On June 17, 2020, while diving in the Black Sea, Alice Kosyan, a researcher at the Laboratory of Morphology and Ecology of Invertebrates, passed away. Alice was born and spent her childhood in Gelendzhik, graduated from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. While studying, Alice began to research marine predatory gastropods. She was not only a student gifted in science, but also distinguished by her breadth of education and musical abilities (she played in the student theater of Moscow State University). In 2003, she graduated with honors from the Faculty of Biology and entered the graduate school of our Institute, and after defense she was enrolled in the Laboratory of Morphology and Ecology of Marine Invertebrates. Alice mastered morphological, histological, hydrobiological research methods already in her student years. She worked intensively and enthusiastically. During her short scientific career, she had published more than 30 articles in scientific journals, including leading international ones, mainly on taxonomy, morphology and ecology of various groups of the Buccinidae family. Only this year two have been released. Alice worked on other projects, having a lot planned for the future. Alice was distinguished by rare benevolence and equilibrium. She was a beautiful and gentle mother and devoted a lot of time and effort to raising her daughter Sonya. Perhaps not everyone knew that Alice devoted a huge part of her money and mental strength to the benefit of children from dysfunctional families. She always helped people through action, kind words, and advice. She also helped homeless animals, took home and treated stray cats, and arranged for dogs to be taken in by good families. Alice took part in various laboratory expeditions. And at the same time, she retained her love for the Black Sea, participated in various scientific projects related to it, including a detailed study of the invasive mollusk rapana. Unfortunately, her life was cut short there. She will be sorely missed and always remembered.

