Umka 2021 Expedition to Franz Joseph Land in Arctic Ocean
Gavriil Grigorov, TASS, Russian Federation
Researchers follow a Polar bear on Alexandra Land, an island of the Franz Joseph Land archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean during the Umka 2021 expedition organized by the Russian Geographical Society. Taking part in the expedition are experts from Russian Arctic National Park, the N.N. Zubov State Oceanographic Institute, and institutes and research centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences: the Geophysical Survey Federal Research Centre, the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute. The expedition, which started in mid-March 2021, aims to carry out comprehensive research and monitor the local polar bear population, assess the impact of climate change, and create an instrumental base for studying the active geological structures of Franz Joseph Land.