Russian and Western scientists no longer collaborate in the Arctic

KNEE-DEEP in the rushing waters of a creek in the valley of the Pasvik river, Paul Aspholm of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research is trying to prevent a lifetime’s work from being washed away by politics. Wading into the frozen stream, he peers through a water visor and tots up how many mussels he can spot in an area recently exposed by thawing ice. He would normally compare these numbers with similar data gathered by Russian counterparts splashing likewise in rivers a few kilometres farther east. But all contact with them has stopped.Dr Aspholm has spent 30 years studying the wildlife that inhabits the Arctic lands where Norway and Russia march. He has needed Russian scientists’ assistance for almost everything he has done. Together, they have kept track of species ranging from the area’s native brown bears to the invasive pink salmon that are driving out local trout and salmon, and which die in such numbers when they spawn that bacteria feeding on their corpses turn the rivers toxic and so kill other animals which live in or drink those waters. They had planned this autumn to start tracking the migration of elk along a narrow “superhighway” through the tundra, but the war has put paid to that.