The researchers described the species composition of crustaceans inhabiting the reservoirs of the Putorana Plateau, a unique mountain range in Central Siberia that is difficult to study. The authors determined the patterns of their distribution, and discovered 23 new taxa for the region, and 4 new for science. The results of the work, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) and published in the journal Diversity, will be invaluable for preserving the region’s unusually rich fauna for the Arctic, which is so vulnerable to human influence and global climate change. The Arctic ecosystems are characterized by a relatively poor species diversity - the conditions are harsh, and therefore only the strongest and fittest, more precisely, the most specialized, can survive. This makes organisms very sensitive to global warming and the impact of human activity, since even a slight change in the usual environmental conditions can disrupt vital metabolic processes. “Unfortunately, many Arctic regions are difficult to access, and therefore we know very little about the species inhabiting them. This is especially true for aquatic animals: a small puddle in a cave or a stream high in the mountains may be the only habitat for representatives of some taxon. It is here that we constantly find new species or even groups higher in the systematic hierarchy. Some of them may be relics - a kind of "time travelers" preserved from ancient times. By studying them, we can learn a lot about the origin and evolution of various organisms,” says Elena Chertoprud, candidate of biological sciences, researcher at the IEE RAS and the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. In their new work, researchers from the A.N. Severtsov IEE RAS (Moscow), M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow), Kazan Federal University (Kazan), the Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Syktyvkar) and the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (Moscow) focused on studying the water bodies of the Putorana Plateau. This mountain range of volcanic origin is located beyond the Arctic Circle, and most of it is characterized by a harsh, sharply continental climate. However, due to the peculiarities of the relief in some lake valleys, conditions are much more favorable, including for the aquatic animals inhabiting them. The authors studied 30 reservoirs of various sizes and origins on the Putorana Plateau. Among them were low-flowing lakes, preserved due to runoff or formed during the expansion of the stream and channel; oxbow lakes with a permanent or dry summer connection with the riverbed; swampy lakes; endorheic lakes, including mountain lakes, lying in relief depressions. With the help of a plankton net, hydrobiologists caught representatives of zooplankton moving in the water column, and in bottom sediments - meiobenthic organisms inhabiting the soil. Scientists managed to collect 36 species of Cladocera (the so-called water fleas or cladocerans) and 24 species of Copepoda (copepods). Interestingly, 23 of the discovered taxa are new to the region, and four are new to science. The species richness of Copepoda turned out to be higher in the central part and on the western slopes of the plateau compared to the foothills, while the number of Cladocera species, on the contrary, decreases in mountainous areas. For the meiobenthos, the type of feeding of the reservoir turned out to be critical, but the height of its location had almost no effect. For planktonic animals, the size of the reservoir and, to a lesser extent, the species composition of macrophytes - aquatic plants in which they can hide and hunt - held higher importance. “The fauna of microcrustaceans in the northern part of Central Siberia in general and the Putorana Plateau in particular is characterized by high species richness and differs significantly from that of both the western and eastern regions of the continental Arctic. The specificity is due to the climatic features of Central Siberia, as well as the preservation of the relict Pleistocene fauna in refugia, that is, a kind of refuge that did not undergo the last glaciation, ”explains Anna Novichkova, PhD in Biology, researcher at the IEE RAS and the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. Studies of aquatic communities in the north of Central Siberia, which is one of the most remote regions of Russia, are important both for revising the species richness of the Arctic fauna and for assessing the variability of polar ecosystems against the backdrop of growing anthropogenic pressure and global climate change. This, in turn, is of key importance for understanding the processes of transformation of natural ecosystems, as well as for developing scientifically based methods and schemes for monitoring the state of the aquatic environment.

