Collaboration Ecosystems Science Soils

Russia is a white spot on the tea bag index map: an approach to extend the network of global soil decomposition monitoring

13/06/2022 No Comments

The tea bag approach (http://www.teatime4science.org/about/the-project/) for measurement of microbial decomposition of soil organic matter has been applied for mountain, coastal, forest and arctic ecosystems, while for urban ecosystems located in various biomes such experience is not widely distributed. In Russia there are few amount of sites for which was provided the soil organic matter decomposition assessment by tea bag approach.

Smart Urban Nature team together with colleagues from the Kola Science Centre RAS, Institute of Geography RAS, Southern Federal University, Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science, RAS, the Central Chernozem Reserve, have decided to extend of the global map of the tea bag index and organized monitoring of the microbial activity of various soils in the European Russia with financial support of RSF No. 19 -77-30012.

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Science Soils

Drones to be detectors of heavy metals in the soil

31/05/2022 No Comments

SUN Lab scientists have created maps of distribution of concentrations of heavy metals nickel and copper in the upper soil horizon. This was made possible through data obtained by unmanned aerial vehicles. The essence of the method is to search for statistically significant relationships between point data on the concentrations of hazardous elements in the upper horizon and the parameters of the relief and soils. The approach has been successful in a technogenic wasteland area on the Kola Peninsula, and as expected, in the future, the technology will help scientists more quickly predict soil pollution in vast and remote areas. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, were published in the journal Land Degradation & Development.

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Climate Ecosystem Services Science

SUN Researchers have found that transport pollution increases the number of microorganisms potentially dangerous to humans on plant leaves

21/03/2022 No Comments

Scientists from the Smart Urban Nature laboratory, in collaboration with colleagues from the Netherlands and Italy, have shown that microbial communities living on the surface of leaves are sensitive to transport pollution. With the approach to highways, the activity of microorganisms increases, their species diversity decreases, and the proportion of conditionally pathogenic forms increases. These changes are associated with an increased concentration of pollutants (mainly Zinc) and microclimatic conditions near the roads: low humidity, high temperature and ultraviolet radiation. It is important to note that the study of plant microorganisms will help assess the ecological state of nature in the city and their possible impact on human health. Article published in Plants (Q1) journal. The research was partly supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and Russian Science Foundation (RSF).

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Research Seminars

Carbon stocks and fluxes in urban soils in the context of climate change

02/03/2022 No Comments

International Scientific Seminar of Smart Urban Nature research center

The Research center «Smart technologies for sustainable development of the urban environment in the global change» Agrarian and Technological Institute RUDN University organizes an international scientific seminar «Carbon stocks and fluxes in urban soils in the context of climate change», which will be held on March 16, 2022. The event will take place online on the Microsoft Teams platform.

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Collaboration Green Infrastructure

To be the wind for the tree: Tree Talker as an intermediary between science and art

22/02/2022 No Comments

On February 8, 2022, the Museum of Contemporary Arts named after S.P. Diaghilev presented an exhibition accompanied by an interview film about the interdisciplinary science-art project “To be the wind for the tree” by Natalya Fedorova, a media artist and lecturer at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The project is inspired by the Herbarium of the Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg State University and was created in external partnership with the Smart Urban Nature laboratory of RUDN University, the laboratories of the Art & Science program of ITMO University and the Forestry Engineering Academy.

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Climate Collaboration Education

SUN Lab scientists took part in organizing international winter school on urban climate

27/01/2022 No Comments

In January 2022, the first experimental international winter school for young scientists “Urban Climate and Air Quality Winter School (UCAWS-2022)” was successfully held at the Khibiny educational and scientific base of Moscow State University in Murmansk region. The school was designed for senior students, masters, graduate students and young scientists under 40 who are interested in the problems of urban climatology, urban air quality, urban studies, urban ecology in relation to the cities of the Eastern and Western Arctic. This topic is extremely promising in recent decades, especially in the light of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023.

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Collaboration Science

Smart Urban Nature laboratory wishes a Happy New Year

05/01/2022 No Comments

The last month of 2021 was so busy that we did not have enough time to sum up the results of the whole year. Now we had a rest and, looking back, we would like to share some of our achievements.

The year 2021 gave us new results and new colleagues, allowed us to implement interesting projects and become part of the projects of our partners. Despite the continuing restrictions on travel to other countries, we do not stop our international cooperation and contacts, but on the contrary we multiply and strengthen them.

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Climate Data and Software Ecosystem Services Ecosystems Green Infrastructure Science Soils

SUN Lab presented the results of the third year of the SUN project

25/12/2021 No Comments

SUN Lab presented the results of the third year of the project “Smart technologies to monitor, model and evaluate ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure and soils to support decision making in sustainable city development under global changes”, supported by a Russian Science Foundation (RSF).

Research in the third year of the project was focused on 3 main objectives:

  1. monitoring of ecosystem services of urban green infrastructure based on the Smart Urban Nature network;
  2. interpretation of monitoring data for ecosystem services for various target groups and practical tasks;
  3. application of the results of monitoring and modeling ecosystem services to support decision-making in the field of sustainable development of the urban environment.
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