Ross's Gull (Rhodostethia rosea) is the rarest of Canadian high-arctic gulls, and is listed as Threatened under Canada's Species-At-Risk Act. The large majority of birds breed in Siberia: the origins and affinities of four extremely small breeding colonies observed since 1978 in the Canadian high arctic are unknown. We compared a 515-bp region of the mtDNA Control Region amplified from material...

Extinction of the woolly mammoth in Beringia has long been subject to research and speculation. Here we use a new geo-referenced database of radiocarbon-dated evidence to show that mammoths were abundant in the open-habitat of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (∼45-30 ka). During the Last Glacial Maximum (∼25-20 ka), northern populations declined while those in interior Siberia increased. Northern mammoth...

Methane emissions from mires in all climate–vegetation zones of West Siberia (forest steppe, subtaiga, south taiga, middle taiga, north taiga, forest tundra and tundra) were measured using a static chamber method. The observed fluxes varied considerably from small negative values in forested bogs and palsa to hundreds of mgC m−2 h−1 in ponds and wet hollows. Observed data were consolidated in t...

Recent introduction of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in wild birds from poultry in Eurasia signaled the possibility that this virus may perpetuate in nature. Surveillance of avian influenza especially in migratory birds, therefore, has been conducted to provide information on the viruses brought by them to Hokkaido, Japan, from their nesting lakes in Siberia in autumn. Du...

The generic name Nordia (N. lepida Rozova, 1968, by original designation) was proposed by Rozova (1968: 108) for a new trilobite genus from the Upper Cambrian of the Tajmyr peninsula (NW Siberia, Krasnojarsk territory, Russian Federation). However, this name was preoccupied by Nordia Jairajpuri and Siddiqi (1964: 2) which is served as a type for a family Nordiidae Jairajpuri & Siddiqi and subfa...

We have described the morphological variation of five Western Palaearctic species of Monochamus Dejean, 1821. The variation was assessed using wing measurements. Special emphasis was placed on the differences between Monochamus sartor (F., 1787) and Monochamus urussovii (Fischer-Waldheim, 1805). There was an interesting pattern of variation between the two species. Individuals of M. sartor from...

Using the data on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphism, genetic structures of the ethnic groups inhabiting South and East Siberia, including Altaians, Buryats, Tuvinians, Todjins, Tofalars, Yakuts, and Evenks were described. Mitochondrial gene pools of the populations examined were characterized by different ratios between Mongoloid (M*, C, D, E/G, G, A, B, and F) and Caucasoid (H, HV, I, J, ...

Oil is the most widely distributed source of energy in the world and the largest-scaled environmental pollutant. Oil, oil products, and oil-containing industrial wastes pollution is ranked second place after radioactive pollution on account of their harmful action to ecosystems (Chernyakhovsky et al., 2004). Oil deposits in Russia are mainly located in the northern regions of the European part ...