September 4, 2017

MPI and SKLFSE Joint Activities in Summer 2017

Following the establishment of the International Research Center for Asian Cold Regions Environment and Engineering, which was officially opened in April 2017, the co-founders - the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (SKLFSE), Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (MPI) - conducted a range of joint activities during the summer of 2017. Six young scientists from MPI stayed for a month at SKLFSE in Lanzhou for training and discussions. Together with their potential research partners, they visited field sites on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and took part in experimental work. Dr. Alexey Galanin and Dr. Ivan Khristoforov were invited to SKLFSE as visiting scholars under the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) program. A team from SKLFSE, including Profs. Wu Qingbai, Ma Wei, Jin Huijun and Zhang Ze, and from MPI, including Dr. Mikhail Zhelezniak, Andrey Litovko and Leonid Gagarin, conducted a field trip from Yakutsk to Tynda along the Lena Federal Road and the Nizhny Bestyakh–Tynda Railroad to examine the problem sections over ice-rich permafrost in Central Yakutia. The active interaction and idea sharing resulted in four joint project proposals submitted to the RFBR-NNSF Call 2018. If approved, the first joint studies will focus on the effects of zonal and azonal factors on thermokarst, Middle and Late Pleistocene paleoenvironments inferred from syngenetic ice-rich permafrost studies in Asia, permafrost issues of the Lena River bridge site near Yakutsk, and the influence of precipitation infiltration and water vapor condensation on the ground thermal regime.

June 22, 2017

New Studies on Thermokarst

Thermokarst and associated landforms have always been the subject of intensive research at MPI. Early studies of thermokarst terrain in central and northern Yakutia by Evgeny Katasonov, Felix Are and Petr Solovyev provided a valuable basis for further studies which are continued today by the MPI’s Laboratory of Permafrost Landscapes in cooperation with colleagues in Germany, France, Japan and the USA. With global climate change, it becomes increasingly important to understand the evolution of permafrost landscapes and its socio-economic effects.

A recent article in the journal Anthropocene titled "Permafrost livelihoods: A transdisciplinary review and analysis of thermokarst-based systems of indigenous land use" by Susan Crate, Mathias Ulrich, J. Otto Habeck, Aleksey R. Desyatkin, Roman V. Desyatkin, Aleksander N. Fedorov, Tetsuya Hiyama and Yoshihiro Iijima focuses on Sakha (Yakut) animal husbandry as an example of indigenous land use. The article is a result of the joint activity of the IPA Action Group "Permafrost and Culture". It is freely available following this link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305416301060.

Joint studies are now being planned in cooperation with the University of Southhampton, UK. Prof. Mary Edwards visited MPI from June 11-16, 2017 to discuss plans for thermokarst investigations using remote sensing and modeling. The themes will be landscape resilience and community response to increasing thermokarst. Photo (top): Prof. M. Edwards observing a thaw lake near Yakutsk.

August 14, 2017

Northern Research Basins Symposium and Workshop Successfully Held in Yakutsk

The 21st Northern Research Basins Symposium and Workshop were successfully held in Yakutsk, Russia from 6th to 12th of August 2017 under the theme of “Cold-Region Hydrology in Non-Stationary World”. The meeting organized jointly by the Institute of Water Problems (Moscow) and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute (Yakutsk) addressed the issues of hydrological research in cold regions, both in fundamental scientific and applied aspects, including the studies of snow, glaciers, permafrost, frozen ground, groundwater, seasonally frozen rivers and lakes. The topics discussed by delegates from Russia, Canada, Sweden, France, Finland and Germany covered observational evidences of change in coupled permafrost-hydrology system; present state and future projections of local, regional and pan-Arctic hydrology; modeling studies representing landscape evolution, dynamics of water storages and permafrost degradation, and impacts of permafrost hydrology changes on local communities. The symposium program included tours to the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk and a field excursion to the MPI's underground water research site on the Lena River terrace and completed with a cruise to the Lena Pillar Natural Park. The Proceedings of the 21st NRB Symposium and Workshop and the photographs can be downloaded from the Symposium website http://nrb2017.ru/. 

May 22, 2017

Museum Open Day

The Melnikov Permafrost Institute celebrated International Museum Day by inviting visitors to its Museum of the History of Permafrost Studies. During the whole day of May 19, 2017 guided tours were offered at the top of every hour. In total, the museum welcomed 40 visitors, including 26 junior and high school students.

The Museum has an objective to promote public understanding and appreciation of permafrost studies for the social, economic and cultural development of northern regions. The history of man-permafrost relationship, including the results of work of Russian permafrost scientists, is an important part of cultural heritage. With its education and information mission, the Museum seeks to spread knowledge of the permafrost, to promote interdisciplinary approaches, and to spark an interest in science and research in young people.