MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. The Floating University expedition of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oceanology (IO) on board the Professor Molchanov research vessel will depart from Arkhangelsk to Yakutia's village of Tiksi on Saturday, July 20, the Institute of Oceanology's press service said.
"On July 20, the Floating University expedition of MIPT-IO on board the Professor Molchanov research vessel will leave for the Arctic. The voyage will begin from Arkhangelsk and will end when the expedition goes ashore in Tiksi. During 41 days, six scientific teams will conduct studies of the Russian Arctic seas' water masses on the shelf and on the continental slope. The expedition features 20 scientists from MIPT, IO, the Russian Academy of Sciences' Marine Hydrophysical Institute, the Moscow State University's Marine Research Center, the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geosphere Dynamics, the Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Meteorology," the press service reported.
The scientists will study how Atlantic waters distribute in the St. Anna and the Voronin Troughs and further on along the Kara Sea's and the Laptev Sea's continental slopes. The scientists will survey processes on the shelf, continental slope and in the marginal ice zone, geochemistry and radiochemistry of bottom sediments, antibiotic properties of the Arctic marine microbiota, microbial food chains of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. The researchers will search for new species of bacteria, new genes of bivalves, marine fungi.
"Every year, these expeditions provide an opportunity not only to confirm earlier scientific hypotheses, but also to open new directions for research. This year, the expedition's geography will expand eastbound significantly. We plan to work on the continental slope in the Kara Sea and in the Laptev Sea. This way we will be able to take measurements in a region where climate change is particularly pronounced, and were expeditions are very rare due to the ice cover that remains there almost year-round. We truly hope this year the ice will retreat to let us work productively," the press service quoted as saying the expedition's scientific leader Alexander Osadchiev, head of MIPT's Laboratory of Arctic Oceanology, and a leading researcher at IO.
The scientists will attract 26 students, participants in the Russian Floating University program. They have joined the expedition after classes at the Winter School of the Floating University in 2024, where they learned various aspects of ocean sciences, and then used the program to find scientific supervisors, with whom they are going on this expedition. The students and postgraduates study natural sciences at universities in Russia's regions.
The MIPT-IO Floating University expedition among five expeditions under the Floating University program, due in 2024. More than a hundred students, selected across Russia, will join the research this year. Since 2021, the Arctic Floating University's expeditions continue under the Science and Universities national project, implemented by Russia's Ministry of Science and Higher Education.