YEKATERINBURG, June 22. /TASS/. More than 70 scientists from Russia, Turkey, France, the Netherlands, Estonia and Belarus will participate in the international conference Carbon Balance of West Siberian Peats in Changing Climate, which began in Khanty-Mansiisk on Thursday and will continue working to June 22, press service of the region’s PR service said.
"Khanty-Manskisk welcomes 75 scientists and researchers from Russia, Turkey, France, the Netherlands, Estonia and Belarus; eleven of them are foreigners," the press service said. "The conference’s practical aspect will be presented during the V international field symposium West Siberian Peats and Carbon Cycle, the Past and Present."
Envoy of the Russian president on natural preservation, ecology and transport Sergei Ivanov said this cooperation among scientists favors solutions to most complicated problems related to impact from peat ecology systems on the climate changes. Over the recent decades, the planet’s average temperature growth is 0.17 degrees Celsius, in Russia - 0.45, and in the polar regions - 0.8 degrees, he added.
"These changes cause big concerns, as they influence not only extreme conditions of work, but also cause emergency situations," he said.
First initiatives
Yugra’s Governor Natalya Komarova said during the plenary session that the conference features representatives of the countries ready for international cooperation, joint research, who will explain the current dynamics and reasons of the climate change, as well as ways to minimize negative consequences. The region suggests two initiatives. "First - we invite to participation in the project on monitoring of the many-years’ frozen soils at the borders of their areas," she said.
In August, Yugra will install ten autonomous systems to take temperatures from the depth of up to ten meters. The equipment will be installed at various types of ecosystems in the Numto nature park. The equipment was made by Tomsk scientists, and the research will be supported by experts from France.
The other initiative, the governor continued, is related to a wider area of research - from ground fields to methods of remote probes. These methods would base on the existing experience of field research to trace even minor changes in ecosystems, to find reasons and see possible consequences from those changes, and to organize scientific consortiums for works of the kind, the governor said.
"The more participants are in that partnership, the more precise would be the result," she said. "We are ready to invite this project to use the base of our Center for remote probes of the Earth, and we hope this conference will help us in structuring further ways of this cooperation."