Fifth Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists

4-20 June 2018     Yakutsk, Russia

The Forum commemorating the 90th anniversary of the birth of Professor, Dr. Maria K. Gavrilova included two events: a conference held from 4-8 June 2018 under the title "Permafrost Response to Climate Change" and a field trip from 9-20 June 2018.

The conference was attended by 56 undergraduates, graduate students, and early-career scientists from the Melnikov Permafrost Institute (Yakutsk), North-Eastern Federal University (Yakutsk), Moscow State University, З HYDEC Hydrological and Geoenvironmental Co. (Moscow), Earth Cryosphere Institute (Tyumen), Tomsk Oil and Gas Research and Design Institute, Institute of the Earth's Crust (Irkutsk), St. Petersburg State University, Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (Novosibirsk), Novosibirsk State University, North-East Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Institute (Anadyr), as well as 10 colleagues from the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (Lanzhou, China) and Heilongjiang University (Harbin, China). The conference covered a wide range of permafrost-related topics, including regional and historical geocryology, permafrost thermal studies, periglacial processes and forms, landscape dynamics in permafrost regions, permafrost geochemistry, permafrost hydrology and hydrogeology, climate change and permafrost evolution, greenhouse gases and gas hydrates, permafrost microbiology, remote sensing of permafrost, and stability of engineering structures on permafrost.

The post-conference field trip to Amga, central Yakutia, was designed to examine permafrost processes and landforms (thermokarst, frost heaving, mass wasting, icings, thermal suffosion, etc.); surface and subsurface thermal regimes in different landscapes; permafrost-related engineering problems and mitigation techniques; mitigation and restoration measures for degraded agricultural lands; and land suitability mapping and assessment for agriculture. Together with senior scientists from MPI, participants conducted field observations to assess the extent of permafrost degradation in different landscape settings. They took part in the establishment and instrumentation of observation sites to monitor ground temperatures, permafrost processes, groundwater, and geochemistry.

The Forum was held with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant 18-35-10015) and the Republic of Sakha/Yakutia Young Researchers Foundation.