Scientists of Yamal spoke on the World Arctic Biodiversity Congress

The biologists from the town Labytnangy Natalia Sokolova and Alexander Sokolov came back from Norway. They participated in the first World Arctic Biodiversity Congress, which took place in the town Trondheim. It was organized and conducted by the working group on Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna at the Arctic Council in cooperation with the Norwegian Environment Agency.

The participants of the congress discussed issues of preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity of the Arctic. About 450 representatives of academic circles, governments, industry, civil society and indigenous peoples participated in its work. The scientists from Yamal worked in the session "The Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring Plan: An invitation to engage". Their report "Terrestrial biodiversity monitoring in Yamal, Russia: from past experience to future perspectives" aroused interest of the participants of the congress. As it is noted by the chairperson of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme Tom Christensen, the report gives precise answers to questions marked by the organizers as key ones. In the poster session Natalia Sokolova presented generalized data about dynamics of number of rodents – a central link in food chains of tundra. As the press-service of the governor of Yamal informs, agreements about joint work already in the field season of 2015 with researchers from countries of Europe and North America were achieved on several round tables and working sessions of the congress. In particular, the scientists from Yamal were included into the newly organized working group on study of the polar fox, agreed about joint projects on study of migration of birds and success of their reproduction with help of innovative methods. Alexander Sokolov and Natalia Sokolova are employees of the arctic scientific and research stationary center at the Institute of ecology of plants and animals at the Ural branch of the RAS and the scientific center for study of the Arctic. The researchers are supported by the regional department of international and external economic relations, the department on science and innovations, the interregional expedition center "Arktika" (Arctic).