The developments by IPEE RAS of artificial nests-incubators of salmon caviar were included in the list of Russian studies that are changing the world. The list of Russian scientists whose research is known all over the world and whose inventions have successfully integrated into the real sector of the economy, was prepared by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. Artificial incubator nests for salmon caviar In the laboratory of fish and aquatic invertebrate ecology of the Institute of Biology, FIC “Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences” together with the staff of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS is developing technical solutions for the reproduction of valuable salmon fish in the natural conditions of rivers, an alternative method for the factory reproduction of ichthyofauna. More than 10 types of artificial caviar incubator nests of various designs and capacities have been developed, adapted for the reproduction of both noble salmon of the Salmo genus (Atlantic salmon, brown trout), and for the entire group of Pacific salmon of the Oncorhynchus genus. The devices have been tested and are used on the rivers of the Republic of Karelia, the Murmansk and Sakhalin Regions, the Kamchatka Territory; the devices have been used in the Republic of Belarus. Currently, a new development is being introduced at the stage of “incubation complex of extra-plant breeding”, which allows intensively reproducing salmon species of fish in small spawning rivers where the construction of a hatchery is not practical. Unique equipment for the extraction of bitumen oil Borehole unbalanced vibration sources developed at the Institute of Mining of the SB RAS by the head of the scientific and engineering center of mining machines and geotechnologies Andrei Savchenko with colleagues Artyom Flantikov, Dmitry Evstigneev, Mikhail Tsupov are used to increase the production of viscous bitumen oil, and are delivered to the largest oil region of China - Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Seismic oscillation generators are located at the level of the oil reservoir, helping to accelerate the filtration processes in the reservoir and displacing oil with water. The developed vibration sources can be used for volumetric impact on productive formations in order to intensify oil production and increase the injectivity of injection wells. The vibration source can be operated in conjunction with screw and electric centrifugal pumps and used to clean the bottomhole formation zone, while not decommissioning the well. The uniqueness of the equipment lies in the ability to function in wells with a depth of more than 3000 m at a fluid pressure of up to 30 MPa, and a temperature in the well of up to 250 ° C. Animal Feed Antibiotic Substitutes The results of a comprehensive study of the supramolecular structure of yeast cell walls, carried out by a senior researcher at the Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry of the SB RAS Alexei Bychkov and colleagues, made it possible to fundamentally modify the technology for producing environmentally friendly and safe substitutes for animal feed antibiotics. At the moment only two manufacturers in the world (USA, UK) receive yeast mannanoligosaccharides - the active substance of antibiotic substitutes - using fire-hazardous solvents and energy-intensive liquid-phase stages in the process. The invention of Alexei Bychkov allowed the launch of domestic technology at Sibbiopharm LLC (Berdsk), devoid of the above disadvantages. Processing is carried out without solvents, in the solid phase. The product is cheaper and with a high content of active compounds. For three years now, poultry complexes in Siberia have been purchased by domestic MOSs, increasing the quality and safety of manufactured products. Ocean Characteristics Assessment Method The research of Igor Kozlov, a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Innovative Methods and Tools for Oceanological Research of the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is devoted to the creation of methods for analyzing measurements of synthetic-aperture satellite radars and has made a significant contribution to the development of ideas about dynamic processes in the upper layer of the Arctic Ocean and inland seas of Russia. He developed methods for assessing the characteristics of ocean internal waves, vortices, frontal zones, and ice cover parameters according to satellite SAR measurements. Based on them, for the first time in world practice, the “hot spots” of generation and characteristics of internal waves and vortices in the Arctic were determined. Reconstruction with bioceramic implants Denis Kulbakin, author of 6 patents of the Russian Federation on methods of organ-preserving treatment of cancer of the larynx and maxillofacial region, is a senior researcher, doctor of the highest category in the department of head and neck tumors of the Research Institute of Medical Genetics of Tomsk Scientific and Research Center. With the participation of the scientist, a technique was developed and introduced into clinical practice for the reconstruction of the maxillofacial region in cancer patients using individual bioceramic implants (the implants were created jointly with scientists from Tomsk State University). It was at the Oncology Research Institute of Tomsk Scientific Research Center in 2017 that the first operation on the reconstruction of the jaw using a bioceramic implant was performed in Russia. Currently, 14 such operations have been performed successfully. Each of them is unique, since an individual implant is made for each patient based on 3D modeling and 3D printing. Every year, this technique is being improved to help patients with extensive post-resection defects of the maxillofacial region. Such implants provide faster and more complete integration with surrounding tissues. Work is underway to create new composite implants that, when implanted, will to have an anti-inflammatory effect and stimulate tissue regeneration when saturated with appropriate medicine. How to determine the local atomic structure parameters Olga Bakieva, a senior researcher at the Udmurt Federal Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has developed a research method that has no analogues in the world and allows one to determine the parameters of the local atomic structure in ultrathin surface layers of 3d-metal systems using EELFS. Using the developed theoretical formalism, experimental data were obtained for the first time - partial interatomic distances, coordination numbers and thermal dispersion parameters of atoms of light elements (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen) in non-stoichiometric compounds, which is one of the fundamental characteristics of a substance. The significance of the results is due to the need to develop the scientific foundations for determining the chemical and structural-phase state of materials under special, nonequilibrium conditions, including after directed modification by energy flows. The uniqueness of the use of the method of analysis of the fine structure of the spectra of electron energy loss spectra (EELFS - Extended Energy Loss Fine Structure) lies in the possibility of obtaining quantitative data not only on the coordination of metal atoms, but also on the local environment of atoms of light elements. This allows obtaining critical information about the atomic structure of various meso- and metastructures, which is not available when using x-ray spectroscopy. Photopolymer compositions for 3D printing Russian scientists from the A.A. Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Material Science of Russian Academy of Sciences has developed a method for producing photopolymer compositions for 3D printing by digital stereolithography from highly sintered low-temperature ceramics based on partially stabilized ZrO2 and tricalcium phosphate, which is able to maintain structure during the removal of organic binder (debinding) by introducing special additives. The applied significance of the performed work lies in the possibility of obtaining new durable and crack-resistant materials of complex shape with a given internal architecture with high accuracy up to 10 - 35 microns. Alternative technologies for producing complex shapes with comparable accuracy and detailing of individual structural elements do not currently exist. The developed compositions and approaches can be used to create new ceramic materials for reconstructive surgery. Spin detector for SKIF The research team of Oleg Tereshchenko, Head of the Laboratory of Physics and Technology of Heterostructures of the Institute of Applied Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is working on the creation of the world's first semiconductor spin detector with spatial resolution. The device will be used at the station 1-6 “Electron Spectroscopy with Angular and Spin Resolution” of the first phase of the SKIF synchrotron, the creation of which is led by Oleg Tereshchenko, along with colleagues from other institutes of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok. In the course of work on the spin detector, Oleg Tereshchenko’s group, together with the Ekran FEP enterprise, managed to create an application device: a new type of vacuum photodiode for solar panels, promising for use in space.

