TOMSK, Mar 19 – RIA Tomsk. Scientists of several scientific
centers, including Tomsk State University (TSU), launched an international
project to create a research mega-profile extending from the West to the East
of Siberia, will reveal which changes in the environment are natural and which
are caused by human influence, the press office of the university reports on
Monday.
It is specified that the cornerstone of the project is the idea proposed by the
employees of the BioClimLand Center of TSU and successfully implemented in
Western Siberia. They created a latitudinal mega-profile – scientists located a
network of scientific stations and sites for monitoring the environment along
the axis, which extends from the south to the north for 3.5 thousand
kilometers. At stations and sites continuous monitoring of climate change,
landscape and so on is conducted.
"The same mega-profile is now being created to study the transformation of
the environment in a vast area from the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra, through
Western and Central Siberia to Eastern Siberia", – is said in the report.
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It is explained that the West-East mega-profile will allow "to cover with
modern researches on a single program and agreed scientific protocols" the
entire territory of Siberia, to study actively the processes occurring in
permafrost, and also to obtain data which will help to determine what changes
of the environment are caused by the anthropogenic factor, and which are
natural ones.
"Western Siberia is the ideal territory for such studies, since there are
different climatic zones from the semi-deserts and steppes to the Arctic
tundra. All of these zones are located on the plain, which excludes the
influence of other factors, for example, the difficult mountainous terrain.
Therefore, Western Siberia is a natural megastructure, which allows us to study
many processes", – the head of the BioClimLand Sergei Kirpotin is quoted.
The press service of TSU also reports that researchers from Sukachev Institute
of Forest of the Siberian Branch of the RAS, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal
University, as well as specialists from Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and
Marine Research (Germany) will participate in "construction" of the
West-East mega-profile along with the scientists of TSU.