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00:00.
00:24Grasslands are the largest land ecosystems on Earth.
00:31.
00:37Monitoring and protecting them is essential,
00:40as they affect the health of our whole planet.
00:55The steppes of Kazakhstan are part of the most extensive grasslands we have left.
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01:07Home to the elusive saiga antelope.
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01:21Scientist Albert Salam Guraev is studying these unusual-looking herbivores.
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01:33In this vast area, it's not that easy to find a saiga.
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01:40Albert's study site covers 13 million acres.
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01:45And the only way of tracking these nomadic antelope is with GPS technology.
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02:00Most people use darts to tranquilize wild animals before collaring them.
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02:29So the team has developed a different technique.
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02:40For it to succeed, they need to be as fast and agile as the Saiga.
03:11To avoid dangerous levels of stress, each chase is limited to 4 minutes per animal.
03:34I have to try again.
03:52To avoid the damage to the surface, whatever you want.
03:54To avoid damage.
03:57So even stronger.
04:03To avoid the damage to the base, the damage that the points to the surface.
04:05To avoid damage.
04:11What are you doing?
04:22No!
04:28I'm coming!
04:30Do you want to go?
04:32Do you want to go?
04:32No.
04:34Do you want to go?
04:47Colors are only secured to healthy young adults.
04:53They should provide the most reliable data over the coming years.
05:03Over the next five days, they must fit 20 Colors.
05:16It's worth the effort, as saiga are important animals for the health of the ecosystem.
05:29They graze for 20 hours a day, and that stimulates the growth of fresh grass.
05:39If the saiga were to vanish, the consequences would be catastrophic for the grasslands.
05:55Historically, the saiga was a state resort they use for the meat and skin.
06:02By 2003, unsustainable hunting and outbreaks of disease caused the saiga population to crash to barely 21,000 animals.
06:15One of the fastest declines for a mammal species ever recorded.
06:26Much of Albert's work now is focused on saiga protection across their range.
06:34And GPS collars are the only way to be certain where that is.
06:44Saiga travelled great distances to avoid the cold of winter in the north and the heat of summer in the
06:50south.
06:57The maximum migration we recorded was 1,100 kilometres for one individual.
07:10But human development can block saiga migrations.
07:21Albert's data helps protect these critical routes.
07:27We are proud of our work because based on our tracking data and ground monitoring,
07:34we extend over the five million hectares of protected area.
07:47With safe passage, saiga are making an incredible recovery.
07:55Numbers have just been declared at an astonishing 2.8 million.
08:01The highest ever recorded.
08:10Little Rich.
08:22There are many different kinds of grasslands in the world.
08:25But they usually have one thing in common.
08:33Grazes.
08:35Which come in all shapes and sizes.
08:44Their relentless nibbling and trampling stimulates fast growth.
08:54And as the grasses grow, they're doing something amazing.
09:05They absorb carbon from the air, which is then transported down into the roots, where some
09:17of it is transferred into the soil.
09:24If undisturbed, it can stay there for hundreds of years, locked safely away from the atmosphere,
09:34where right now, there's too much of it.
09:43And because grasslands cover around 40% of all land, their potential for storing carbon
09:51is immense.
09:56But that can only be realised if the ecosystem is healthy.
10:13Countless species are bound together in a powerful web of life.
10:26Like here, in southwest Uganda, in the rain shadow of the Ruanzuri mountains.
10:41Dr. Papetra Akite is a grassland ecologist.
10:48She's dedicated her life to understanding tropical ecosystems.
10:56Knowledge she passes on to her students.
11:02The life of a teacher is one interesting life.
11:06When I want to inspire the younger people, I take ecology out of the textbook and take them
11:13out into the field, like we are here, and then you will understand ecology.
11:19Oh, that's an entire grasshopper there.
11:22Amazing.
11:23Yellow legs.
11:27Grasslands are very rich ecosystems.
11:32The biodiversity within grasslands have always been underestimated.
11:37We have a lot of Uganda cove, which happen to be our, the Uganda national animals.
11:44Waterbuck.
11:47Buffaloes.
11:49We have a lot of warthogs.
11:50So there's heavy grazing in grassland ecosystems.
11:57Grasses cope by regrowing quickly.
12:00But in doing so, they draw nutrients and minerals from the ground.
12:07These need replenishing.
12:10And the best source of fertilizer are the animals themselves.
12:23But getting this dung into the soil requires a helping hand.
