The future of an international environmental monitoring project in the Arctic discussed at St Petersburg University

An international team of specialists (from six countries of the world) has been developing unified approaches for environmental monitoring in the polar region since 2014. The new interdisciplinary Arctic Ecosens project brought the work of researchers of vulnerable northern nature to a fundamentally new level. Mr. Dag Malmer Halvorsen, the Consul General of the Kingdom of Norway in St Petersburg, came to greet the participants of the first meeting as part of the Arctic Ecosens project. He emphasised that the joint project being implemented is important, first of all, for the expansion of scientific cooperation between the two countries in the Arctic zone.

In turn, Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs of St Petersburg University, expressed the hope that the seminar would also become a platform for generating new ideas for future research collaborations.

St Petersburg University actively cooperates with colleagues from Norway: we cooperate with 11 universities and 20 research centres. St Petersburg University is ready to contribute to the further expansion of partnerships, including those with the Consulate General.

Sergey Andryushin, Deputy Rector for International Affairs of St Petersburg University

Although the Russian-Norwegian meeting at St Petersburg University is the first meeting of the project, the research has already begun. «In the summer of 2018, there was an expedition of six professors and six students of St Petersburg University to the coast of the Barents Sea. They collected samples for geochemical, environmental and populational, and physiological and functional analyses, the study of which will allow to assess the state of biocoenosis of the coastal zone. The project implementation is important not only for solving direct research problems, but also contributes to the training of young highly qualified scientific personnel. One of the main tasks of the meeting is to coordinate further actions of numerous project participants, as well as discussing the immediate prospects for the development of Russian-Norwegian relations in the field of science and education,» said St Petersburg University professor Andrei Granovich, the project manager on the Russian side.

Paul Renaud, the project manager on the Norwegian side, also emphasised that Arctic Ecosens does not simply unite many researchers working in Russia and Norway.

The project as an element is included in the system of several educational and research Russian-Norwegian projects (BAMSE, Polar Night, andothers), promotes cultural exchange between the two countries and maintains a friendly atmosphere in the Arctic region, where the interests of many states meet.

Paul Renaud, the project manager of Arctic Ecosenson the Norwegian side

The meeting brought together specialists from quite diverse fields: ecology, protistology, invertebrate zoology, physiology, molecular biology and genetics from St Petersburg University; geology and geochemistry from VNII Okeangeologia; geobotany from Petrozavodsk State University, applied aspects of ecology and systematics from the Norwegian organisation Akvaplan-niva (APN), as well as the University of Tromsø— the Arctic University of Norway and the Norwegian Polar Institute —all in all more than 30 people, four of them took part in discussions and presented their reports online from Tromsø and Bergen.

The meeting agenda included a discussion of topical environmental issues in the Arctic region, legislative bilateral regulation of human economic activity in the Barents Sea, results of conducted field studies and primary outcomes of experimental work on the project, as well as future plans and prospects for expanding Russian-Norwegian cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental activities.