The blocking of data from Russian stations that record conditions in the Arctic will reduce the completeness of data collected to map climate change in the region, scientists warn in their publication in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The Arctic is warming at a rate of about two to four times the global average, and this has potential global consequences. Understanding changes in the Arctic relies heavily on data measured at ground-based research stations. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, international research in the region continued without Russia, which it is the largest geographically arctic nation.

The study’s authors, from universities and research institutes in Denmark, Greenland, Finland, Alaska, Britain and Russia, quantified the potential impact of blocking Russian sites on perceptions of changes in the Arctic. They evaluated how well Arctic environmental conditions (such as mean annual air temperature, total precipitation, snow depth, soil moisture, etc.) are represented with and without the information from these Russian stations.

As they found, the model data in the station network is not fully representative of ecosystem conditions across the Arctic, even when all Russian stations are included in the dataset. They report that this may be due to the locations of the stations, which are typically located in regions of the Arctic that are wetter, warmer, and have deeper snowpack and lower biomass.

Missing data, however, increases further when Russian sites are excluded from the network of Arctic research stations. For example, after excluding Russia, the extensive taiga forest of Siberia is no longer represented.

See here the scientific publication