The researchers noted that although all Russian stations were included, the stations were generally located in “slightly warmer and wetter parts of the Arctic” and generally had deeper snow cover, thus completely covering the Arctic. He emphasized that the network’s data contains certain biases, as it is located in an unrepresented region. Ecosystems across the Arctic.
However, the loss of the Russian station further impairs the representativeness of almost all ecological variables. This is especially true for Russia’s vast taiga forests across Siberia, which are currently completely excluded from the dataset.
dangerous blind spot
Researchers warn that this blind spot will seriously impede tracking the global impact of permafrost thaw across vast swaths of Russia’s Arctic.
Permafrost is called “A time bomb is ticking beneath our feet.That’s because they store vast amounts of CO₂ and methane, two powerful greenhouse gases. When the soil warms, Negative impact on Arctic infrastructure.
The findings suggest that the variability and bias introduced by excluding Russian stations is “on the same order of magnitude as the changes caused by projected climate change over almost 80 years.” There is. Therefore, it will be difficult to understand what changes have occurred as a result of climate change and what changes may have been caused by a lack of data.
The study concludes that “the geopolitical implications of Russia’s attack on Ukraine are reducing our ability to track and even predict the development of Arctic biomes following ecosystem changes due to climate change.”
This lack of understanding will reduce the ability to design efforts to mitigate some of the negative impacts of climate change and reduce the effectiveness of existing programs.
The researchers are calling on the international community to “work to establish and improve research infrastructure and standardized monitoring programs representative of the entire Arctic.”
They conclude that “until it is implemented, the loss of Russia’s bases, which cover half of the Arctic’s landmass, will further reduce its ability to support and advise local and global communities.” .