Drobyshev Yuliy Ivanovich, Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Ecology of Arid Territories, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D., Candidate of Historical Sciences, conducted a lesson "Educational research: from design to implementation" for students who signed up for distance-intensive "Environmental activism or how I can help nature." Classes are held by the Federal Children's Ecological and Biological Center. During classes, the students learn how to: - conduct real research - shoot videos - create a guide or sightseeing route around their region - choose a profession related to their interests - present their work   More information here:  https://kamddt.ru/novosti/ekologicheskiy-aktivizm-ili-kak-mogu-pomoch-prirode_20200615/ 

Candidate of Biological Sciences, Researcher at the Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS Potapov Anton Mikhailovich received a medal and a prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences for a series of works “The structure of energy flows in detrital food networks”. You can familiarize yourself with the Order on awarding medals of the Russian Academy of Sciences with prizes for young scientists of Russia and for students of higher educational institutions of Russia following the results of the 2019 competition (submission of the RAS Commission for Work with Scientific Youth) by clicking the link.

The E.N. Pavlovsky prize of 2020 was awarded to Doctor of Biological Sciences Sergey Spiridonov from the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of RAS. The scientist was noted for a series of works "Systematics and phylogeny of nematodes parasitizing in invertebrates." The presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the Doctor of Biological Sciences Arkady Balushkin the gold medal of L.S. Berg in 2020. The employee of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences received the award for a series of works on the morphology, systematics, and historical biogeography of Antarctic fish. The Yu.A. Israel gold medal in 2020 will be received by the Doctor of physical and mathematical sciences Sergei Semenov (Institute of Global Climate and Ecology named after academician Yu.A. Israel) for the cycle of works "Greenhouse gases and climate change".

We are pleased to announce that a publication was released in Biology Letters with the participation of employees of the IPEE RAS on the seasonal movements of bowhead whales in the Spitsbergen population. This population, once the largest in the world, was virtually exterminated by whaling in the 17th-19th centuries. 20 years ago it was believed that the whales’ population dwindled to less than 100 individuals. In the last two decades, with the increase in the number of research flights in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, the researchers have acquired new data on these species of whales. Solely north of Svalbard in 2015, the estimated number of bowhead whales was 343 (CI 136–862). Sightings of this species are regularly recorded in the waters of Franz Josef Land, several individuals were recorded in the Kara Sea. In May-June 2017, an international team of scientists led by the Norwegian Polar Institute installed 16 satellite tags in the Fram Strait on the eastern shelf of Greenland. The data obtained made it possible to make clearer estimations of the range of the population, the nature of its seasonal movements and the peculiarities of using the water area in different seasons. Photos by Svetlana Artemieva, IPEE RAS  

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the report of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov on "The law of homologous series in variation”. This report was voiced by Nikolai Ivanovich at the Third All-Russian Selection Congress in Saratov on June 4, 1920. The law of homologous series in variation was printed as a separate pamphlet published on the occasion of the report(1). A detailed version of the concept of the law was published in 1922 in English in a leading international genetic journal.(2) This edition, translated back into Russian, became the basis for subsequent reprints of the work of N.I. Vavilov. References and texts of the first three publications are summarized in a separate volume of works of the anniversary five-volume edition issued by the publishing house Science for the 100th anniversary of N.I. Vavilov.(3) Our institute has historical connections with the period of active work and the legacy of academician N.I. Vavilov. Initially, we were housed in the same building as a group of academic institutes of biological and chemical profiles, including the Institute of Genetics, led by N.I. Vavilov before the ill-fated arrest in 1940, repression and the death of the scientist in the Saratov prison. A print with the inscription of Vavilov to the first director of our Institute, academician A.N. Severtsov is kept in the academic library in the building on 33 Leninsky Prospekt. The next director, academician I.I. Schmalhausen in 1940, published the work of the head of the animal evolution sector, Professor S.N. Bogolyubsky (4), which was directly related to the N.I. Vavilov Law of homological series and later reissued. The modern problems of the law of homological series were fleshed out in a part of the book of the molecular biologist B.M. Mednikov(5), published with the support of our Institute under the editorship and with the foreword of the director of A.N.Severtsov IPEE RAS Academician D.S. Pavlov. A centenary of N.I. Vavilov himself, celebrating the world under the auspices of UNESCO, finalizing the IEMEH directive, transforming it into the IPEE RAS, academician V.E. Sokolov expressed his admiration for the genius of Vavilov in the introduction to the anniversary issue of the journal "Nature" in 1987. Recognition in the history of science as much as science itself should not be forgotten. (6) The article in the journal “Nature” can be read here      1 Вавилов Н.И. Закон гомологических рядов в наследственной изменчивости. Доклад на III Всероссийском селекционном съезде в г. Саратове 4 июня 1920 г. Саратов, 1920, 16 с. 2 Vavilov N.I. The law of homologous series in variation. Journal of Genetics. 1922. V. 12(1): 47 – 89. 3 Вавилов Н.И. Закон гомологических рядов в наследственной изменчивости. — Л.: Наука, 1987. — 256 с. 4 Боголюбский С.Н. Происхождение и эволюция домашних животных. М.: Сельхозиздат, 1940. 168 с.— Боголюбский С.Н. Происхождение и преобразование домашних животных. М.: Сов. Наука, 1959. 593 с. 5 Медников Б.М. Избранные труды. Организм, геном, язык. М.: Т-во научных изданий КМК. 2005. 452 с. 6 Соколов В.Е. Великий современник. Природа. 1987. № 10. С. 4-5.

