ARKHANGELSK, July 4. /TASS/. The second in the current year expedition of the Arctic Floating University departed from Arkhangelsk onboard the Mikhail Somov scientific/research vessel. The expedition team's leader Ludmila Drachkova told TASS the scientists would work during the voyage that the hydrometeorology service organizes to bring cargo to its polar stations. This would be a new route for Arctic floating universities, she added.

"We are working parallel to the mission to deliver necessary cargos to meteorology stations," she said. "The interests of our scientists coincide with the polar stations' locations, with their work, the anthropogenic impact on those territories, thus we have a mutually advantageous cooperation. For the Mikhail Somov this is a traditional route, but for the Arctic Floating University it is quite new. We are heading eastbound."

The Mikhail Somov will make the first stop at the northern tip of the Vaygach Island on Cape Bolvansky Nose, where the Fedorov weather station is located. A residential module burned down there, on January 1, 2023. The meteorology authority's press service told TASS the vessel would deliver to the Vaygach six volunteers. Under an ecological expedition by the MIREA Russian Technological University and the Arkhangelsk Region Governor's Center with the support from the Clean North - Clean Country movement, they will clean the territory and will assist in landscaping for the construction of a new multifunctional polar station. They will also sample water and soil for microplastics tests.

The first field work is planned at the Cape White Nose weather station. Further on, the ship will follow the route: the Marresal Station - the Sopochnaya Karga Station - the Dixon Island - Cape Sterligova - the Izvestia TsIK Islands - the Uyedineniya Island - Franz Josef Land - the Malye Karmakuly (Novaya Zemlya) - Arkhangelsk. The expedition team features 17 representatives of 10 scientific and educational organizations in Arkhangelsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Syktyvkar and Perm.

White Spots in Arctic

During the route, specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution will be observing birds and marine mammals. Experts of the Karpinsky Geological Research Institute are interested in quaternary glaciation; and geomorphologists from the Moscow State University want to see how it is expressed in the current relief. The specialists will update geological and landscape maps. "They will study quaternary deposits, fragments of glaciation, if they are available, and will update geological maps of that region, which is associated with the last glaciation," the team leader told TASS. "Work on the mainland is necessary to verify maps that were compiled back in the Soviet Union. Stops on islands are very interesting, since there are no maps whatsoever, and specialists will start work on island territories from scratch."

Scientists have planned three locations for studies on Franz Josef Land: the Komsomolskiye Islands, the Wilczek Island and the archipelago's easternmost island - the Graham Bell. The locations' choice was based on reports from expeditions to Franz Josef Land of the 1970s.

Experts of the Pitirim Sorokin Syktyvkar State University will study how plant complexes get adapted to environmental conditions. A researcher of the Mechnikov Northwestern State Medical University will assess the Arctic's biodiversity and pathogenic potential. Alien microorganisms are able to remain in polar ecosystems for dozens of thousands of years.

The expedition will sample mosses and lichens to study accumulated heavy metals in the Arctic. A researcher from the Dokuchaev Soil Institute will study for the first time chemical and optical properties of soils on the Northern archipelagos and will compare them with properties of the dissolved organic matter in the Kara and Barents Seas. Thus, scientists will estimate the share of the Ob and the Yenisei runoffs, and consequently will make more accurate maps of the Arctic Ocean currents.

Other expeditions

The Mikhail Somov will deliver almost 800 tons of cargo to 21 polar stations on islands and waters of the White, Barents and Kara Seas. A shift of polar explorers - 13 people - are onboard the vessel. During the voyage, specialists will restore the operation of automatic meteorological stations on the Vilkitsky Island and the Uyedineniya Island. The equipment will be fenced against polar bears.

Another expedition - artistic - is also onboard the scientific/research vessel: writers, artists and reporters will organize laying of wreaths in the Barents and Kara Seas in the locations, where the Soviet transport and battle vessels sank during World War II. They will also collect and bring to museums wreckage of the Northern Fleet's two seaplanes, that the Nazi U-601submarine destroyed in the bay at the Malye Karmakuly in July 1942.

The Mikhail Somov is due to return to Arkhangelsk around August 8.

About Floating University

The Arctic Floating University is a joint project of the Northern Arctic Federal University (NAFU) and the Northern Branch for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring. The expeditions continue since 2012. The Floating University's first expedition in 2023 - onboard the Professor Molchanov scientific/research vessel - departed from Arkhangelsk on June 23. Currently, it is in the Barents Sea near the Severny Island, the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago.

The project's partners and sponsors are the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, VTB, Novatek, Norilsk Nickel, the Arkhangelsk Region's government, and the Russian Geographical Society.