* St. Petersburg's scientists have started monitoring the Gulf of Finland and adjacent areas in order to collect information about the spread of alien organisms (that are not endemic to the Gulf) together with ship-ballast waters. Regular observations will commence in the coastal zone and in the open sea already this May, lasting until November. The concerned scientists are to prepare a set of recommendations as regards the establishment of a system for monitoring biological-pollution levels and the creation of a database listing plant and animal kingdoms in the Gulf of Finland.
The spread of alien organisms with the ship-ballast waters into the water system of the Gulf of Finland -- the Neva River -- Ladoga Lake has a negative effect on the biological diversity of endemic flora and fauna and can be hazardous for people's health.
Estonian, Finnish and Russian scientists are jointly developing a data-exchange network, which will contain information on all non-endemic organisms.
* New laser guns, which were developed by experts from the Moscow-based Alexei Severtsov institute of environmental and evolution problems (Russian Academy of Sciences), will help scare birds away from Moscow airport runways.
It's an open secret that birds can threaten air-traffic safety. The new device can target birds at 500-meter ranges. Automated laser units can also be used to scan local airspace.
Birds fly away, after being subjected to laser radiation.
* A 14-volume edition of "Siberian Plants" has just come off the press. It was edited by 43 botanists from the central botanical gardens of the Siberian branch of Russia's Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk) herbarium collections of Tomsk State University (Tomsk), the botanical gardens of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg) and the botanical gardens of Moscow State University (Moscow).
One new family, 16 genera, as well as 108 species and sub-species, were discovered during the compilation of this unique Siberian-flora edition. The entire Siberian region now has 4,510 known species and sub-species of higher plants (minus crops) comprising 137 families and 842 genera.
Siberia, which covers a vast area, still has many little-studied plants and other botanical material.
* Russian archeological monuments must be protected accordingly. The Federation Council, which is the Russian Parliament's upper house, hosted a round-table discussion on ways of preserving Russia's archeological heritage. This issue is becoming more and more topical because of inadequate national legislation.
Anatoly Derevyanko, full-time member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and director of the Novosibirsk-based archeology-and-ethnography institute, stressed that national archeological heritage didn't just boil down to the preservation of 49,000 archeological sites, which are officially registered as archeological monuments. Among other things countless other archeological sites, which still remain to be registered and discovered, as well as those requiring scientific description, must be preserved for posterity, Derevyanko added.
Illegal excavations are now taking place in 36 Russian territories, Nikolai Makarov, director of Moscow's archeology institute (Russian Academy of Sciences), noted. (Russia has 89 territories, regions and republics - Ed.)
Recommendations to the Russian Federation's Federal Assembly (Parliament), Government, regional institutions of state authority and the Russian Academy of Sciences were approved, after the discussion wound up.
RIA Novosti.