12:29From a creature that likes to emerge at night.
12:47Hey, it's now night.
12:50Let's see if there's anyone coming out to do some more building of the mound.
12:56There are some wakata mites coming out.
13:00It's actually lovely.
13:05There are more termites living beneath the savannah than there are animals above it.
13:11Between them, they consume a third of all herbivore dung.
13:22The mound is a nest where there's a lot of reproduction.
13:26The more termites we have, the more services we get from them.
13:39As termites recycle the nutrients back into the soil, they complete the relationship between grass and grazers.
13:55In any ecosystem, there is always this interconnection.
13:59Nothing is living in isolation.
14:01So from the smallest thing to the biggest, they actually interlinked.
14:06They are interlinked.
14:07And their survival is so connected.
14:12When they come, it's alien.
14:26As night falls in the savannah, many animals take advantage of the cooler air, especially
14:35hippos, which can weigh over three tons and eat more than 50 kilograms of grass in a single
14:42session.
14:50Their constant mowing suppresses trees and bushes, keeping the grasslands open.
15:04But hippo numbers in Queen Elizabeth National Park are down by 90 percent.
15:13Recent increases in poaching and disease have decimated the population.
15:25When grazing numbers drop, the landscape responds, and not in a good way.
15:37Jimmy Kisembo has lived and worked in this park for over 15 years and is witnessing this
15:44decline firsthand.
15:54With fewer grazers, bushes are taking over.
16:02And this means there's less grass to eat, unbalancing the savannah even more.
16:12It threatens to destroy this once pristine habitat.
16:30Jimmy is here to meet fellow conservationist, Joseph Arinatwe from the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
16:39He leads a team of local community members, pushing back against the takeover.
16:49There are several invasive plant species that are causing a real problem.
16:56But most importantly, this one which is locally called Kalema Njojo.
17:05Kalema Njojo means defeater of elephants.
17:12These animals are on the rise here due to improved anti-poaching and the recent ban of the elephant
17:20ivory trade.
17:32But even the elephants can't touch Kalema Njojo.
17:36It's far too tough and spiky to eat.
17:47Meaning that what is hard for elephants, nothing can manage it.
17:52Yes.
17:52What is hard for elephants, no other can dare.
18:02Problem plants have taken over an estimated 580 square miles of the park so far.
18:10And less than 2% of this has been cut back.
18:25The work can only be done by hand.
18:33Previous efforts with machinery have spread the seeds and made the problem worse.
18:42These bushes threaten to destroy one of Uganda's greatest wildlife strongholds.
18:55But Joseph and his team, it's a war of attrition.
19:04So should I hope we are winning this battle?
19:07We have the confidence that we are winning and it's just a matter of time and resources.
19:14I wish you good luck otherwise our park is gone.
19:19We will be gone if we don't work hard.
19:20Either now or never.
19:44Some of our greatest wildnessers are beyond the reach of most people.
20:00Tundra means treeless plain.
20:06At this high latitude, it's too cold for forests to survive.
20:22A unique biome of grasses, sedges, mosses and lichens thrives here.
20:39We are out here in North East Greenland.
20:42We are in one of the most remote locations that you can get to.
20:52It's a fascinating place.
20:55We have heath, we have grasslands, we have tundra.
21:07Professor Torben Christensen leads a team of scientists monitoring this ecosystem.
21:24This valley is only free of snow for three months of the year.
21:31Not long for the team to collect the data that they're after.
21:39It's also the time for tough plants like arctic willow and polar grasses to do all their growing.
21:48During this summer there's a lot of biological activity here and the plants are very fast
21:55in utilizing this time where they can do their photosynthesis, their exchange of carbon with
22:02the atmosphere.
22:07An invisible process that Torben and his team are here to assess.
22:15This experiment we're looking at here is a fantastic, very simple technique to measure
22:20the exchanges of greenhouse gases between the ecosystem and the atmosphere.
22:27Did you also check the other one over there?
22:29Yeah.
22:30Nice.
22:30Perfect.
22:32It's 51.7.
22:35These instruments can calculate both the amount and direction of carbon moving in and out of the ground.
22:44Growing plants absorb it, but it can also be released from the soil by microbes and bacteria.
22:54If there's more drawdown than released, then we start to get accumulation of carbon.
23:04And that's what the data shows.
23:07That across this vast landscape, the carbon drawdown is massive.
23:22So, these types of ecosystems, they have been consuming carbon dioxide since the last glacial times.
