TOMSK, April, 5. /TASS/. Scientists of the Tomsk State University will study changes in soil, water and vegetation, caused by global warming in the Russian Arctic. The results and recommendations will be aimed at solving a number of key tasks, including the restoration of pastures, the revegetation of anthropogenic disturbance in lands and reservoirs, and the growth of agricultural productivity in the North, the university's press service told TASS.

"With the purpose to find out the patterns of processes in northern ecosystems due to warming, the scientists will conduct new field studies on model watersheds in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region," the press service said. "They will find changes in soil parameters, and the consequences. Special attention will be paid to perennially frozen grounds that occupy a significant territory of Western Siberia and the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone."

The scientists will use the studies' results to develop ways to adapt to changing conditions, to develop economic activities, traditional in the northern regions. The data may be used to restore deer pastures, as the depleted pastures have been a serious problem for the local indigenous peoples. Additionally, the scientists will offer recommendations to improve soil quality to build up productivity and have vegetables and herbs more accessible to local residents. Offered approaches will also contribute to the landscaping of northern settlements, which is important in creating a comfortable environment.

"By now, there have been noticeable changes in the ecosystems of the cryolithozone, including in Western Siberia, and further changes and their accumulation are probable," the press service quoted the project's leader, head of the univeristy's BioGeoClim Laboratory Sergey Loiko as saying. "In this regard, we need to assess the changes that have occurred, and to predict conditions of certain landscape components, as well as to identify cascading effects when the accumulated changes in the upper sectors will cause ecosystems transformations in the lower sectors."

The project's one of the tasks, he continued, is to monitor the cycle of carbon - an element that is the main component of greenhouse gases and that largely determines the climate features on our planet. "In the North and in the Subarctic, this cycle has been changing seriously, including the permafrost melting, where carbon preserved in it is released, and then it emits into the atmosphere. Under our project, we will study further these processes to give more accurate forecasts of possible environmental changes," the scientist said.

These tasks comply with the "Strategy for the Development of the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone and national security for the period up to 2035", approved by the president. Russia's Ministry of Science and Education supports this new large interdisciplinary project.