The Lake Baikal Foundation signed an agreement with the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (IPEE RAS) to conduct serological and hormonal studies of the biomaterial of the Baikal seal, which was collected during the expedition in 2019, and also transferred part of the necessary funds. This is already the third agreement between the Baikal Foundation and IPEE RAS, aimed at developing research on the Baikal seal. The joint work of the Lake Baikal Foundation and IPEE RAS began with the initiation by the Foundation of the development of a comprehensive scientific program for the study of the Baikal seal and its habitat in 2018 in order to find innovative approaches to the registration and study of the Baikal seal and to provide expert recommendations for the conservation of the population. The second agreement, signed by the parties in 2019, was aimed at supporting a ten-day expedition with the purpose of studying and satellite tagging of the Baikal seal, during which 15 seals were tagged and 174 samples of biological material from 23 seals were collected using non-invasive and minimally invasive methods. This year, cooperation between the Foundation and IPEE RAS is aimed at analyzing the collected biomaterial and is a systematic and logical continuation of the work done for the competent preservation of a unique animal.

Well-known Russian ornithologist, researcher at the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, candidate of biological sciences Sophia Rosenfeld worked for a week in the Nizhnekolymsky region of Yakutia. Together with the pilot Georgy Kirtaev on a small amphibious aircraft, they were engaged in aerial survey of geese. Journalist Alexei Kurilo interviewed her for the SakhaNews news agency, and this is what Sofya Borisovna reported: - There are many hunters in Yakutia, and they think this way: the birds flew by, we shot them, and they flew away somewhere. Where did they go? How many are there? Global trends are such that migratory birds do not belong to any country. They are not yours, they are not ours, they don’t belong to any of the continents. They hibernate in one country, fly through many countries, breed in Yakutia. And if for moose, wild boars, and some large mammals there are some quotas, there are some accounts, then the matter is much more complicated with migratory birds. We are asked the question: how do you count them? Here international cooperation is already necessary: birds do not recognize borders and do not understand political relations between countries. And it turns out that we do not know much. We do not have any accounting, monitoring. In all large countries of the world, more or less developed, there are accounts of the birds, and we are just beginning to approach this topic. And we are now trying to introduce aerial surveys of waterfowl, as well as cranes, owls, and large Arctic birds.

The site "My Planet" published an article by N.Yu. Feaktistova, d. N., scientific secretary of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, about what animals know and remember their parents. Animals not only do not know their ancestors, but can also mate with them. Nevertheless, there are behavioral models where babies come into contact with the elderly and may even be cared for by them. For example, bear familial units often have cubs from an earlier litter that help take care of the younger ones, showing them the ropes. But it rather resembles the relationship between older and younger siblings. Orcas live in large families, led by the females. Daughters do not leave their mothers, even when they produce their own offspring. The males prefer to stay in the family as well. Moreover, among killer whales the mothers and grandmothers are trying in every possible way to take care of their sons and grandchildren: they help them hunt, they support them during conflicts with other individuals. After all, the longer the male lives, the more offspring he will leave! Scientists suggest that it is due to the need to take care of the younger generation that killer whales have a long post-reproductive life span. Although in most mammals it is limited by the period of fertility. But to compare these relationships with the attitude of grandmothers and grandchildren would not be correct. In nature, a different principle applies: the elders take care of the younger ones. And it is not necessary for them to be relatives. For example, when an older female chimpanzee sees that a younger individual cannot take care of the cubs, it may as well pick them up to nurture them herself.

Instects magazine published a scientific article by M.Ya. Benkovskaya and A.O. Benkovsky on the belonging of two populations of ladybugs to one species. The scientific and information portal Search described in detail the essence of the study and posted a comment of the project manager Marina Yakovlevna Benkovskaya, Doctor of Biological Sciences, senior researcher at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RAS. Russian researchers have studied the type of ladybugs - Chilocorus kuwanae, - which has been used to control pests for more than a century. It was previously believed that the native land of this species is Asia, and another related ladybug lives in Europe. However, the study of signs of body structure and statistical processing of the results showed that these two populations belong to the same species. The study demonstrates how important animal identification is using precise quantitative methods and statistical processing. The data obtained also indicate the need for reassessment of the effectiveness of measures related to the importation of individuals of this species. The work was published in the journal Insects. Research is supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation.

This year, the Scientific-Experimental Base “Chernogolovka” of IPEE RAS celebrates its 45th anniversary! We have prepared a small report (see video report under the text) about the workings of the base at the moment and the scientific research conducted there. The scientific-experimental base "Chernogolovka" is located approximately in 60 kilometers from Moscow. Its location in the forest prevents onlookers and curious locals from interacting with the animals kept there. The base is located in a dense forest, with minimal interference into the wildlife, paths connecting the houses of scientists and cages, kennels and fenced areas in which animals are kept. Despite the fact that the base is far from the city, the scientific life does not stop on weekdays or weekends. Employees of the IPEE RAS can be stationed at the base comfortably - even on weekends. The results of their research at the base are published in international scientific journals. Several types of animals are studied at the base. However, the spectrum of research is similar - first of all, the study of animal behavior and its formation in ontogenesis, their communication, the biology of reproduction and hybridization, and environmental physiology. Based on the study of these aspects, rare breeding technologies are being developed for their conservation.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.”

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."

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.

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.