In 2006 the IPY Interagency Research Coordination Committee was created for participation of the Russian Federation in the preparation and conducting of activities of the International Polar Year (IRRC) under the leadership of I.E. Frolov. The Commitee included representatives of leading institutions of the Russian Federation, conducting polar researches. Last meetings of IRRC determined the range of issues of this body, figured out ways to coordinate researches in the Arctic and Antarctic and expertise of proposals to the IPY national scientific program. The core array of proposals into the direction «Terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the Arctic and the Antarctic» (co-leaders G.G. Matishov and A.A. Tishkov) of the IPY National scientific program, which have passed a long coordination and approval, was consistent with goals, objectives and priorities of current polar researches of biota and marine and terrestrial ecosystems. All selected projects (over 50) represented the world level, were competitive in the «scientific market» of the polar research, had a real chance to perform works and to get a striking result at the end of the IPY in Russia.

Even during the formation of the IPY national program there was a critical issue of the absence of proposals for a national program from some specialized institutions leading long-term world-known works in the Arctic like the Botanical Institute RAS, the Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, the all-Russian Research Institute for Environmental protection, institutes and research centers in Arkhangelsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Magadan, Yakutsk and Vladivostok, including regional research centers in the Arctic. This is largely determined by the fact that the trust funding of projects of the national IPY program on this direction was not planned, and available international contacts of scientists from these organizations allowed to find other forms of participation in IPY researches. Materials presented in this volume were also obtained during projects, which were carried out under the national program. Those projects did not receive additional funding and got one from funds of certain institutions. Additional financing of works from international or national sources (IPY project) is stipulated in special references.

Before the detailed presentation of works of authors, we want to draw attention of readers to the astonishing fact which is noticed by many polar researches at IPY meetings: in this global international cooperation biogeographical and environmental projects on the study of polar marine and terrestrial ecosystems dominate in number, size and scope.

Indeed, one of the authors during the work group arrangement of the Science Committee of the Arctic Council (ISIRA) on the international research of the Russian Arctic made the analysis of implementation results of the international and the national program for the third IPY. The preliminary analysis showed that despite the IPY tradition to focus on meteorological and geophysical research biogeographical and ecological projects aimed at the analysis of contemporary dynamics of biota and ecosystems, or at the paleoecological reconstruction of stages of the evolution of the nature of polar regions during the Pleistocene and Holocene (Table 1) were dominant in its category.

Table 1. The share of projects on the biota and ecosystems research in IPY national research programs of countries actively participating in the study of polar regions of the Earth