23:31They are even doing it today.
23:39The carbon that's taken in by the vegetation is building up in the Arctic soils.
24:03The tundra is so important to the planet's climate.
24:07Torben's team wants to know how it could be affected as the world heats up.
24:19Temperatures in the Arctic are rising up to three times faster than anywhere else on the planet.
24:31It's a major problem for the carbon stored in the Earth.
24:46Here, it's been frozen for thousands of years.
24:53It covers 14 million square kilometers in the northern hemisphere.
25:01When the Earth is frozen, the breakdown of organic matter
25:05like dead grasses slows right down, so the carbon release is minimal.
25:20But rising temperatures are threatening this ice-bound store.
25:30We have known this area for 28 years.
25:34And this collapse that happens right under our feet was quite unexpected.
25:51What's happening here is fascinating, but also a bit frightening.
25:58The foundation was made out of ice.
26:02That ice has now melted.
26:06And this has caused a complete collapse.
26:17With the soil defrosted and exposed to the air,
26:21carbon is escaping back into the atmosphere.
26:32A piece like this is a little piece of 1700 billion metric tons of carbon that is stored in the
26:41Arctic at large.
26:46This type of permafrost collapse is happening all around the top of the planet.
27:01The concern is that with the warming that we are causing, we are starting a feedback mechanism
27:09where the warming leads to increased releases of carbon to the atmosphere.
27:16And that in turn leads to further warming.
27:22That's a bad trajectory for mankind.
27:33To win this fight, we need to drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions
27:38and support nature in drawing the excess carbon back down to the Earth.
27:52One group of scientists believe there's an ally that's critical to changing the fortunes of the planet,
27:59right below our feet.
28:04The Netherlands famously allows you to do high-risk research.
28:08We are allowed to try all kinds of new techniques to unlock the secrets of the underground.
28:15Dr Toby Kears works as part of a team of scientists in an organisation called SPUN,
28:22the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.
28:32This is beautiful. You have to see this. This is good.
28:37This is what we have here is a plant root growing in the lab that is colonised by a
28:44symbiotic fungal network that encases the root system.
28:50Mycorrhizal fungi are a class of soil fungi that trade resources with plant roots.
28:58It's a partnership where the plant is feeding carbon into the fungal network in exchange for phosphorus and
29:05nitrogen and all the nutrients that the fungi collect.
29:11The fungal network penetrates into the root system itself and forms these beautiful structures.
29:20The partnership between fungi and plants is one of the oldest on Earth and it underlies basically all terrestrial ecosystems.
29:33To be able to see inside the fungi themselves and to see the nutrient flows, we have to use a
29:38much more powerful microscope.
29:43Toby takes living fungal networks to be imaged at a physics laboratory on the other side of town.
29:57Tom works with really powerful microscopes that can see things that we simply could not see in my lab.
30:05Tom works with really powerful microscopes that can see things that we simply could not see in my lab.
30:20So now I'm just going to switch to the fluorescence.
30:26It was so cool.
30:28It's so full of carbon.
30:31And it's all flowing.
30:32It's all flowing.
30:35Right now what we're looking at is carbon moving through the living fungal network.
30:43It wasn't until we could start labeling the carbon with fluorescence that the game really started to
30:50change because now we were able to pinpoint exactly the carbon inside the network.
30:58This year for the first time we harmonized all the data sets that had ever been published where
31:05people actually measured how much carbon was going from root systems into mycorrhizal fungi.
31:11It's a big number.
31:15Our estimates are about 13 billion tons of CO2 per year are processed by plants and then fed to
31:23mycorrhizal networks below ground. That's equivalent to about a third of all emissions from fossil fuels.
31:36These mycorrhizal fungi, they are an ally in our fight against climate change.
31:47But the clock is ticking to find and safeguard these amazing networks.
31:57We're not protecting these fungal systems.
32:00And I think one of the big problems is that there are no maps of the fungi themselves.
32:08We don't know where the Amazon of the underground is.
32:13Part of Spohn's goal is to identify where these places are.
32:26We go to those spots and we actually work with local scientists and collect soils to understand
32:33what fungal communities are there.
32:44Just to give you a bit of perspective, we have sampled about 0.01 percent of terrestrial earth.
32:52So that means 99.9 percent of terrestrial earth has not been sampled for these fungi.
32:59So we have a big job ahead of us.
33:12Grasslands are huge.
