MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic public environmental project's expedition to Eurasia's most extreme point, Cape Chelyuskin, will continue from August 15 to 25. The project's participants will clean the territory and will prepare a site for the work of scientists, the project's press service said.
"The cape's ecosystem, shaped by the harsh Arctic climate, is home to rare flora and fauna species. Here, specialists may study forms and processes of life in particularly harsh, extreme conditions. Besides, this extreme northern point of the Eurasian continent has been used to assess the significance of climate change, melting glaciers and their impact on wildlife," the Clean Arctic public environmental project's leader Andrey Nagibin said.
Two natural zones are changing on the cape: from the Arctic tundra to the polar deserts. The cape is home to Red Data Book animals such as the polar bear, as well as native lichen species that grow on tundra soils. Cape Chelyuskin is also unique since it is located on the watershed of the Arctic Ocean's two seas - the Kara and the Laptev Seas. This makes it the entire planet's climate indicator.
According to results of research conducted by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geography, the sea ice area in the Arctic has been shrinking twice as fast over the recent twenty years. Most significant changes in summer and autumn have been recorded in the Laptev Sea, the Beaufort Sea, the interior of the Arctic Ocean, and in the Kara Sea, that is, right in the Cape Chelyuskin area. This affects the migratory and hunting behavior of polar bears, which are forced to reduce their movements and to increase intraspecific competition.
