#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The result of the North Pole 41 expedition will be the discovery of new species of living organisms. The expedition’s biological research group’s head, Olga Zimina, spoke about the details.
“This time the biological program was as extensive as possible compared to all previous drifting stations. <…> As a result of this expedition, we have gained a solid foundation that was impossible to obtain before. <…> We worked to a depth of 4.9 kilometers, which was previously completely inaccessible to us, to biologists, in the Arctic zone. I think new discoveries and new organisms await us after analyzing the data”, TASS quotes her as saying.
Zimina said that as part of the expedition, scientists monitored the vital activity of living organisms in the water column, ice and at the bottom of the Arctic ocean. In addition, mammals and birds were studied. A separate area of work was research on microplastics: scientists will study samples taken at different depths in order to estimate the number of its particles.
The laboratory stage is going to take about a year. And this fall, a new batch of biologists will set off on the North Pole 42 expedition. According to Zimina, they will set off with an even broader research program, in which much attention will be paid to the study of plankton as the basis of the Arctic food chain.
Previously, we told how the North Pole platform returned from its first expedition.
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Text: Alexander Kalashnikov, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
