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.

Regualar Readings in memory of Academician V.E.Sokolov took place on February 3, 2020 at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS. The Readings were opened by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Academician V.E. Sokolov Foundation, Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Pavlov, making the introductory statement. Vladimir Evgenievich Sokolov led our Institute for more than 30 years, so on this day it is important for the employees of the Institute of IPEE of the Russian Academy of Sciences not only to honor the memory of the great scientist, but also to share the Institute’s achievements over the past year. This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Institute, the 50th anniversary of the Joint Russian-Mongolian Integrated Biological Expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the ASM, and the extension of the work of the Joint Russian-Ethiopian Biological Expedition. In 2019, the three-year period of the reporting sessions of the Institute ended and this year the second round begins. Dmitry Sergeyevich noted that the work in all the areas that Vladimir Evgenievich Sokolov formed and started continued. As part of the Readings in memory of Academician V.E. Sokolov a presentation was made by scientists of IPEE RAS. Alexey Vladimirovich Tiunov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology, presented the report “Soil Ecology in the Tropics: Vietnam Platform”. Of the young scientists, Polina Yuryevna Dgebuadze, Ph.D., made a report "The symbiotic relationship of gastropod mollusks of the Eulimidae family and echinoderms," and Ph.D. Nechaev Dmitry Igorevich - "From the study of the hearing of dolphins to the tuning of human cochlear implants." After the reports, professor and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Yuri Yulianovich Dgebuadze awarded the laureates of the Academician V.E. Sokolov prize for 2019. The laureates were Lavrenchenko Leonid Aleksandrovich, Head of the Laboratory of Microevolution of Mammals, and Ph.D. Vasilyeva Nina Aleksandrovna and Ph.D. Becker Evgenia Igorievna in the nomination “Young Talented Scientists”.    

At the end of November 2019, a meeting was held between the vice president of the Academy of Sciences of Heilongjiang Province (PRC) and the executives of the IPEE RAS. During the meeting, they discussed the results of a three-year cooperation on two joint projects of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS and the Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Academy of Sciences of Heilongjiang Province, signing the documents confirming the continuation of joint Russian-Chinese research over the next three years. Based on the results of cooperation of past years, plans for further work have been developed. In the course of the project of assessing the suitability of habitats in the mountain range of Maly Khingan in Heilongjiang Province for the restoration of the Amur tiger, key nuclear zones were identified in the territory: areas primarily subject to reforestation, the structure of ecological corridors, the territory of which is subject to special protection. The study was conducted on the basis of Earth remote sensing data with field verification for three seasons of field studies. The simulation also took into account the current state of the tiger hunting ground in the study area. The results of another project were also summed up - a joint work of scientists from the Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences with Chinese colleagues in the Sanjiang lowland, during which the changes in ecosystems that occur with an experimental increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere were studied. It has been established that, with an increase in CO2 concentration from 370 ppm to 700 ppm, the population density of soil animals significantly increases (more than double the initial concentration), but the structure of the community of soil animals is slightly changed. Similar results were previously demonstrated for the vegetation cover of this territory. The discovered patterns give hope that, despite the global increase in the concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, ecosystems will not respond with qualitative, but with quantitative changes, the consequences of which will not have any significant effect on humanity. In the course of further joint work, plans have been made to study the effect of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration on the population of soil animals of forest ecosystems. In addition, the expansion of scientific cooperation and the increase in areas of joint work were discussed. In particular, the study of the mechanisms of restoration of soil fauna after fires and the development of biological methods for the disposal of rice waste.

