Permafrost thaw plays a significant role in climate change, as global warming leads to massive amounts of organic carbon being released from the permafrost into the atmosphere. This short film, following a structure of a scientific paper, explores the so-called Zimov hypothesis, which involves non-human animals in mitigating permafrost thaw. According to the Zimov hypothesis, large herbivores such as reindeer and horse could prevent permafrost thaw as they compact the snow while grazing, keeping the ground temperature colder. Putting this hypothesis to test, the film introduces a speculative snow compacting experiment that utilizes the human body as a simulation for the reindeer body to measure the impact of snow stomping on the underlying ground temperature. Next to the impact of stomping, the preliminary results highlight the effect of rain on compacted snow. This art-science project has been conducted at the Ars BioArctica Residency at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki, in subarctic Finland.
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