MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Russian scientists may lose its leading positions in the Arctic region because of ineffective interdepartmental coordination and insufficient funding, researchers at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) state in a report. The copy of the report was obtained by TASS.
"The lack of interdepartmental effective coordination of research in the Russian part of the Arctic and the dominance of foreign funding over Russian funding may lead to the loss of the leading role of Russian scientists, despite the achievements and recent successes in this area," the document says.
In this regard, the authors of the report propose establishing the National Center for the Study of Climatic and Environmental Consequences of Permafrost Degradation, as part of the implementation of the state scientific and technical policy in the field of environmental development of the Russian Federation and climate change.
It is expected that within the framework of this center, scientists will be able to quantify the shelf of the Eastern Arctic Seas and the Kara Sea as a source of methane in the present and near future.
One of the expected results is a revision of the current atmospheric methane balance, which does not take into account the contribution of the Eastern Arctic Seas. Those emissions of methane are at least commensurate with anthropogenic methane emissions from the United States, the document notes.
Also, the Center can become a world-class platform for the development of a circumpolar Arctic database on the geochemical, molecular, and isotopic composition of bottom sediments of the Arctic shelf seas. This can only be implemented through a significant improvement in the coordination of research by all interested parties, the document emphasizes.