On November 29, 2019, a round table was held at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at which the main results of the study of the Baikal seal in 2019 were summed up, as well as the relevant directions for the study and conservation of endemic for 2020 were identified. In the framework of the meeting, specialists of A. N. Severtsov Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the results of an expedition organized in the summer of 2019 together with the Lake Baikal Foundation, the Baikal branch of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, as well as the FSBI Zapovednoe Podlemorye within the project “Baikal seal Year". The experts had the following tasks: catching seals in the Ushkany Islands, completely eliminating the probability of death of individuals, carrying out the necessary measurements and sampling for genetic, hormonal, toxicological analyzes, as well as satellite-tagging seals. An equally important purpose of the trip is to assess the total number of seals on the rookeries. Dmitry Glazov, zoologist, marine mammals specialist, leading engineer of the laboratory of sensory systems of vertebrates of the IPEE RAS, expedition participant and researcher (R&D) spoke about the details of field work and the successful marking of 15 individuals with satellite beacons and the scientists having taken samples from 21 animals. Stock counting was carried out from the shore, from a boat, as well as using an unmanned aerial vehicle. V.I. Chernook, a researcher at the St. Petersburg branch of the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), shared the results of aerial surveys of the Baikal seal, which were carried out in 2019 in the northern part of Lake Baikal. These works made it possible to determine the optimal characteristics of aerial survey equipment, as well as the optimal heights and patterns for observing seal dens. A proposal was put forward to expand the territory of areal survey accounting next year to the entire area of ice on lake Baikal, as the key habitats of the Baikal seal can change throughout the year. A.I. Boltnev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of Laboratory of Marine Mammals, VNIRO, emphasized the need to monitor annual measurements of birth rates and assess the endemic population, study annual changes in the structure of animal nutrition, generational survival rates, and develop recommendations for maintaining ecosystem sustainability and managing biological resources. According to the expert, this program can help develop measures to maintain the well-being of the mammal population in conditions of intensive fishing. Project Manager of the Lake Baikal Foundation Ekaterina Petrunina spoke about the origins of the project and its social block. A new round of research on the Baikal seal began with the Foundation initiating a scientific program to study endemic in the summer of 2018. In November 2018, at the international conference in Arkhangelsk, the main directions of the program for the study and conservation of Baikal endemic were presented, which formed the basis of scientific work. Thanks to the support of private donations to the Foundation, the charity foundation "The World Around You" and the Presidential Grants Fund, a seal was tagged, which was described by the specialists from the A. N. Severtsov institute. In October of this year, the Foundation also launched an environmental online lesson on the Baikal seals on the Stepik platform, which was watched by more than 30 thousand students across Russia. Ekaterina Petrunina emphasized that it is important to form the right habits in relation to the environment in the citizens, to increase the reach of people who are aware of the threats to the life and health of the endemic. Environmental education for adults through children using online tools is an effective practice. According to the results of the round table, experts came to the conclusion that it is too early to draw global conclusions about the state of the population of the Baikal seal. In addition, the question of the exact size of the Baikal seal population remains open at the moment. Scientists have yet to more accurately determine its abundance, animal health and the influence of external factors on the endemic. All experts emphasized the importance of continuing the project. A proposal was made to invite representatives of government and business to cooperation. A proposal was also voiced to create an accessible theoretical base with the results of all current developments and studies for establishing scientific communication and cooperation in order to protect the Baikal seal.

