The second and longest expedition of the Floating Arctic University has ended, during which 17 specialists from ten scientific institutions and organizations explored seven Arctic islands for 43 days.
Scientists landed on four islands for the first time in the entire 11-year history of the project, one of the main partners of which is Norilsk Nickel.
According to Elena Kudryashova, rector of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, despite some problems (Mikhail Somov vessel ran aground) all the scientific goals of the expedition were achieved.
"Conducting ground–based geological work, geomorphological observations, round-the-clock ship surveys of marine mammals and birds, landscape descriptions - these and many other studies have been successfully completed. I would like to note that the geography of the work was much wider than that of the first expedition of this year, and included the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Yamalo-Nenets District," Kudryashova said.
During the expedition, scientists collected new data that will clarify the geological map of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, studied quaternary formations and collected biological material from zoogenic ecosystems of the coasts of the Kara and Barents Seas, islands of the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos.
Scientists collected soil samples as well as samples of dwarf willow and dwarf birch necessary for studying the structural features of lignin, and carried out other studies, sgnorilsk.ru reported.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