An international team of scientists has found that the Malayan tupaya uses the same motor patterns as primates when moving through trees. This shows that some of the characteristics of primates appeared in evolution before themselves. The work was attended by scientists of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) RAS. One of the most interesting mysteries in human evolution is the transition to the arboreal lifestyle of its ancestors, the primates. Most of them, including the most primitive representatives, are arboreal animals. According to one theory, it is assumed that human upright posture arose as a result of the adaptation of his closest ancestors to one of the most specialized ways of arboreal movement - brachiation. During brachiation, the animal moves by hanging under the branches of trees and throwing itself from branch to branch with its forelimbs (arms). This method is well suited for the movement of relatively large animals in crowns with horizontal branches. Gibbons, orangutans, and some South American monkeys are capable of brachiation. Today, the brachiation hypothesis has become one of the main reconstructions of the formation of human upright posture, since the body is located vertically, and the musculoskeletal system adapts to this position. However, the question of how exactly the primates mastered the arboreal way of life, and how their early locomotor adaptations were formed, remains open. Their next of kin can help answer it. Tupai are small semi-arboreal animals, genetically the closest relatives of primates. They live mainly on the ground, but some of their species deftly move in the crowns of trees. For scientists, the tupai is the best "live" model of a primate ancestor. In order to study their ability to move on branches, an international team of researchers surveyed the Malayan tupaya (Tupaia belangeri) at the Moscow Zoo. It was originally assumed that the tupai used a "squirrel-like" way of moving along the branches. Squirrels are rodents that have perfectly mastered the three-dimensional locomotor environment of tree crowns. However, their arboreal specializations arose and developed quite independently of primates, and the initial stage was terrestrial rodents, reminiscent of modern marmots or ground squirrels. The gaits (order of rearrangement of legs) used by arboreal rodents differ from those of primitive primates on branches. Thus, it was expected that a detailed study would be able to find more similarities in the movement along the branches in the tupai and primates than between rodents and tupai. The study of the Malay tupaya made it possible to significantly supplement the ideas about the technique of their movement (gaits and the way of grabbing branches with their paws), as well as to analyze the similarities and differences in the locomotion of these animals with primitive primates (using the example of the fat-tailed lemur). In the experiment, the tupai willingly climbed the branches, using predominantly quadrupedal climbing and jumping. The quadrupedal climbing sequence of the tupaya was similar to that of the fat-tailed lemur (Cheirogaleus medius), a primitive primate of the same size. In addition, the animals developed a grasping mechanism similar to primates, in which the big toe of the hind leg is opposed to the rest of the fingers, and as a result, the paw covers the branch from two sides. An analysis of the surveys showed that the tupai have primitive locomotor characteristics of mammals and more specific features that are characteristic of lower primates. “The study suggests that a number of locomotion patterns that were thought to be unique to primates actually characterize a broader group of mammals called Euarchonta, which, in addition to primates, also includes tupai and colugos,” said Alexandra Panyutina, senior researcher at IEE RAS. The fact that tupai and primates share specialized locomotion traits that are not found in other placental mammals suggests that they had a common ancestor. This means that thumb opposition in walking is not unique to primates, as previously thought. Moreover, everything indicates that this trait arose earlier, even at the evolutionary stage of the common ancestor of the tupai and primates. Researchers believe that the most primitive primates already possessed both this specialization and its characteristic morphology (the science of the shape and structure of the body), which can be confirmed in the future by paleontological data. Further study of these animals will help to understand what morphological appearance the distant ancestors of humans had. The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A.Related materials: TASS Nauka: "The opposition of the thumb in primates was not unique" MK.ru: "Russian scientists have found the predecessor of monkeys"

