News
November 21, 2024
A delegation representing several institutes of the Karelian Research Center RAS headed by Director General Olga Bakhmet is on a visit to China. Scientists together with their Chinese colleagues discussed possible cooperation with representatives of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology and the Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Karelian Research Center RAS continues to develop international cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In November 2023, a delegation of Chinese scientists from the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology CAS visited KarRC RAS. This week Karelian researchers traveled to Nanjing and visited two institutes: Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology and the Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The delegation included staff of the Northern Water Problems Institute (NWPI), Institute of Biology (IB) and Department for Multidisciplinary Research (DMR) of KarRC RAS.

The first institute visited by Karelian scientists was the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, where KarRC RAS staff presented their work. Olga Bakhmet, RAS Corresponding Academician, Director General, told about the activities of KarRC RAS, the activities of NWPI were presented by Yulia Lukina, Director of the Institute, and Nikolai Filatov, RAS Corresponding Academician, Principal Researcher, also gave a presentation. Together with Chinese colleagues, they discussed how to cooperate on a number of topics in the study of lakes, the White Sea, and watercourses. The agenda included a seminar “Impacts of anthropogenic activity and climate change on lake ecosystems in China and Russia”, where scientists from the two countries presented the results of their studies. In particular, Stanislav Kutenkov, Head of the Laboratory of Mire Ecosystems IB KarRC RAS, told about the estimation of carbon pools in peatlands. Alexey Tolstikov, Head of the NWPI KarRC RAS Laboratory of Geography and Hydrology, presented a forecast of warming in the western Arctic.

In addition, Karelian scientists got acquainted with Chinese experience in studying soils at the Institute of Soil Science CAS. Dmitry Ekimov, Senior Researcher at DMR KarRC RAS, presented the work on measuring soil carbon fluxes in different ecosystems. Head of Plant Biotechnology Laboratory of DMR KarRC RAS Maria Yurkevich talked about studying the soils of agricultural landscapes. Representatives of CAS introduced the visitors to soil research in the country, showed their laboratories and gave a tour of the unique facility for storing soil samples collected during the China National Soil Survey.


Depository of soil samples in the Institute of Soil Science CAS

– Karelian Research Center is expanding its cooperation with colleagues in the BRICS. Here, we are presenting to Chinese scientists a number of areas developed at KarRC RAS: the study of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, including expertise in the study of greenhouse gases and climate warming in our region. We look forward to fruitful cooperation with Chinese researchers, - shared Olga Bakhmet, KarRC RAS Director General.

The second part of the visit is currently taking place in Beijing, where KarRC RAS staff are being introduced to the activities of Chinese scientists in the field of ecology.

See also:

April 28, 2025
Karelian biologists ran successful trials of a technique for detecting fish infection with helminths based on traces of their DNA in water

Specialists of the Institute of Biology KarRC RAS were the first in the republic to test the method of environmental DNA analysis (eDNA) to detect a model fish parasite in an area impacted by trout farms. This is especially important in the context of a growing number of fish farms that use the practice of transporting stock (fry) from between water bodies, which creates a risk of new parasites appearing in lakes. Currently, fish have to be captured and examined to detect an infection, and for the output to be accurate the sample should be at least 15 fish. This may be problematic in the wild and costly in cage facilities. The eDNA diagnosis system can detect the presence of parasites directly in water samples.