MURMANSK, May 30. /TASS/. The Arctic’s seas are the cleanest seas on the planet, Deputy Director of the Murmansk Marine Biology Institute Dmitry Ishkulov told TASS, commenting on results of scientific studies, which the institute organized in 2017.
"Despite the active development and exploitation of the North, the seas here remain among the planet’s cleanest seas," he said.
In 2017, the Institute’s scientists organized several big expeditions to the Arctic. For the first time over many years, or even decades, those were fundamental studies - not applied tasks.
The institute’s experts worked in the Barents, Norwegian and Greenland Seas. The 30-day voyage on board the Dalniye Zelentsy research vessel to Spitsbergen finished the season: during that voyage, scientists worked in the archipelago’s territory waters.
Some of the tests, taken during the expedition, required long laboratory and analytical work. This is what the scientists were doing for a few months. They studied samples of water, sediments, plants, animals, and used results to speak about the ecology there.
Ecology buffer
The researchers checked the samples to see traces of most pollutants - from radiation to plastics. Very detailed information was received about the Barents Sea. "The Barents Sea is still quite clean, though there are many industrial or military facilities on its shores, and despite development of the oil and gas sector," the Institute’s representative said. "We saw similar situations in the other seas."
The scientists have not found plastic micro particles, though ecologists have been warning about them.
Murmansk biologists say it is a great advantage the Arctic seas are open seas. "Another reason is the mighty buffer processes in the Arctic seas, their ability for keeping the balance, for self-regulation," the scientist said.
The big streams, coming to the Arctic from the Atlantics, do not bring pollutants there, either.
Warmth for the North
Scientists are paying close attention to Gulfstream, as it influences climate in the Arctic’s western parts. Some ecologists say the global warming may change the stream’s movement, thus causing irreversible consequences for the Arctic region.
However, the Institute’s specialists compared results of their tests with data collected over many years and came to the conclusion the stream is stable. "Its changes are only seasonal," the scientist said.
Marine biologists also cannot see reasons to speak about irreversible warming on the planet. "Our opinion is this process is cyclic," he continued. "Temperatures have been growing recently, the ice is retreating, but in future will come the opposite process - cycles of the kind are well known in the past."
How animals behave
During the expeditions, the scientists studied how animals in the Arctic behave. For example, it was a surprise that the scientists realized that birds may fly not only from north to south, but also across meridians, - making flights of thousand kilometers.
This discovery was made as the scientists had installed marks on gulls. Formerly, biologists were sure about two separate populations of those birds in the western Arctic and in the Far East, but the scientists saw that the two groups’ representatives "travel to see each other." As yet, however, they cannot explain what makes the birds make those long trips.
Another important result was the information about the bowhead whale’s growing population. Meeting those animals tends to be more frequent, scientists say, explaining it by both the warming and by the outlawed whaling.
Arctic expeditions have seen in the area animals, which usually live in southward places. The Institute’s scientists have seen needlefish, which formerly preferred staying away from those northern regions.