While the resources of the global scientific community are concentrated on the development of the vaccine and the methods of treatment of COVID-19, the specialists in the field of sensory physiology are leading massive research of the influence of the infection on the functionality of hemosensory systems, i.e. smell, taste and trigeminal sensitivity of the oral cavity. In response to the global pandemic of COVID-19 the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR) https://gcchemosensr.org/ has been created to unite the efforts of more than 600 researchers from 52 countries. The Russian scientists have not stayed aside. The researchers of the IPEE RAS have joined the work of the Global Consortium. Through the use of crowdsourcing, starting from 22th of April more than 30 thousand responses have been received from the global survey. The first results of research, based on the survey of 4039 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in more than 40 countries including Russia have been outlined in the following article on the site of merdrxiv: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.20090902v2 “A global pandemic demands a global response,” - says Vera Vosnesenskaya, the leading researcher of A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, member of GCCR, the coordinator of this research in Russia. “The results of research have shown that the infected with COVID-19 observe not only a loss of smell and taste, but a loss of trigeminal sensitivity, i.e. the ability sense the pepper burn, the soda tingling or the menthol freezeю It is significant that these patients did not suffer from runny nose or snuffle, which indicates damage in the neuronal substrate. Our research continues and in perspective, the loss of olfactory senses and trigeminal sensitivity can be used to discern between SARS and COVID-19, i.e. serve as an indicator of the coronavirus infection”. The research is in progress. If you have recently suffered any respiratory illness, including a common cold, flu, SARS or COVID-19, please join or research. The poll is available in 29 languages, including Russian. https://gcchemosensr.org/

Over the past 30 years, there has been a global decrease in the number of insects on land, but there is ongoing recovery in fresh waters. An analysis of long-term insect abundance studies shows that the number of terrestrial insects in the world is declining. On average, the global decline is 0.92% per year, which corresponds to approximately 24% over 30 years. At the same time, the number of insects living in fresh water increases annually by an average of 1.08%. Despite the average values, the trends on different continents vary greatly, and in areas where human exposure is minimized, trends are less pronounced. These are the results of the largest study to date on the change in the number of insects, including 1,676 research points around the world, published in the journal Science. The study was conducted by scientists from the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the University of Leipzig (UL), and the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (RAS), Moscow State University and several other organizations. It fills key gaps in knowledge in the context of the widely discussed issue of reducing insect numbers. Over the past few years, a series of studies have been published showing a sharp decrease in insect numbers over time. The most depressing data from nature reserves in Germany showed a significant decrease in the biomass of flying insects (a 75% decrease over 27 years). This study was published in 2017 and caused a media storm, suggesting the widespread “insect apocalypse.” Since then, there have been several publications from different places around the world, most of which show a strong decline, and some, on the contrary, an increase in the number of insects. But so far no one has summarized the available data on insect abundance trends across the globe to find out how widespread and serious the decrease in insect numbers is. An international team of scientists joined forces to collect data from 166 long-term studies conducted in 1676 locations around the world between 1925 and 2018 to study insect abundance trends (number of individuals, not species). A comprehensive analysis revealed significant differences in trends even among nearby research areas. For example, in countries where a lot of insect surveys were conducted, such as Germany, the UK and the USA, there was a decrease in some places, while in other fairly close areas there was no change or even increase. However, when trends around the world were combined, researchers were able to evaluate how the total number of insects varied on average over time. They found that for terrestrial insects (insects that spend their entire lives on land, such as butterflies, grasshoppers and ants) in general, the average decrease was 0.92% per year. The first author of the article, Dr. Rule van Klink, a scientist from iDiv and UL, said: “0.92% may not seem like such a big indicator, but in reality this means that the number of insects will decrease by 30% in 30 years and by 50% in 75 years. The destruction of insects occurs in a quiet way, and we do not take notice of the changes that occur within a year or two. " Insect eradication has been most severe in parts of the USA (West and Midwest) and in Europe, especially in Germany. In Europe as a whole, trends have on average become more negative since 2005. Reporting the “extinction of insects”, the media often refer to the “windshield phenomenon”: people say that now there are less insect traces on the windshields of their cars than several decades ago. A new study confirms this observation, at least on average. Study co-author K.B. Gongalsky, a scientist from IPEE RAS and Moscow State University, said: “Many insects can fly, and these are the ones that crash into the windshields of cars. Our analysis shows that the number of flying insects has, in actuality, decreased. However, most insects are less noticeable and live outside our field of vision - in the soil, in the crowns of trees or in the water. ” This study also analyzed data from many hidden habitats. On average, fewer insects live in grass and soil today than in the past, same as the flying insects. On the contrary, the number of insects living in the crowns of the trees, on average, remained unchanged. At the same time, studies of insects that spend part of their lives in water, such as midges or mayflies, showed an average annual increase of 1.08%. This corresponds to an increase of 38% over 30 years. The positive trend was especially strong in Northern Europe, in the western United States and since the beginning of the 1990s in Russia. The authors suggest that the changes observed in Russia are associated with a decrease in the scale of industrial production. R. van Klink says: “These numbers show that we can reverse negative trends. Over the past 50 years, a number of steps have been taken to clean our polluted rivers and lakes in many places around the world. Perhaps this allowed the restoration of many populations of freshwater insects. This gives us hope that we will be able to reverse the declining trend in their populations. ” Although scientists were unable to identify the causes of the observed trends, negative or positive, they were able to provide several possible explanations. Most importantly, the destruction of the natural habitats, especially as a result of urbanization, is associated with a reduction in the number of terrestrial insects. van Klink R., Bowler D.E., Gongalsky K.B., Swengel A.B., Gentile A., Chase J.M. Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances // Science. 2020. Vol. 368, Issue 6489, pp. 417-420. DOI: 10.1126/science.aax9931  

