YAKUTSK, August 24. /TASS/. The organization of joint Russian-Chinese permafrost polygons will expand scientific knowledge to get adapted to the cryolithozone melting, Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Director of the Melnikov Permafrost Institute (the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch) Mikhail Zheleznyak told TASS.
"In China, perennially frozen ground is in three regions - in the northeast, northwest and in the Tibetan Plateau," he said. "In my opinion, there we need to create comprehensive joint polygons. Together with the Chinese counterparts we have every opportunity to create world-class centers."
Russia and China continue joint research since the 1970s, he said. "Soviet permafrost experts have participated in many joint experiments, on many occasions they have "pulled up" the Chinese counterparts, built up the level of studies in geocryology. When I was in China in 2018, I was surprised to see how much the Chinese counterparts are, so to say, good students. Presently, they conduct world-class research."
China has a hardware base for high-class permafrost engineering, he continued. "When we visited the polygon in Tibet, [we saw] that 70% of ideas on methods to ensure engineering systems stability had been developed and offered in Russia back in the 1970s and the 1980s. I envy the equipment base that scientific laboratories in China have. We have been unable to make industrial experiments, but China has, and continues research, <...> they have been investing enormous money in equipment."
Joint research
In 2018, the Melnikov Permafrost Institute and China's Main State Laboratory of Engineering Geocryology opened an international research center. The Chinese laboratory is that country's leading institution in permafrost research and it is a part of the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Natural Resources (NIEER, China's Academy of Sciences).
"Over these years, despite the coronavirus, we have implemented eight joint projects. Investments in all projects from the Chinese side have made almost 100 million rubles ($1 million). Our institute's 26 experts have worked in Tibet in joint expeditions, and 28 Chinese experts have joined our expeditions to Anabar [Yakutia], to Southern Yakutia, to the Transbaikal Region," he said.
The joint expedition to Anabar alone featured 10 professors from China. "We have begun to create a regional permafrost monitoring system. We must support these ties and the desire of the Chinese experts to work on the northern regions studies," the scientist added.
According to the expert, Russia and China could explore jointly approaches to safety of hydraulic structures, roads and railways. "We know what high-speed routes China has been building. <...> We could make such roads together with China," he said.
Interim results
In July, the Russian expert at the invitation of China's Academy of Sciences visited Lanzhou and Harbin to discuss completed and ongoing joint projects and plans for joint research in 2024-2026. "The International Center for Natural and Technical Systems of Cold Regions of Asia, established in 2018 by the [Melnikov] Permafrost Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch and by the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Natural Resources of China's Academy of Sciences, has been ranked by Chinese journalists as Asia's most promising initiative center for Earth sciences," he told TASS.
In Lanzhou, scientists discussed results of joint research. "We have drafted three contracts for 2024-2025, inked the extension of the agreement between the [Melnikov] Permafrost Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch and the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Natural Resources of China's Academy of Sciences, and have discussed the invitation to the Chinese counterparts to participation in the North - Sustainable Development Territory scientific and educational center," he added.
In China, Yakut scientists delivered lectures on the current conditions and reaction of the natural environment and cryolithozone in Asia to climate change. During the trip, the parties signed three memorandums on cooperation.
Damage from permafrost melting
Earlier, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic assessed the damage from the permafrost melting in the Russian Federation's Arctic zone to 7 trillion rubles ($74 billion) by 2050. The permafrost degradation is the cause of 29% of losses in oil and gas production; it affects highways, and most of gas horizons are located in Russia's cryolithozone, the ministry said.
Earlier, China confirmed its interest in joint studies of ice melting, since these processes in the Arctic Ocean or in the Antarctica and the ice melting in the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush Mountains have common features, consequences and problems. The melting of glaciers - the Hindu Kush mountain system in the Himalayas only - poses a threat to areas where about 2 billion people live in nearby Asian countries. It may provoke a reduction in the permafrost zone, causing landslides and floods, and in the future it may lead to a shortage of fresh water supplies.