Current investigations are full of surprises says paleontologist Pavel Tarasov, professor of a German university (who has H-index 36 and articles published in Nature and Science) who recently visited KFU. Last Wednesday he met Vice-Rector for Research Danis Nurgaliyev to discuss future cooperation of the universities. In addition, professor Tarasov gave a lecture about Quantative methods of climate and vegetation reconstruction in Eurasia during Pleistocene and the Holocene.
- Why are you interested to collaborate with Kazan University?
- I would like to use vast opportunities that you have. Firstly, I'm interested in results obtained by Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology and Paleomagnetism Lab. KFU staff have conducted a tremendous work on the Eurasian lakes where they took bottom soil samples of Moscow, Yaroslav, Bashkortostan regions in Russia and Kazakhstan. More over you have unique drilling equipment. Bottom sediments columns are very appealing because they can help to decipher climate change dynamics in Eurasian moderate climate zones for the last 15000 years.
- How do you use this archives of data?
- This data is relevant for climatic and vegetation models testing, which are used to forecast environment development in the next 50-100 years. These results can also influence decision–making made by politicians and economists.
- How exactly do you plan to cooperate?
- We have designed several steps and already started working with several lake columns. Special interest is on lakes Balkhash and Plescheevo. We want to attract more specialists to analyze these columns, first of all, from Kazan University and Free University of Berlin. The results are planned to be published in the key international scientific magazines.
- As far as we know, the joint studies are interdisciplinary.
- Yes, and this interdisciplinary work group consists of high-quality specialists. Only experienced geologists can pick the right drilling spot and obtain bottom soils, whereas biologists and ecologists can answer specific questions, e.g. how lake's ecosystem was changing? and was it related to climate? If yes, how?
- Pavel Efimovich you study Russian climate. Is there any reason to worry about global warming? Some scientists say that changes in climate are cyclic and there's no upcoming catastrophy…
- I and my colleagues from Russia, Germany and the US published 2 articles in Science just two years ago where we presented the studies of Elgygytgyn Lake in Chukotka region of northeast Siberia. The obtained results show that our planet experienced interglacial warming periods in the past and those were of much higher capacity than the current one. Even in the recent times of our planet's history, around 400 thousand years ago Earth had bigger changes which can't be compared to what has been happening for the last 50-100 years. There's no doubt that fluctuations are cyclic. Another case is how the people will be affected by them, especially those living in the densely populated coastal regions. Obviously, the warming raises the sea level. At least some floods are guaranteed.
- Snow in May and blossoming flowers in December aren't a miracle, but the very true reality. What's happening to the climate?
- Eurasian climate studies of the last couple of thousand years which we had conducted, reassured us that many trends in the past were interrupted for several reasons. For instance, nowadays we adequately accept Atlantic air masses bringing us rain in summer and snow in winter. We've been observing that during the past couple of years in some European countries summers were abnormally hot, and this happened in Russia as well. This is an example of that the zonal circulation (regular air-mass transport from west to east) can be blocked. Essential to understand is whether it's related to warming or it is just a more complicated mechanism. The research we are going to conduct with our colleagues from Kazan Federal University will allow answering some more questions and giving a better understanding of change mechanisms.