from [[tundra]] to grassland would lead to a net change in energy emission to absorption ratios.<ref name="Zimov 2005: Pleistocene Park: Return of the Mammoth's Ecosystem. Science Mag.">Sergey A. Zimov (6 May 2005): [https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1113442 "Pleistocene Park: Return of the mammoths' ecosystem"] In: ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'', pages 796–798. Article also to be found in [http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/materials/ www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/ – Materials.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103172534/http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/materials/ |date=3 November 2016 }} Retrieved 5 May 2013.</ref>

According to Vasily Kryuchkov, approximately 31,000 square kilometers of the Russian Arctic has been subjected to severe environmental disturbance.