A three-week expedition of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences to study the Sea of ​​Okhotsk gray whales in the protected waters of the Pacific Ocean has concluded. Further, scientific research in Olga Bay will be continued by employees of the Kronotsky Reserve. During the expedition, scientists identified 62 gray whales, of which half of the animals were encountered off the coast of Sakhalin in previous years. “We registered only 3 mother-calf pairs. This is quite a small amount, but not a problem, since the main feeding area for female gray whales with calves is still the Piltun area on Sakhalin. Kamchatka for them is only a part of the migratory route. As I said, at the very beginning of the feeding season, many individuals look noticeably emaciated. The observations, which will be continued by the staff of the reserve in July and August, will show how successfully the animals were able to fatten. Interestingly, active molting was observed in several individuals. Most likely, this is due to strong water freshening near the coast in places where the whales feed. Basically, they stayed at depths of 6-10 meters,” said Matvey Mamaev, expedition leader, leading engineer of the IEE RAS. Recall that it was the shore of the Olga Bay, near which the red-listed marine giants feed annually during migration, that became the first facility where the accumulated environmental damage was eliminated under the federal program. Work was going on in 2015. 1,300 tons of solid waste and scrap metal were removed from the protected coast, including 5,000 barrels with fuel residues. “Olga Bay is the most important place for the ecosystem of the reserve, for the conservation of biological diversity. Of particular danger to gray whales and other marine mammals were the remains of fuel and lubricants, which gradually seeped out of rusty barrels and eventually ended up in the ocean. The hidden threat was that both gray whales and sea otters mainly feed on benthos - bottom organisms that accumulate harmful substances in their tissues,” said Daria Panicheva, head of the scientific department of the Kronotsky State Reserve. At present, scientists from the IEE RAS are processing the collected information in order to draw maps of the distribution of gray whales in the waters of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, replenish the catalog of gray whales, etc. Related materials: Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology: "The places where gray whales congregate inthe Olga Bay of Kamchatka will be put on maps" Interfax: "Moscow scientists counted gray whales off the eastern coast of Kamchatka" Justmedia: "Russian scientists assessed gray whales off the east coast of Kamchatka andnoted that they look emaciated" DV-Ross: "A map of gray whales will be created in Kamchatka" Kam24: "A map of gray whale concentrations will be created in Kamchatka" Kamchatka today: "Gray whale congregations in Olga Bay off the coast of Kamchatka will bemapped" Arguments and facts: "In Kamchatka, scientists published a video with gray whales filmedduring the expedition" Gazeta.ru: "62 red-listed gray whales found in Kamchatka Bay" Teacher's newspaper: "In the Kamchatka bay Olga, Russian scientists found 62 gray whaleslisted in the Red Book" Scientific Russia: "Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered red-listedgray whales in Kamchatka" Iluki: 'Grey whales' gathering places will be put on maps'

From December 7 to April 6, the 87th voyage of the research vessel "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh" took place. During the voyage, the “Integrated Expeditionary Program for Performing Krill Resource Research and Research on the Ecosystem of the Southern Ocean (Antarctic Atlantic Sector)” was carried out, within the framework of which observations of marine mammals and birds were carried out. The starting point of the voyage was the port of Kaliningrad, where the expedition returned upon completion of their studies. The expedition consisted of scientists from the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS Pavel Chukmasov, Andrey Tretyakov, Larisa Tretyakova. Anton Chernetsky., the researcher of the IO RAS, Ph.D., also took part in the observations. For more than 1,400 hours, scientists observed mammals and birds during the expedition, including more than 420 hours in Antarctica. A total of 29 species of marine mammals were recorded during the observation period. 28 bird species have been recorded in Antarctica, 58 bird species have been recorded at the Atlantic crossing. The three most numerous species of marine mammals in the Atlantic sector of Antarctica have been identified: the fin whale Balaenoptera physalus, the humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae, and the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella. Among the birds, the most common species that were encountered during almost the entire period of observations in Antarctica were the Antarctic penguin Pygoscelis antarcticus, Wilson's storm-petrel Oceanites oceanicus, giant petrels Macronectes sp. and the Cape dove Daption capense. An analysis of the results of observations in the Antarctic showed that there are significant differences in the distribution of the two most numerous species of baleen whales. The humpback whale has been sighted mainly in shallower offshore areas in the southwestern Weddell Sea and central Bransfield Sound. Fin whales, on the other hand, are more common in deep waters and in sag areas such as the boundaries of the Powell Basin and the Orkney Trench. The scientists came to the conclusion that the distribution of large whales in the study area depends not only on the bottom topography and hydrological conditions, but also directly on the presence of food objects - krill. Not only the amount of krill itself is important, but also its age composition. It has been observed that humpback whales prefer smaller, younger krill, while fin whales, on the contrary, prefer more mature and large ones. At the moment, the collected data is being processed using statistical methods. This material can be later used for comparison with the data from the same area collected in 2020 during the AMK 79 expedition. The work was carried out under an additional agreement dated May 26, 2021. No. 075-03-2021-535/2 to the state. assignment No. 075-00359-21-01.

