27.11.2007

In mid November, researchers of REC “Baikal” Maxim Timofeev, Head of Laboratory of Problems of Biosystem Adaptation, Research Biology Institute at Irkutsk State University (RBI ISU), and Darya Bedulina, a post-graduate student, participated in a one-day expedition to the Central Baltic Sea. The expedition took place on board the research oceanic vessel “ALKOR” of Leibniz Institute of Marine Science and the Research Center for Marine Geosciences, Kiel, Germany (IFM-GEOMAR).

IFM-GEOMAR is one of the largest European centers conducting comprehensive research in oceans and seas, the Arctic and Antarctic. The Center studies different aspects of hydrology and hydrophysics, meteorology, ecology and biology of the World Ocean. The participants of the expedition learned recent methods of sampling benthic organisms, got some ideas of ecological peculiarities of the Baltic Sea, as well as studied the programme of long-term monitoring of the Baltic Sea. Collection of scientific data during this expedition was a part of HELCOM Monitoring Programme within Helsinki Convention on Protection and Preservation of Marine Ecosystems of the Baltic Sea. The Progamme is fulfilled by the consortium of scientific centers of the Baltic region. Since the 1970s, hydrochemical, hydrological and biological characteristics of the Baltic Sea (benthic and plankton samplings) have been studied every month within the framework of monitoring programme. Researchers of RBI ISU are interested in this programme because they also carry out monitoring on the state of phytoplankton communities from Lake Baikal. During the expedition German colleagues expressed their opinion on cooperation between IFM-GEOMAR and Irkutsk State University. Prospects and mechanisms of possible cooperation were discussed.

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