Full-scale research aerial surveys of cetaceans “Flights with dolphins” were carried out in most of the Black Sea off the Russian coast of the Caucasus (from the Kerch Strait to Adler) over the sea with a distance of up to 200 km from shore. Aerial surveys were carried out on board the domestic La-8 amphibious aircraft. The project operator was the Clean Seas Foundation. The scientific part was carried out by a team of leading specialists in mammals of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (IPE RAS) - a permanent partner of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia in conducting research on marine mammals. Over 6 days of flight, an area of more than 48 thousand km² was examined, the total length of the route was 3195.8 km. During the research, scientists managed to locate all three species of marine mammals living in the Black Sea. Bottlenose dolphins were most often recorded: for 124 encounters, more than 402 individuals. In second place are the white casks: for 92 meetings, about 560 individuals. The most common porpoise (Azovka) - 16 individuals. At the same time, according to scientists, there is no threat of population decline, since the flights took place much further from the coastline than the usual feeding ground for this species. During the expedition in the Black Sea, the scientists found a lot of garbage: both separately floating objects (ropes, buoys, plastic, pieces of fishing nets), and accumulations of garbage. The most significant concentrations of waste were found in the region of the eastern central whirlpool and at a distance of approximately 50-60 km from the coast. “The general picture of the state of the Black Sea cetacean population will be obtained only after the data obtained by Russian scientists are combined with data from studies of other countries of the Black Sea coast. As such, the work continues, and we really hope that scientific “Dolphin flights” will become an annual tradition”, commented Vasily Bogoslovsky, Director General of the Clean Seas Foundation. Thanks to the implementation of an international project by two European organizations ACCOBAMC and EMBLAS plus throughout the coastal waters of the Black Sea countries, for the first time Russia was able to join this program to study and evaluate the current state of endemic (living only in the Black Sea) mammalian populations. The results will bring scientists one step closer to the global goal of the project - to preserve the habitat and life of the vulnerable and Red Book marine life. Photo: Clean Seas Foundation, Olga Shpak  

Since 2018, the Lake Baikal Foundation has been carrying out a set of activities aimed at studying the Baikal seal and forming a careful attitude to it. As part of the project “The Year of the Baikal Seal”, in July 2019, a unique expedition was organized to the Ushkany Islands by a group of specialists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems of A.N. Severtsov RAS, the Baikal branch of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), as well as representatives of the FSBI “Reserved Podlemorye”. The project “Year of the Baikal Seal” was supported by the Presidential Grants Fund. Scientists shared with us their impressions of the results of field work, and talked about the significance of the project. Solovieva Maria Andreevna, zoologist, specialist in marine mammals, leading engineer of the laboratory of behavior and behavioral ecology of mammals of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of RAS, member of the expedition and performer of research: - We had an old dream to work with the Baikal seal. Thanks to the Lake Baikal Foundation, we were able to achieve it. As part of the expedition, field work was carried out, during which we installed 15 satellite transmitters on Baikal seals. Until now, many seals have never been tagged, they have been equipped with satellite transmitters merely once many years ago. Materials for genetic studies were selected from each of the captured animals to study hormonal status, various chemical pollutants, and so on. Now we are working on the processing of these field data, we receive information from satellite tags and by February we are preparing a final report with all the results. The Baikal seal is an amazing animal, unlike any other. We were able to carry out everything that we planned - this is the most important thing. The work was carried out within the time constraints, all the participants did their share of work, which allowed us to achieve high results. The project has left only the best of impressions. Shumeyko Natalia Ramovna, Leading Engineer of the Laboratory for Behavior and Behavioral Ecology of Mammals of the A.N. Severtsov IPEE RAS, member of the expedition and field researcher: - We cannot yet disclose all the results of the research, as the experts agreed not to publicize them before preparing the publications. But we can say that the results are, of course, amazing. In general, the expedition was successful, in a well-coordinated team, with good animals, on the amazing Lake Baikal. Everyone was very pleased.

  World Fund for Nature’s Barents Branch launches a three-year project to conserve the Red Book Atlantic walrus that inhabits the Oran Islands. This was reported by the coordinator of the environmental projects department Margarita Leskova. Together with World Fund for Nature, the Russian Arctic national park, scientists of the Marine Mammals Research and Expedition Center and the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences will work on the project, Interfax reports. The Oran Islands are the northernmost islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (Arkhangelsk region), their total area is about 3 square kilometers. Environmentalists are concerned about growing threats to Atlantic walruses due to climate change, pollution of the oceans and increased tourist flow to the Arctic. Experts still do not know exactly how many individuals live on the islands. Scientists intend to install camera traps, and mark animals with satellite tags to estimate which water areas near the islands they use and where they migrate, leaving the rookery in late autumn. As reported by News.ru, a record number of walruses was observed off the northwestern coast of the Yamal Peninsula. According to estimates, there were about 300 individuals.