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Updated: Dec 30, 2025
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Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration
Published on: June 7, 2024
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Trophic rewilding presents regionally specific opportunities for mitigating climate change
Christopher J Sandom1,2, Owen Middleton1, Erick Lundgren3
1School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
Summary
Large herbivores significantly impact climate change processes. While Extant-Native Trophic (ENT) Rewilding can reduce methane emissions, it does not fully restore natural climate solutions potential.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Climate Science
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Large mammalian herbivores influence climate-regulating ecosystem processes.
- Predator-prey dynamics (top-down forcing) modulate herbivore impacts on the environment.
- Understanding functional guild composition across different mammal distribution scenarios is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze how the functional composition of large herbivore and carnivore guilds differs across Present-Natural, Current-Day, and Extant-Native Trophic (ENT) Rewilding scenarios.
- To quantify the influence of large herbivores, particularly those with weak top-down regulation, on climate-relevant processes.
- To assess the potential of ENT Rewilding for climate change mitigation and natural climate solutions.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of functional guild composition across three mammal distribution scenarios.
- Quantification of herbivore influence on methane emissions, vegetation dynamics, fire regimes, seed dispersal, and nutrient cycling.
- Regional assessment of herbivore regulation by top-down forcing.
Main Results:
- Significant regional variations exist in herbivore regulation across the three scenarios.
- Present-Natural scenarios were dominated by non-ruminant megaherbivore browsers; Current-Day scenarios show dominance of large, ruminant grazers due to extinctions and livestock introduction.
- ENT Rewilding restores some regions to Present-Natural conditions but increases top-down forcing on large herbivores elsewhere, reducing methane emissions but not maximizing natural climate solutions.
Conclusions:
- Mammalian herbivore guild composition profoundly affects climate change mitigation potential.
- ENT Rewilding offers benefits for methane reduction but has limitations in maximizing broader natural climate solutions.
- Future rewilding strategies must consider the complex interplay between herbivore functional traits, predator-prey dynamics, and regional ecological contexts.
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