![]() The Special Issue on Siberian Environmental Change (Callaghan et al. Both SecNet and INTERACT provide key connections to the practicality and science of collaborative research in Siberia. “By accumulating experience and knowledge on Siberian environments and society”, SecNet “seeks to understand and predict societally important changes so that negative anthropogenic consequences can be minimised”. 2), many researchers, decision makers, and Indigenous Peoples and welcomes collaboration. The Siberian Environmental Change Network (SecNet) links 17 institutions, 23 research stations, 300 research sites (Fig. Footnote 3 As a result of INTERACT’s activities, a new Siberian network was established in 2016-the “Siberian Environmental Change Network” Footnote 4 (Callaghan et al. Recently, four Siberian stations have been funded to participate in “virtual access” with a single entry point through which their data are made freely available to applicants. INTERACT offers “transnational access” whereby about 1000 scientists have received grants to visit research stations beyond their national borders (11 stations in Siberia). Footnote 2 The EU-funded “INTERACT” projects have networked 89 northern research stations, 18 of which are in Siberia (Fig. For example, the “Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative” (NEESPI Footnote 1) seeks to develop “a better understanding of the interactions between the ecosystem, atmosphere, and human dynamics in northern Eurasia in support of international science programs with particular relevance to Global climate change research interests and government agency funding priorities”, and the “Snowchange Cooperative” has developed citizen science programmes among the Arctic Peoples of northern Eurasia. ![]() To enhance data collection, gather Indigenous Knowledge and increase the global awareness of Siberian environmental change, various international, multidisciplinary networking activities have developed. However, because of a sparse population, few major urban centres scattered over vast distances, and generally isolated and remote regions, Siberia is somewhat understudied and much of the expertise and knowledge-both science and Indigenous-resides within Russia, is written in the Russian language, and is largely unavailable in the West (e.g. Many aspects of society and environment are changing in Siberia with some changes, such as climate, being some of the most rapid on Earth. It contains a great diversity of people, settlements, environments, biomes, and land forms stretching from semi-desert in the south, through glaciated mountains, steppes, and taiga, to tundra and polar desert in the north, all connected through major river systems (Table 1, Fig. Its area is 13.1 million km 2 yet its population density is low with only 36 million people. Siberia stretches 7500 km from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific coast in the east. Siberia is not only important because of its size it has vast fresh water, mineral, fossil fuel, soil, forest, and biodiversity resources as well as huge possibilities for agricultural and biofuel production-and it interacts with global climate. To achieve these goals, it is imperative to explore the challenges and opportunities within the world’s largest continent, Eurasia, and particularly within its largest landmass, Siberia. Responding to these and other challenges, the United Nations has formulated sustainable development goals (Jensen 2021). Among these are food security, biodiversity conservation, sustaining water resources, and climate change. The Anthropocene (Steffen 2021) is presenting the global community with many challenges. ![]() Based on the diverse studies presented in this Ambio Special Issue, we suggest ways forward for more sustainable environmental research and management. However, Siberia has the possibility through land surface feedbacks to amplify or suppress climate change impacts at potentially global levels. Local mitigation and adaptation measures are likely to be limited by a range of public perceptions of climate change that vary according to personal background. ![]() These trends interact with sociological changes leading to land-use change, globalisation of diets, impaired health of Arctic Peoples, and challenges for transport. Impacts of these changes are rapid permafrost thaw and melt of glaciers, increased flooding, extreme weather events leading to sudden changes in biodiversity, increased forest fires, more insect pest outbreaks, and increased emissions of CO 2 and methane. A recent multidisciplinary compilation of studies on changes in the Siberian environment details how climate is changing faster than most places on Earth with exceptional warming in the north and increased aridity in the south.
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