Russian scientists have established that glaciations, which occurred repeatedly in the Pleistocene, significantly affected the modern ranges of freshwater daphnia. These crustaceans colonized the waters where they can still be found today from a small number of lakes in Beringia, the land bridge between Eurasia and North America. The data obtained will help in the development of a complete biogeographic zoning of Northern Eurasia. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), are published in the journal Water. Cladocerans of the genus Daphnia are one of the most common planktonic organisms in fresh water. They play an important role in ecosystems, in particular, many species of fish feed on them. Daphnia are widespread in many climatic zones, but due to the harsh climate, their diversity in the Arctic and subarctic regions is significantly reduced. At the same time, in the course of the historical development of the Earth, there were several periods of freezing, when the temperatures on its surface were much lower than now. This greatly affected the habitats of living organisms, including crustaceans. For example, during the Pleistocene glaciations, many representatives of the Daphnia genus inhabited the Bering region, including Beringia itself, a wide land bridge connecting Eurasia and North America. Russian researchers have studied the diversity of daphnia in the water bodies of the North-Eastern part of Russia, a region that is extremely interesting from a biogeographical point of view, but very difficult to access. For nine discovered species, the authors determined the sequences of mitochondrial DNA and, by the degree of their similarity, established how Daphnia differ from each other. Within biological species, it was possible to distinguish separate genetic groups. Analysis of DNA segments and the occurrence of different species indicates the features of their demographic history. During the Pleistocene glaciation, individual populations of some species survived in the Beringian region, from where they later quickly re-distributed throughout the northern Holarctic, a region covering most of the Northern Hemisphere and whose southern border runs through Mexico, northern Sahara, the Himalayas and southern China. In addition, some daphnia re-colonized the northeast of Russia from North America through the Beringian land bridge. “We found that the evolutionary scenarios of the various species of Daphnia living in the northeast of Russia were very different. Moreover, this region turned out to be a hotbed of haplotype diversity (sets of individuals that are absolutely identical in the sequence of a certain gene). Interestingly, the species living there are not endemic, although a certain territorial isolation of the area could contribute to this - instead, they turned out to be widespread both in Eurasia and in North America. The patterns we have identified apply not only to daphnia, but also to many other inhabitants of continental waters,” says Alexei Kotov, head of the project, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, Doctor of Biological Sciences, leading researcher at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The study was also joined by the scientists from the Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk), the Yakut branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (Yakutsk), the Institute of Biology of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Petrozavodsk), the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Irkutsk) ), the Institute of Natural Sciences of the North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov (Yakutsk) and the Institute of Biological Problems of Permafrost SB RAS (Yakutsk). Related materials: InScience: "Daphnia survived in the Bering region during the Pleistocene glaciation" Scientific Russia: "Daphnia during the Pleistocene glaciation survived in the Bering region" Pro Science: 'Beringia's bodies of water became a refuge for daphnia during the Pleistoceneglaciation'

For many years, IEE RAS has been successfully cooperating with the Kronotsky State Biosphere Reserve, which is included in the UNESCO list of natural sites. The result of cooperation was numerous publications in Russian and foreign editions, dissertations being prepared for defense. In the course of joint work, good business and warm friendly relations have developed between the employees of the Institute and the Reserve. In 2022, the teams of both organizations planned a major expedition to study Lake Kronotskoye, a unique reservoir, the cradle of the richest sympatric salmon complex on the planet in terms of the number of forms. IEE RAS announces with great regret that the work planned for this year, apparently, will not take place, since from July 19, 2022, the reserve is forced to suspend research activities on its territory. The decision of the reserve is connected with the detention of key employees of the organization, accused of embezzlement of funds allocated from the state budget, by the verdict of the city court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. According to the opinion of the staff of the reserve and the materials presented on the website of the reserve http://kronokiochistka.wildnet.ru/, numerous violations were committed during the proceedings and the actual materials and eyewitness accounts proving the innocence of the convicted employees were not taken into account. In protest, the director of the reserve and a number of his other employees wrote letters of resignation of their own free will, which led to the suspension of all scientific and excursion work on the territory of the reserve. Employees of the IEE RAS are extremely interested in resuming work on the territory of the reserve and, accordingly, in restoring the normal mode of its work, sincerely hope for a fast and objective consideration of the case in the Court of Appeal.

