ARKHANGELSK, July 17. /TASS/. During the Arctic Floating University expedition, its members underwent a health assessment. Its results showed that women and men adapted differently to the Arctic voyage conditions - higher situational anxiety did not prevent women from getting adapted better to those conditions, a TASS correspondent reported from aboard the Professor Molchanov research vessel.

The scientists examined the expedition participants for changes in biologically active substances (catecholamines, hormones, vitamins) and analyzed their psycho-emotional conditions. They studied 40 people, including 24 women and 16 men aged 19 to 56. Specialists have studied their heart rate variability, blood, urine and saliva tests.

"We have not seen significant changes in the adaptive potential over the voyage dynamics separately in men and in women. However, in women, in the middle of the voyage, there was a decrease in the share of those with strained adaptation mechanisms, due to which we have seen significant differences in adaptive potential by gender. At the end of the voyage, the proportion of men with unsatisfactory adaptation increases," Alexandra Elfimova, an expert of the Arctic Studies Research Center, told TASS.

Noteworthy, the level of situational or reactive anxiety in women was significantly higher than in men at each stage of the voyage. Upon the return, scientists will determine catecholamines and hormones in biological fluids. "The data on hormonal indicators dynamics will be compared with indicators of heart rate variability, anxiety level and adaptive potential - to eye comprehensively stages of adaptation to the Arctic expedition's conditions," she said.

The expedition returns

The Arctic Floating University expedition has returned from the Arctic islands to Arkhangelsk. The expedition has passed the White, Barents and Pechora Seas, visited the archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, as well as the Kolguev Island. Due to difficult ice conditions, the expedition leaders had to change quite promptly the route, the expedition leader Alexander Saburov said.

"The ice situation was absolutely abnormal over, probably, all the years of the Arctic Floating University since 2012, when Cape Nadezhda was still in ice until now. It is still impossible to go ashore by boat there. But anyway, together with the crew, the captain, and our team, we were able to get adjusted to the rapidly changing ice weather conditions. Thus, we have managed to go ashore five times, including twice on Franz Josef Land, which, again, has not happened during floating university expeditions since 2017," he told TASS.

It was for the first time since 2014, that the expedition could make three oceanology sections where jointly worked experts in ocean studies, hydro-chemistry, radiology and marine biology, and microplastics specialists sampled water at different horizons.

The Arctic Floating University is not only about research. It is an educational project with daily lectures and practical exercises. "The most important thing is the practical work for students, many of whom have never had such a comprehensive experience of field work in limited time. What matters is that we have learned to work in a rapidly changing environment, to get adjusted to it, to mind each other's interests," the expedition leader said.

The research will continue at scientific laboratories. First results are expected in the fall. The materials will be presented at the final conference, due in November.

About the Arctic Floating University

The project's partners and sponsors are the Arkhangelsk Region's government, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Russian Geographical Society, VTB Bank, Norilsk Nickel, Roshydromet (the hydrometeorology service), the Russian Arctic National Park, the Floating University Coordination Center at MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; also known as PhysTech), the Nauka (Science) year-round youth educational center.

The Arctic Floating University's expeditions continue under the Science and Universities national project, implemented by Russia's Ministry of Science and Higher Education.