1:45 PM - 3:15 PM
[MIS01-P01] Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI), Present Status and Perspectives
Keywords:Northern Eurasia, Climatic, hydrologic, and cryosphere changes, Interaction between natural and socioeconomic changes
Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) emerged in 2016 as a successor of another large-scale interdisciplinary international program Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI). Both Initiatives cover the same area, territory of Northern Eurasia. A lot of NEFI efforts are based on the NEESPI results. However, the science questions of NEFI differ from those of NEESPI. While the major Science question of NEESPI was: How do Northern Eurasia terrestrial ecosystems dynamics interact with and alter the biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere of the Earth? for NEFI, this question has been appended with the following science question: How to provide in Northern Eurasia a sustainable societal development (economy well-being, activities, health, and strategic planning) in changing climate, ecosystems, and societies? The NEFI Core Science Plan (White Paper) is available at http://nefi-neespi.org/NEFI-WhitePaper.pdf.
The current programmatic NEFI papers are:
Groisman et al. 2017: Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): Facing the Challenges and Pathways of Global Change in the 21st Century. Problems of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 4, 41.
Monier et al. 2017: A Review of and Perspectives on Global Change Modeling for Northern Eurasia. Environmental Research Letters, 12, 083001.
Chen, Y.Z et al. 2017: Quantitative assessment of carbon sequestration reduction induced by disturbances in Temperate Eurasian Steppe. Environmental Research Letters, 12, 115005.
Chen, J., et al. 2022: Sustainability Challenges for the Social-Environmental Systems across the Asian Drylands Belt. Environmental Research Letters, 17, 023001.
Devoted NEFI outlet, the NEFI Special Focus Issue of Environmental Research Letters "Focus on Northern Eurasia in the Global Earth and Human Systems: Changes, Interactions, and Sustainable Societal Development" http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/focus/NEFI, was launched in March 2017. This prolific Special Issue includes 75 papers. New submissions to this Issue were closed on December 31, 2022, and new outreach venues are currently under consideration. To secure the maximum outreach, we are searching among Open Access journals in English language.
Currently 38 international projects are associated with NEFI. Every year, the NEFI sessions are organized at the international Conferences in the U.S., Japan, and Russia, devoted to environmental and socio-economic studies in Northern Eurasia (AGU, JpGU, ENVIROMIS). Since February 2020, these sessions have been mostly held online or in the hybrid formats due to the COVID Pandemy.
Keeping in mind new sets of science questions, the new generation of NEFI studies became and will continue to be "more regional" (with exception of the carbon cycle studies). Specifically, the NEFI studies are presently concentrated:
(a) within the Eurasian Arctic - the region of the most prominent natural changes,
(b) within the Boreal Forest zone - the largest storage of terrestrial carbon, and
(c) within the Dry Latitudinal Belt of Northern Eurasia - the large region with acute water deficit.
The latest political development hampered the NEFI-related international studies in the Arctic and Boreal Zones of Eurasia affecting joint field work, attendance of the conferences, and currency exchange/payments. As mitigation, the following steps were made: International Zoom/Skype communications were enhanced and became a new standard (i.e., the NEFI gatherings were switched to hybrid meetings/workshops). To avoid sanctions, joint multinational publications were encouraged. In Russia and Belarus, focus on internal scientific development was made. After the detrimental period in international relationships will be a history, we hope that the NEFI scientists can quickly rejuvenate the old scientific links, build new ones, and advance towards the Initiative objectives.
The current programmatic NEFI papers are:
Groisman et al. 2017: Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): Facing the Challenges and Pathways of Global Change in the 21st Century. Problems of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 4, 41.
Monier et al. 2017: A Review of and Perspectives on Global Change Modeling for Northern Eurasia. Environmental Research Letters, 12, 083001.
Chen, Y.Z et al. 2017: Quantitative assessment of carbon sequestration reduction induced by disturbances in Temperate Eurasian Steppe. Environmental Research Letters, 12, 115005.
Chen, J., et al. 2022: Sustainability Challenges for the Social-Environmental Systems across the Asian Drylands Belt. Environmental Research Letters, 17, 023001.
Devoted NEFI outlet, the NEFI Special Focus Issue of Environmental Research Letters "Focus on Northern Eurasia in the Global Earth and Human Systems: Changes, Interactions, and Sustainable Societal Development" http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/focus/NEFI, was launched in March 2017. This prolific Special Issue includes 75 papers. New submissions to this Issue were closed on December 31, 2022, and new outreach venues are currently under consideration. To secure the maximum outreach, we are searching among Open Access journals in English language.
Currently 38 international projects are associated with NEFI. Every year, the NEFI sessions are organized at the international Conferences in the U.S., Japan, and Russia, devoted to environmental and socio-economic studies in Northern Eurasia (AGU, JpGU, ENVIROMIS). Since February 2020, these sessions have been mostly held online or in the hybrid formats due to the COVID Pandemy.
Keeping in mind new sets of science questions, the new generation of NEFI studies became and will continue to be "more regional" (with exception of the carbon cycle studies). Specifically, the NEFI studies are presently concentrated:
(a) within the Eurasian Arctic - the region of the most prominent natural changes,
(b) within the Boreal Forest zone - the largest storage of terrestrial carbon, and
(c) within the Dry Latitudinal Belt of Northern Eurasia - the large region with acute water deficit.
The latest political development hampered the NEFI-related international studies in the Arctic and Boreal Zones of Eurasia affecting joint field work, attendance of the conferences, and currency exchange/payments. As mitigation, the following steps were made: International Zoom/Skype communications were enhanced and became a new standard (i.e., the NEFI gatherings were switched to hybrid meetings/workshops). To avoid sanctions, joint multinational publications were encouraged. In Russia and Belarus, focus on internal scientific development was made. After the detrimental period in international relationships will be a history, we hope that the NEFI scientists can quickly rejuvenate the old scientific links, build new ones, and advance towards the Initiative objectives.