33:17As well as capturing carbon, they help produce our food.
33:26Our staples of wheat, barley, oats and rice are all cultivated grass species.
33:39But the way we farm them is harming soil biodiversity.
33:47Digging and tilling can break up fungal networks and release the carbon they hold.
33:58Globally, a third of all soils are degraded and getting worse.
34:05Not only contributing to climate change, but threatening global food supplies.
34:21Soil to health.
34:23Many farmers recognise this and want to boost underground biodiversity.
34:30Returning soil to health.
34:35This unproductive field has been set aside to let nature help it heal.
34:44And student Robby Sidhu is monitoring its recovery in an unusual way.
34:52I think it's really important to develop new ways of looking at how we can
34:58help save our planet as the climate crisis moves forward.
35:01Try new approaches that we haven't looked at before.
35:20The first time I listened to soil was in my own garden.
35:26And I plugged the microphones in and wasn't prepared for the amount of
35:30noise that I heard and the variation of the noise that I heard.
35:36Robby is trying to make sense of this subterranean chorus.
35:43There's a lot of cracks and pops and rustling going on.
35:48It's soothing to listen to in a weird way.
35:54Bioacoustics is a promising way to observe soil biodiversity without disturbing it.
36:03We're thinking of this field work as kind of an orchestra that we're listening to.
36:08And now we're going back into the laboratory and trying to
36:11identify what all the instruments are.
36:16It's quite surprising to hear the rustling from the root systems
36:21and the percussiveness of the insects.
36:29These methods are in their early stages.
36:32But the difference between healthy and unhealthy soil is obvious.
36:40As things become more restored, you get a lot more noise from an improved ecosystem.
36:48It's really exciting to be at the edge of something that could
36:52garner quite important results going forward.
36:56A lot of the methods of monitoring soil at the moment are quite invasive,
37:02quite expensive, quite time consuming.
37:05Whereas monitoring the acoustic aspects of soil is quite easy.
37:10This tool is a simple way to understand if our efforts to restore nature are working.
37:24All of the animals and the biology that lives in the soil is what captures that carbon the most.
37:31And if we can encourage that biology to flourish,
37:36then we're doing our job in terms of capturing carbon.
37:39And listening to the soil is an important way that we can do that.
37:47It's only been a few years, but already when we compare this field that's being regenerated to
37:51those around it that are still in constant use, we can hear a difference and it's getting louder.
38:12If protected, all of the world's grasslands can help us fight climate change.
38:23Like those found in the prairies of North America.
38:32But less than a fifth of these ecosystems remain.
38:37And over a million acres are lost to crops every year.
38:52There are those who believe that wild prairies can coexist with our human needs.
39:01We're going to go see if we can find Bull Bison.
39:03He's kind of, uh, I'd say solitary, but I think there's a group of like three of them up here.
39:09It's pretty typical this time of year outside of the rut that they're on their own for the most part.
39:19Here in Montana, there's a large area of prairie that looks wild.
39:25But it's really just a shadow of its former self.
39:33The biggest difference between the prairies today and the prairies, let's say 150 or 200 years ago,
39:38is the absence of big herds of large mammals, predators, and migratory birds.
39:46Large indigenous grazers, things like bison, have been replaced by domestic species, cattle for the most part.
39:59For wild animals to return, they need substantial areas of land.
40:08The best available science says that a fully functioning prairie ecosystem needs to be about 3.2 million acres.
40:14That's 5,000 square miles.
40:16And that's just how much land a project called American Prairie intends to rewild.
40:23That's Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, and then eventually we hope to create
40:27this kind of comparable large protected area for wildlife right in the middle of the state here.
40:33Much of the land has been owned by ranching families for generations.
40:41And many have made their feelings clear about rewilding.
40:55There is a fear that native animals, especially predators, will have an impact on their livelihoods.
41:05We know our neighbors are always going to be ranchers, no matter what this looks like.
41:10So how do you extend the effects of a wildlife refuge by increasing wildlife tolerance on the other side of
41:16a fence?
41:20Success is only guaranteed if everyone works together.
41:37Brother and sister, Grant and Glenna Finkbeiner, help run the family's livestock operation.
41:45Well, we ranch.
41:47We got a lot of different enterprises.
41:51We're fifth generation ranchers now.
41:55Pretty much in this area since late 1800s.
42:01We still have large herds of elk.
42:04You know, it's not crazy to see a thousand head elk coming out of the trees.
42:10Predators as well.
