Turkish biologists take part in the celebrations of the Year of Zoology at St Petersburg University

The meeting began with a welcoming speech by Professor Apollinariia Avrutina, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies and Russia-Türkiye Relations at St Petersburg University.

Cooperation with Türkiye is an important strategic priority for St Petersburg University. In fact, St Petersburg University is one the oldest centres for Turkish studies not only in Russia but also in Europe. Hence, it is especially important to broaden the areas of cooperation with Türkiye beyond to the study of language and literature. The visit of the prominent Turkish biologist Professor Dr Sebahat Ozman-Sullivan to the University is particularly significant for us.

Professor Apollinariia Avrutina, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies and Russia-Türkiye Relations at St Petersburg University

Professor Avrutina added that the Centre for Contemporary Turkish Studies and Russia-Türkiye Relations at St Petersburg University implements many partnership programmes — multi-faceted research, educational and cultural projects have been carried out in cooperation between St Petersburg University and research, cultural and academic institutions in Türkiye.

The importance of international cooperation in science was also emphasised by Pavel Skutchas, Doctor of Biology, Associate Professor in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at St Petersburg University.

‘I am very pleased to represent the zoologist community of St Petersburg University at today’s meeting. Zoologists across the globe are united by their common love of animals: from microscopic mites to giant dinosaur fossils. This year, we are celebrating 200 years of zoology at St Petersburg University. These 200 years have shown that the development of zoological science is impossible without cooperation with international colleagues, including colleagues from Türkiye,’ Pavel Skutchas said.

Professor Sebahat Ozman-Sullivan thanked her colleagues at St Petersburg University for the invitation to give a lecture and noted that major research projects are impossible without international cooperation. In her lecture, she addressed some of the global problems caused by human activities. She said that, despite the fact that mites (Acari) are very small, sometimes even microscopic animals, they are very important for humans, particularly in the context of environmental transformation. Along with insects, mites make a huge contribution to the effective functioning of ecosystems on the planetary scale. The abundance of parasites and pests among the mite species determines their importance for humans in both medicine and agriculture. Like almost all other forms of life on Earth, mites face serious threats due to the anthropogenic transformation of the global biosphere, especially as a result of the degradation, destruction and fragmentation of the natural habitat and climate change.

‘The term "biodiversity" refers to the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems. The most commonly used representation of biodiversity is species diversity. It includes millions of species of animals, plants, organisms living on our planet: from mites as small as 0.1 mm in length to blue whales reaching lengths of more than 20 m. Our existence is dependent on global biodiversity and the physical components of the environment (soil, water, minerals, air, etc),’ reminded Professor Sebahat Ozman-Sullivan.

Professor Ozman-Sullivan added that mites, along with insects, have the highest biodiversity. Some groups of mites provide essential ecosystem services: they break down soil organic matter and release nutrients into the soil in forms that plants can use. Mites and insects also provide food for predators in complex food webs.

‘Climate change exacerbates the consequences of other causes of decline in species populations and extinction of plants and animals, such as: large-scale forest fires in the Russian taiga, in southern Türkiye, in Australia, in Western Europe and so on; the melting of glaciers and sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic; the melting of permafrost; strong hurricanes; floods and droughts; and rising sea levels. In addition to extinction of plants and vertebrates, hundreds of thousands of insect species and dozens of thousands of mite species are disappearing,’ said Dr Sebahat Ozman-Sullivan, Professor in the Department of Plant Protection at Ondokuz Mayıs University.

As a solution to the problem, Professor Sebahat Ozman-Sullivan listed the following measures: prevention of habitat loss and degradation; rapid expansion of the protected area estate to capture the maximum possible area of ecosystem heterogeneity; restoration of areas affected by desertification, soil compaction, erosion, and pollution; and urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, etc). In the meantime, it is necessary to coordinate actions at the international level that are aimed at environmental education, peaceful coexistence and sustainable use of resources.

‘Global environmental problems do not respect state borders,’ concluded Professor Ozman-Sullivan.

Dr Sebahat Ozman-Sullivan is Professor in the Department of Plant Protection of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ondokuz Mayıs University (Samsun, Türkiye). For several years, she has been conducting scientific research on arthropod-plant interactions in cooperation with biologists from St Petersburg University. Professor Ozman-Sullivan is also the chair of the Mite Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the Republic of Türkiye.

For reference: in 2022, St Petersburg University is celebrating the Year of Zoology. 200 years ago, in 1822, the first Department of Zoology in Russia was established at St Petersburg Imperial University. 50 years later, the Department was officially divided into two separate scientific and educational subdivisions — the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and the Department of Vertebrate Zoology.