The final meeting of the Arctic EcoSens project took place via Zoom on April 20-21. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet in Petrozavodsk as planned, but the 18 presentations highlighted the diverse and interesting work conducted over the last 3.5 years. The project investigated sensitivity of Arctic coastal ecosystems to petroleum pollution, and involved field work, experimental studies, molecular and geochemical analyses, community analysis, and sensitivity modelling.
New research results in fields such as taxonomy, microbiomes, transcriptomics, host-parasite ecology, petroleum impacts on capelin early life-stages, coastal plant and fjord benthos communities, hydrocarbon geochemistry, and coastal sensitivity and risk analysis, and input to management bodies were presented. Many biotic parameters were assessed in reference to petroleum-based stressors. Key findings include improved taxonomic studies of Spionid polychaetes, contrasting impacts of oil on capelin and polar cod, the
Apr 1, 2021
The meeting was attended by members of the working team – A.I. Popov, (OOO NTP “Rubus”), S.А. Uvarov (WWF Barents Sea Branch), L.A. Sergienko (Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Petrozavodsk State University), T.Yu. Minaeva, (Candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher at the Center for the Preservation and Restoration of Bog Ecosystems of the Branch of ILAN RAS), specialists from Norway – Paul E. Renaud, Alexei Bambulyak, Benjamin Merkel, (Akvaplan-niva AS), Finland – Outi Maria Laatikainen (Kajaani University of Applied Sciences), Yulia Korshunova – head of the Russian office of Kolarctic (Murmansk).
The online meeting touched upon the main issues to be solved in 1 year of the mini-project – environmental problems and barriers to the conservation and sustainable use of coastal ecosystems in the Barents Region, analysis of gaps in available information for creating a monitoring system for coastal wetlands, testing of methodological a