The researchers analyzed the running movements of the smallest gliding mammal on Earth, the pygmy gliding possum (Acrobates pygmaeus). The specialists of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (IEE RAS) tested the hypothesis that the smaller the animal, the easier it is for it to master gliding. To do this, they filmed the runs of animals on a wide flat horizontal surface in a spacious enclosure. As a result, data were obtained that can be compared with typical land mammals. In animals, the sequence of setting the legs (gait), speed-time characteristics of running and kinematics (movement in space of individual parts of the body) were studied. When analyzing footage, the researchers found that feathertail gliders use typical mammalian gaits. It is interesting, however, that all types of gaits used were only asymmetrical, i.e. gallop-like. Despite the fact that it is known from the literature that these pygmy gliders use symmetrical gaits on tree branches (similarly to, for example, the lynx and amble), these gaits were not registered in the experiments of Moscow scientists. As a result, a hypothesis was put forward that these pygmy gliders switch to gallop-like gaits if the width of the support along which they move allows them to put their paws at natural width without narrowing their stride. Scientists also noticed that, unlike most four-legged mammals, the feathertail glider puts its front and hind limbs at the same distance from the body. Moreover, their hind feet almost never overtake their forelegs and imprint on the track on top of their forepaws or even behind them. So the track of feathertail gliders is very characteristic. This feature is most likely due to the fact that when gliding for an animal, in order to stretch the membrane, it is necessary to spread both pairs of limbs wide apart. According to the authors, in the course of evolution, the width of the legs of the feathertail gliders most likely synchronized as the flight membrane grew along the fore and hind limbs. Another important difference in the kinematics of running feathertail gliders is the very wide setting of the limbs. This phenomenon scientists have called "deparasagittalization" - as opposed to "parasagittalization" - a phenomenon that characterizes most land mammals. The evolution of mammals has been in the direction of the parasagittal position of the limbs (when the limbs are located under the body). It turned out that in marsupial flying squirrels, on the contrary, their paws are set so strongly to the side that they can be clearly seen if you look at the animal from above. In this they are more reminiscent of lizards than any four- legged animals. This flattening is somewhat reminiscent of the gliding posture, with the paws stretched out to the side, pulling on the web. It is difficult to explain this feature only by specialization in planning. There are six groups of mammals on Earth that have a membrane and are able to plan. And no one, except marsupial flying squirrels, puts their paws so wide. It is assumed that their arboreal lifestyle and small size led to the “deparasagittalization” of pygmy gliders: the pygmy glider lives on trees, but it is so tiny that even the trunks of the smallest trees turn out to be a wide surface for it. In order to effectively move on such surfaces, the animals have to “spread out”, spreading their paws wide. “As a result of the study, it was concluded that although the gaits of pygmy gliders have not undergone significant changes due to adaptation to gliding, the kinematics of these animals is fundamentally different from other four-legged mammals. The kinematics of running of these flying squirrels differs not only from relatives, but also from all other mammals much more than the kinematics of running of an ordinary squirrel and a common siberian flying squirrel. Thus, the hypothesis that the smaller the glider, the less changes its locomotion (movement) will undergo in the course of evolution, was not confirmed, ”said Viktor Makarov, chief specialist of the Laboratory of Ecology, Physiology and Functional Morphology of Higher Vertebrates of the IEE RAS. The results of the study are published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology - A in a series of two articles. Running of the feathertail glider (Acrobates pygmaeus ) on level ground: Gaits, Running of the feathertail glider (Acrobates pygmaeus ) on level ground: Kinematics. Related materials: Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation: "Fly or run: howspecialization in gliding influenced the running of the pygmy glider" Search: "Scientists analyzed the running of a pygmy glider - Journal of ExperimentalZoology" Scientific Russia: "The pygmy glider resembles lizards in its running technique"

Scientists have described the species composition of microorganisms in the intestines of the larvae of the emerald ash borer. This insect, native to Asia, is now actively spreading in Europe and North America and destroying ash trees, so it is important to control its population. This, in particular, can be helped by representatives of the intestinal microbiome, since among them the authors found parasitic bacteria potentially dangerous for the beetle. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), are published in the journal Forests. The spread of invasive species is an acute problem of modern ecology: the lack of adaptability of local organisms to invaders leads to significant damage to the ecosystem. Thus, the narrow-bodied ash emerald borer, which historically inhabited the territory of Korea, China, Japan and the Far East, at the beginning of the 21st century spread to North America and the European part of Russia. Its larvae damage the conductive system of ash trees, preventing the flow of nutrients from leaves to roots, and can also be potentially harmful to olive trees. The introduction of the borer into North America and Europe led to catastrophic consequences: hundreds of millions of trees died. This beetle is included in the list of the 20 most dangerous quarantine pests for the European Union and is actively studied by experts around the world. Russian scientists from the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) described the microbiome of the larvae of the emerald ash borer larvae in the European part of Russia for the first time. The larvae were collected in the Moscow region under the bark of the Pennsylvania ash tree. The authors determined the species composition of microorganisms by genetic methods using sequencing, that is, determining the nucleotide sequence of DNA. The researchers