Our Observation of the Week is this possibly undescribed Gasteracantha spider, seen in Vietnam by @ivanovdg19! Another Observation of the Week and, like so many before it, the organism in question is not a taxon which the observer studies or specializes in. Which I think is one of the coolest parts about iNat - it opens up our eyes to things we might never had noticed before. Dmitry Ivanov is a life-long nature lover, and tells me has “been fond of observation and natural photography since childhood. At first, I was interested in insects, then mushrooms and lichens. As a result, I studied as a soil ecologist, which is what I am now.” Currently a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution in Moscow, Dmitry studies soil carbon fluxes in the taiga and tropical ecosystems of Russia and Vietnam, and it was in Bidoup Núi Bà National Park where he found the spider you see above. He didn’t upload it to iNat until he was back home, however, and that’s when @djringer and @michael-gasteracantha saw it. They believe it’s an undescribed species of the genus Gasteracantha, also known as the spiny orbweavers. Michael is working with a friend at Oxford University to revise the genus, and tells me it looks nothing like any of the existing images and descriptions in the literature. He and @djringer started this project, and they wrote a journal post about Dmitry’s spider as well as other likely undescribed species posted to iNat. “Dmitry's observation is stunning in its own right -- I mean, look at those colors and lines -- and it also illustrates that there are many gasteracanthine species in Asia still lacking a formal scientific description,” David Ringer tells me.  Of course, the people who have lived alongside this species for hundreds or thousands of years probably have recognized it and named it, but it's unknown in the global scientific literature, as far as we can tell... There are still big mysteries about the names and relationships of these beautiful animals, but observations that people post to iNaturalist are helping shed new light on them, after a hundred years in the dark...iNaturalist builds community locally and across huge distances, and it opens up whole new worlds of discovery and wonder.  Unfortunately Dmitry (above, testing soil respiration) won’t be back in Vietnam for a while, but hopes to find a specimen of the spider for study when he returns. He loves nature photography and has quite a archive of photos on his computer. I was glad to know that there is a site where not only can others help me with the determination of species, but also the data of observations of these species can be used for scientific purposes...This is very important for nature reserves, national parks and other protected natural areas, because often they do not have enough scientists or the data on flora and fauna are almost not distributed in the public domain. New encounters of rare species in such territories further confirm their importance and the need for protection. By Tony Iwane. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and flow.  - Dmitry tells me his observation of a Short-toed Snake Eagle in the Central Forest of Russia is the first one documented there in 40 years! - You can see Dmitry’s research publications here.  - And here is footage of a Gasteracantha methodically building its web, set to some classical music.