MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The Ecology scientific and research center is established by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch, the Siberian Branch’s Chairman Valentin Parmon said during a presentation of the Great Norilsk Expedition’s results on Thursday.
“As you know, the government prioritizes the issue of ecology,” he said. “Since this is a multi-disciplinary problem, the Russian Academy of Sciences is the only integrator of all structures, which may be involved in work on drafting proposals regarding the ecology.”
The center will be managed by Nikolai Yurkevich of the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum-Gas Geology and Geophysics. It will not receive budget financing, and the Norilsk Nickel company will be the first client. In the future, other businesses, working in the Arctic, will follow suit.
“The ecology expedition and the Ecology center are the Academy’s forerunners,” Parmon said. “We hope other expeditions and consolidated structures will follow suit.”
Expedition to Taimyr
The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences has sent to the Taimyr Peninsula, at the invitation of Nornickel, a big scientific expedition to conduct a large-scale examination of the area. Scientists will use the expedition’s results to present suggestions for industrial companies, working in the Arctic, on how to preserve the nature.
The expedition’s key points were watersheds of the Rivers Pyasina, Norilka and Ambarnaya and Lake Pyasino. In August, experts from 14 research institutes of the Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch collected samples of soils, plants and sediments and began tests at the institutes’ labs.