The objectives of this INT AS programme between the Environmental Change Research Centre
(ECRC), University College London; Institute of Global Climate and Ecology (IGCE)
Moscow; Moscow State University (MSU) Department of Hydrobiology; and the Kola
Science Centre (KSC) Apatity, are to introduce recently developed palaeolimnological
methods to laboratories in the Former Soviet Union and to apply these techniques
collaboratively to problems of environmental change and pollution. The focus of this work
is centred on atmospheric pollution and potential climate change in the Kola Peninsula and
the Lake Baikal region.
In the contract year 1995-1996, young scientists from ECRC have visited IGCE and MSU to
discuss ideas and the KSC to undertake fieldwork and laboratory analyses of sample material.
Senior scientists from IGCE, MSU and KSC have visited ECRC to review the collaborative
programme and young scientists from the three participating Russian laboratories have
attended courses in numerical analysis and diatom taxonomy at the ECRC.
Inevitably the parlous financial situation in Russian academic institutions has affected the
progress of this project. The science programme in the Baikal region has been difficult to
maintain and the emphasis in 1995-1996 has been placed on the Kola Peninsula. The logistics
of fieldwork and laboratory back-up have been easier to arrange with the involvement of
KSU, but even here economic difficulties have precluded certain analyses being undertaken.
Additionally, as salaries for senior staff and financial support for young scientists have
virtually ceased to exist it is inevitable that money for some of the equipment and consumable
purchases designated in the original proposal, has been diverted to help maintain the position
of key researchers involved with this project.
As part of the palaeoecological reconstruction of recent environmental (acidification) and post
Holocene climate history of the Kola Peninsula, surface sediments and water samples have
been collected from 27 lakes located throughout the Kola Peninsula along the vegetation
gradient. Two lakes were subsequently excluded from the training set due to disturbance in
the catchments. The final training set thus contains 25 sites. The background to this study and
the first results are presented in the scientific report below