deciphered a specific region of the genome, and then compared the obtained sequences with already known databases. The DNA found belonged to bacteria from 39 different families. Three of them, the most numerous, are Pseudomonadaceae, Erwinaceae and Enterobacteriacea. In previous works of foreign scientists, it was shown that the same families are characteristic of other populations of borers of this species. Thus, these bacteria can be called the basis of the microbiome of this insect. In addition, during sequencing, the authors found the genes of bacteria from the genus Rickettsia. These are intracellular symbionts characteristic of many families of insects and previously found in other species. For example, it has been shown that rickettsia increase fertility in the tobacco whitefly and help it adapt to environmental conditions. In addition to rickettsiae, potential pathogens of the beetle, rickettsiella, were also found in the microbiome. Significantly, a large amount of Rickettsiella DNA was found in dead borers, and these bacteria may have been responsible for the death of the pests. “The onslaught of the ash emerald narrow-bodied borer on the European part of Russia and North America is a vivid example of biological invasion. Our study may provide clues to the development of biological methods to combat this insect. We focused on the search for bacteria and fungi associated with the borer, as well as on the search for parasitic nematode worms in its body. Now it is planned to collect and analyze larvae in the Far East, in the natural habitat of the pest,” says Marina Orlova-Benkovskaya, Ph.D. In the photo: Forest destroyed by the ash emerald narrow-bodied borer. Source: Evgeny Komarov. Related materials: Scientific Russia: "Microorganisms from the intestines of insect pests can help in the fightagainst them" Polit.ru: "Bacteria from the intestines of a beetle dangerous for trees are planned to be usedto combat it" Krasnaya Vesna: "Scientists have identified pathogenic bacteria in the intestines of insectpests" Indicator: "Microorganisms from the intestines of insect pests can help fight them"

Scientists working on the Shantar Islands on a project to study bowhead whales of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk population, during observations, observed a female bowhead whale, which passed Wrangel Bay with a calf. In the video, which was filmed with the help of a drone, it can be seen that the whale is still very small, this year of birth. He keeps close to his mother and is not yet able to live independently. Previously, scientists have met young individuals - calves up to a year old and slightly older - in Ulbansky Bay, where whales come to feed and rest. Animals come to Wrangel Bay for socialization and recreation, and also hide in shallow water from the attack of killer whales, which are natural enemies for whales of this population. Observing a female with a calf is a great success, because it is still not known for certain where and when the bowhead whales of the Okhotsk Sea population give birth. At the same time, this fact suggests that even more attention should be paid to the problem of the coexistence of whales from a rare population and humans: there is a tourist base in Wrangel Bay where travelers who want to watch whales stop. During the season (from July to September), the number of tourists can reach 300 people. The project for the conservation and study of the smallest population of the bowhead whale is carried out by the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS in cooperation with the World Fund for Nature. Source materials: Indicator: "В бухте на мысе Врангеля удалось зафиксировать присутствие самки гренландского кита с детёнышем"

A large-scale experiment to assess the impact of coral bleaching on ​​the composition of fauna living inside coral colonies has begun at the Dambay Marine Research Station of the Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Center (Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam). At a depth of 4 m, carrier frames were installed, on which 400 fragments of Pocillopora coral colonies were planted (Fig. 1-3). During the year, with the help of thermal sensors and photographic recording, observations will be made of the dynamics of water temperature and changes in the color of corals. To control the composition of the fauna, 30 coral colonies will be selected monthly. It is known that when the water temperature rises above 30ᵒС, corals begin to eject intracellular symbionts - zooxanthellae algae, due to which a brightly colored coral loses its appeal and turns from bright green, purple or brown to white. The effect is known as bleaching. Single-celled zooxanthellae are the main food source for hard corals. If the algae disappear or become scarce, the coral starves and produces less slime. And mucus is the main source of food for specialized symbionts - crabs, shrimps, polychaetes and fish, so it is not only the coral that is starving, but also its inhabitants. Each colony is home to dozens of individuals and up to 15-20 species of symbiont animals that form a veritable community (Fig. 4.5). In addition to specialized obligate symbionts, this community also includes facultative symbionts (opportunists) that can live on other hosts or on a non-living substrate. Some species of Trapezia crabs and snapping shrimp have previously been shown to leave a coral colony when it became strongly bleached. Questions remain open: what happens to the community as a whole during bleaching? Will obligate and facultative symbionts have the same reaction to bleaching? These are not random questions. The fact is that not only the host coral needs symbionts, but the coral needs symbionts as well. Specialized animals protect the coral from attacks by predatory starfish and mollusks, supply nutrients necessary for the reproduction of intracellular zooxanthellae symbionts, remove sediment from the coral surface, bacterial damage and fouling. If these animals leave the coral during bleaching, then this dramatically reduces its ability to survive. The experiment will be completed in July 2023. Its results will make it possible to understand the processes occurring in the host-symbiont system during bleaching, as well as to develop methods for the rehabilitation of coral reefs in the post-bleaching period. Related materials: Scientific Russia: "Russian scientists launched an experiment aimed at saving fauna in coral colonies"  Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation: "Russian scientists launched an experiment aimed at saving fauna in coral colonies"