Research has shown that wildlife populations exert a huge influence on the carbon cycle in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems through a wide range of processes. Restoring such populations through rewilding to enhance natural carbon capture and storage – known more popularly as ‘Animating the Carbon Cycle’ – has the potential to be one of the most impactful and immediately employable nature-based climate solutions (Schmitz et al., 2023).

Animals influence the carbon cycle in myriad ways. Their impact varies according to both their functional ecological role, and the ecosystem of which they are a part. As animals move around their environment, they trample soils and grasses, browse and break woody plants and create clear areas of bare soil. All of these cause more carbon to be captured, in different ways and in different places, than if the animals were not there. You will learn more about this in Module 2.

Example of Animating the Carbon Cycle in marine coastal and deep ocean ecosystems. Credit: Yale/GRA.