Arctic climate research on hold due to Ukraine conflict
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a Swedish-led Arctic expedition being postponed with implications for collecting important data on the connection between climate, sea ice and the release of greenhouse gases in the Arctic.
Örjan Gustafsson, Professor at the Department of Environmental Science (ACES), who has collaborated with Russian scientists for the past 20 years, is one of many researchers affected by the moratorium against program-level collaboration with Russian universities and research institutes introduced by the Swedish government. His long-standing collaboration with Russian researchers has in the past resulted in vital knowledge on the connection between the global carbon cycle and global warming in the Arctic. He has also arranged and participated on research expeditions to the Arctic Ocean north of Russia together with his Russian colleagues, the most recent being ISSS-2020 that took place almost two years ago. ISSS-2020, for which a Russian research vessel was used, aimed to understand, among other things, how methane gas is released from the seabed – a process that may impact global climate.
Last updated: March 22, 2022
Source: ACES