TSU held a meeting in Salekhard on the study of Siberia and the Arctic. Among the main results of the meeting are the inclusion of new Arctic stations in the SecNet network, plans for a joint expedition with the Russian Geographical Society, and ideas for engaging small peoples of the North in research.
The meeting was attended by 16 delegations from 10 countries. The event was supported by the British Embassy in Russia and the government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO).
- This is the third meeting organized by the international network SecNet, and the most numerous,- says Lyudmila Borilo, director of the network and the Center for the Study of Siberia, TSU. - This year in Salekhard, in addition to our traditional Siberian partners, we met with colleagues from the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from Saint Petersburg University, and from the University of the Arctic. Hank Loescher from the US National Science Foundation's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) made a presentation and noted that he highly appreciates the work of SecNet and proposed to conduct a joint Arctic Research Forum with NEON.
The most important result of the negotiations was an agreement between TSU and the government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug on the opening of a new research station of the university 100 km from Sabetta.
- One of the leaders of the YNAO reindeer herding community, Mikhail Okotetto, suggested using his house as a TSU scientific station. For us, this is of great importance, because it is a citizen science initiative that comes from the local population. And thus, the university covers the entire megaprofile from Altai to the Kara Sea, - explains Sergey Kirpotin, head of the TSU Centre BIO-CLIM-LAND (Biota-Climate-Landscapes). - The station will operate in automatic mode instruments with a large number of measured parameters, in addition, we hope to place expeditions from domestic and international scientists there. The Ob basin is of great interest to world science because it is of great importance for the climate of the planet. The station near the mouth of the Ob River to the Kara Sea is an important point on the map of our research.
In addition to the new station, which will immediately become part of SecNet, other stations and research teams from the subpolar and polar regions also want to enter the network. For many of them, membership in the SecNet international collaboration is an opportunity to participate in large projects, go to the world level of research, and be published in leading journals.
- With the government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and representatives of the Russian Geographical Society, we discussed the prospect of a joint naval expedition next year - from the Gulf of River and further into the sea. During the expedition, TSU and our SecNet partners will conduct research on the water resources of the Arctic, - says Lyudmila Borilo.
One of the meetings was devoted to how local people and, in particular, schoolchildren can help scientists with research. High school students will observe, collect, and record information about certain phenomena of nature. The citizen science projects related to the study of nature are ecological and civic education, the preservation of the traditional environment. Participation in serious research will help schoolchildren to choose a profession and, possibly, a university.
The SecNet meeting was held in parallel with the meeting of participants of the INTERACT project. During the presentation, Terrence Callaghan, Professor at TSU and the University of Sheffield, scientific supervisor of the project and the SecNet network, said that the Siberian network is built on the principles of INTERACT and helps to increase the number of project participants.