Joint Russian-German Research on Terrestrial and Subsea Permafrost in Siberia - Results, Potentials and Perspectives

摘要

In the exploration of the Russian Arctic German-spelling names of scientists occurred since the 18th century. Geographers and geologists like Alexander von Middendorff, Ernst von Bor, Alexander Bunge, Eduard von Toll studied the frozen ground in Siberia and established by doing so permafrost research. Today joint Russian-German research continues in Siberia, mainly hosted by the Mel'nikov Permafrost Institute (Yakutsk), the faculties of Geology, of Geography and of Soil Science of the Moscow State University (Moscow), the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (St. Petersburg), the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science (Pushchino), and the Alfred Wegener Institute (Potsdam), the Institute of Soil Science (Hamburg University). The major scientific topics of this long-term research are permafrost archives, paleoclimate and landscape dynamics; coastal dynamics and subsea permafrost; permafrost degradation and modern changes of permafrost landscapes. More than 30 joint expeditions since 1993 took Russian and German scientists to Central and East Siberia (Figure 1).