#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Federation Council hosted a meeting of the Committee on Agricultural and Food Policy and Environmental Management, dedicated to the issue of thawing permafrost and the problems it brings to the infrastructure of settlements and industrial facilities in the Arctic. The meeting was attended by senators of the Russian Federation, scientists and experts from the environmental foundation Arctic Resource Center.
The point was that the federal law On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation provides for the creation of the permafrost state monitoring on the basis of the state observation network of Roshydromet, but the created background monitoring is insufficient in modern conditions.
The need to urgently create the system was confirmed by scientists who attended the meeting. Participants in the expedition of the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences Clean Arctic – East – 77, which is now working in the permafrost zone, reported that they had collected a large amount of materials on the issue of climate change over the past 20 years in different regions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, and interviewed residents of nine regions of the North.
Among the important observations is the change in the fauna of Arctic territories. For example, the appearance of more southern species of spiders and birds in Evenkia and even in Taimyr.
The unevenness of their appearance at the same geographic latitude showed that the northern border of their ranges did not shift along the entire length, but formed several protrusions in the northern direction in the form of petals. The petal thawing hypothesis has also been confirmed, that is, more active degradation of permafrost is observed precisely in these petal zones ranging from 50 to 200 kilometers wide at the southern base.
“As the observations of our scientific groups show, the dynamics of permafrost are not the same if we consider them in terms of geographic latitude. That is, the North is warming unevenly and in patches”, said Oksana Tolstyh, scientific secretary of the expedition. “The first conclusion from these observations is that permafrost can change at different rates at the same latitude. And buildings standing on permafrost just 100 kilometers from each other can experience completely different loads”.
According to the expedition members’ observations, the animals move north along the rather narrow petal corridors that have formed. And this movement is not caused by natural barriers – bodies of water or mountain ranges.
“The behavior of a species such as the heron in the Krasnoyarsk region and Yakutia confirms the petal thawing hypothesis. The heron has penetrated far to the north, but its range looks like two narrow stripes”, said Oksana Tolstyh. “It may be possible to identify clear boundaries of these petals tapering to the north, and therefore the boundaries of areas with a higher risk of destruction of structures standing on permafrost”.
Researchers believe that the main area of permafrost soils has significantly lower thawing dynamics than is officially believed. They admit that there are climatically and landscape-conditioned narrow corridors above which the air warms up more strongly. This effect, already nicknamed petal thawing, requires careful study.
“It is necessary to create a geotechnical monitoring system within the entire Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, including island territories”, believes the scientific director of the expedition, Boris Kochurov. “Monitoring will give a more accurate idea of the steps required to preserve structures, housing stock and even linear objects in the permafrost zone”.
Permafrost is one of the main natural factors encountered during the development of territories where it is distributed, affecting the creation and trouble-free operation of economic infrastructure.
“The main degradation of permafrost occurs in those places where buildings, structures, and linear objects are located. It is imperative to take into account the state of permafrost when operating various objects”, says Russian ecologist, head of the Arctic Resource Center Foundation Oleg Volkov.
The meeting participants supported the initiative that, along with background monitoring, geotechnical monitoring of engineering facilities and built-up areas is also necessary for the operational reliability and industrial safety of engineering facilities, environmental protection and minimization of environmental damage from economic activities.
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Text: Polina Lyubimaya, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
