Cherskii • Siberia

Description

• image code: TB090
• a solargraphy of Cherskii Station
• exposure time 20 hours
• GPS location 68°44’23.4″N 161°24’01.9″E

Cherskii station is located in the Pleistocene Park. It is run by Nikita Zimov and many scientists visit during the year to conduct climate and heritage related science. Nikita continues the work and vision his father started many years ago to preserve and manage the tundra area in order to work for a better protection of climate change.

The idea of Pleistocene Park is to reverse the ecosystem shift which occurred 10 thousand years ago. If declining animal density for an extended period of time allowed grasslands to vanish, then artificially introducing herbivores to the Arctic and maintaining their existence will promote grass establishment and allow reviving of a sustainable high productive ecosystem, similar to Northern Serengeti.

The main difference between modern Arctic ecosystems and grazing ecosystems are the rates of the biological cycle. In the cold Arctic environment decomposition of organic matter is very slow and nutrients used for plant growth are stuck in dead litter for a long time before they can be available for new productivity. In the grazing ecosystems decomposition of organic matter happen in the stomachs of herbivores, and nutrient are quickly returned back to the system. This allows grazing ecosystems to produce much higher harvest and maintain much higher density of animals comparing with any modern Arctic ecosystem.

This image was created for the project Touch base, arctic solargraphy. A global ‘science meets art’ photography project I conducted during 2019-2020.

If you buy a fine art print or limited edition of this image, 10% of the profit will be donated to APECS. This is an organisation which supports early career scientists in their research. Many members of APECS helped me in creating the images in the Touch base project. We all depend on future science. By donating some of my earnings I can do something back to support them.

Links
Touch base project
Pleistocene Park
Become a patron of Pleistocene Park
Cherskii North East Science station
Interact, arctic field stations worldwide
APECS

Extra info

The image will be printed onto Hahnemühle Natural Line Fine Art Paper based on hemp and using the Epson Sure Color Printing technique.