42:13Had a lion come through and it killed 20 ewes.
42:18It's not crazy to see a lot of animals.
42:18Considering that year, the ewes were averaging in the market $230 a piece.
42:28It adds up pretty quick, the economic loss.
42:43Many ranchers around here still kill a lot of predators.
42:47If they saw a wolf, they'd shoot it immediately.
42:53I feel as though getting rid of all the predators kind of upsets the ecological balance.
42:59In the middle of all the trees.
43:07To improve carnivore numbers, American Prairie has a plan to incentivize ranchers to see them in a different way.
43:27These cameras are owned by the American Prairie and they use them to see and manage how much
43:31wildlife is in an area.
43:36Camera traps are set and every picture taken of a contentious species earns the landowner
43:46money.
43:52It helps compensate for any financial impact the wildlife might cause.
44:01Over 60 sites have been photographed so far, capturing over 30,000 images, including the
44:13rarest predators.
44:33Schemes like this improve relations with nature, which is doing better as the project
44:40grows.
44:47But persecution has driven some species to extinction in Montana.
44:53With a little help, even those lost can be returned.
45:01The reason we're working where we are is because the habitat is intact enough that what you can
45:06do is just add animals back into it.
45:10The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is home to the Arnie and Nakoda people.
45:18Over 650,000 acres of intact prairie and the site of an incredible reintroduction program.
45:28Why Fort Belknap?
45:29Why Fort Belknap?
45:29Because it's an Indian Reservation.
45:31It is a sovereign nation.
45:32So they are able to make essentially unilateral decisions about how much or how little wildlife
45:37will be in their lands without the need to get approval from the State Wildlife Agency
45:42or the Federal Wildlife Agency.
45:47Scientists are joining students from the Reservations College to reintroduce a small but vital predator
45:54back into the ecosystem.
45:58Thank you guys for being here.
46:00Tonight we are going to release two foxes that have been brought up from Colorado.
46:10Student Ethan Work is part of the Swift Fox reintroduction team.
46:17The work is tough, it's hard but being able to see the foxes on the landscape is rewarding
46:22in itself.
46:24They eat small rodents and prairie dogs and insects so they are kind of like a pest control.
46:32Swift foxes are so fascinating.
46:35They are very, very small, about the size of a house cat.
46:38And what's so special about them is you can only find them in these large tracks of intact
46:44short grass prairie ecosystems.
46:49So foxes that we have in the pen here with us today, they've been fitted with a GPS collar
46:53and were placed into an acclimation pen for five days.
46:57And now we will release them to find a new home on Fort Belknap.
47:15There it is.
47:26There he goes.
47:27There he goes.
47:32Hahahaha.
47:34Oh, god speed little buddy.
47:48Oh Godspeed little buddy.
47:49Look the other way, you're free now.
48:00I'm gonna call this box North because he has no sense of direction
48:11Let's first step into his new hole
48:28He's hoping
48:30We're gonna watch him catch him
48:35He's gonna get it
48:38They got it
48:42He missed
48:44Their land was taken, most of their habitat was taken
48:48So having a place to go is crucial for them
48:50And being able on the reservation here to provide that is pretty great
49:02And it's not only the native animals that benefit from this project
49:07Thriving prairies can help us to draw down and store huge amounts of carbon
49:15I think we're so close
49:16It seems so very doable to be able to rewild this place and bring it back
49:21So all of us can enjoy that wild North America that came so close to being lost forever
49:29I think I will see this place in a wild state before I retire, let alone before I die
49:35This is not something that takes a hundred years
49:37You could do this in 40 years and have this place be wild again
49:59We know how to protect and rebuild the ecosystems we rely on
50:11And the work has begun
50:13In grasslands right across the world
50:18Saving species
50:20Keeping soil healthy
50:22And locking carbon beneath the ground
50:25This is all about urgency
50:27It's even hard to sit here and talk about it and not be in the field sampling
50:32And restoring ecosystems that have been degraded
50:40It won't be easy
50:43But the payoffs are huge
50:52There are wild possibilities
50:55Just ahead of us
51:05Building a future for nature
51:07Benefits us all
51:14There is a future
51:15And everyone will be involved
51:17Definitely
51:25With nature on our side
51:29We can overcome even the greatest challenge
52:14And in let alone before we approve
52:15And flowing whole
52:15We can overcome even the bestcap
52:15This is not something that we can zombie
52:21Transcription by CastingWords
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