The 4th Russian‑Chinese Arctic Scientific Expedition aboard the R/V “Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev” (103rd voyage)

On August 20, 2026, the Fourth Russian‑Chinese Arctic Expedition set off aboard the R/V “Akademik M. A. Lavrentyev” (voyage No. 103). The expedition was organized by the V. I. Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of the work of the POI FEB RAS - FIO MNR of China Joint Research Center for Ocean and Climate Studies.The research area encompasses the Bering Sea, the Chukchi Sea, the East Siberian Sea, and the Laptev Sea, as well as the continental margin of the Eastern Arctic and the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean.

The route of the R/V “Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev” (103rd voyage)

The goal of the expedition is to study the dynamics of rapid climate change in the eastern Arctic and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, as well as to examine the mechanisms of transmission of the climatic signal that influences the development of these events. The project is being implemented as a part of a comprehensive study of the paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic conditions of the megaregion — the northwestern Pacific and the eastern Arctic.

The main objective of the program is to study changes in the paleoenvironment and paleoclimate of polar and subpolar regions. Russian and Chinese scientists are conducting research as a part of five specialized teams: geological, gas‑geochemical, geophysical, oceanological, and biological‑geochemical. The expedition was led by Alexander Bosin, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, a leading researcher at the Laboratory of Paleooceanology and Paleoclimatology of the POI FEB RAS. The expedition will last 63 days and will finish on October 20, 2026, in Vladivostok.

The team of the 4th Russian‑Chinese Arctic Expedition aboard the R/V “Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev”