Two articles by S.E. Belikov (the Research Institute for Environmental Protection, Moscow region), the recognized leader in research of Arctic mammals, are devoted to results of the study of changes in population and habitat of polar bears and marine mammals of the Russian Arctic under the impact of anthropogenic and natural factors. The all year round population nonitoring accomplished by expedition groups onboard atomic icebreakers on the Northern Sea Route has become an important methodical innovation in the Arctic fauna researches. Methods and results of the polare bear researches performed in the MMBI expeditions are represented in the paper of G.G. Matishov, A.A. Kondakov and N.N. Kavtsevich.

L.A. Kolpashchikov (the Extreme North Agricultural Research Institute, Noril’sk) has been studying the unique world’s largest Taimyr population of the wild reindeer on the Taimyr Peninsula during almost 40 years. In the joint article with V.V. Mikhaylov (Institute of Automatics and Informatization, St-Petersburg) he describes the current population state, its spatial distribution, peculiarities of the population dynamics and migration, which have significantly changed over the past decade in connection with the increased economic activity on the peninsula and climate changes.

It is known that one of the longest series of long-term study of population dynamics of the Norwegian lemming is available in the Lapland reserve on the Kola Peninsula. Its scientific employee G.E. Kataev has continued the research of the population dynamics of Norwegian lemmings, started here by A.A. Nasimovich, G.A. Novikov, O.I. Semenov-Tian-Shansky, T.V. Koshkina etc. in 1930 and then compiled them. The article is of a great interest to predict the dynamics of this rodent species and to define trends in a changing climate.

Articles on ornithology are well represented in this collection what is typical for biogeographical and zoological collections on the research of the Russian Arctic. An article by Yu.V. Krasnov (the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute KSC RAS) summarizes preliminary results of ornithological observations conducted in 2007 on the western coast of the Vaigach Island. M.V. Gavrilo (the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg) presents results of the IPY project devoted to the study of the fauna and population of birds from some high-latitude islands of the Western Arctic. M.G. Golovatin (the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of RAS, Yekaterinburg) gives preliminary results of the analysis of the long-term avifauna dynamics in the north of the Western Siberia. New data on the bird faua of the Gydan peninsula northern part are given in the paper of A.E. Dmitriev (Institute of Geography RAS) and V.S. Zhukov (Institute of Animal Systematics and Ecology, Siberian Branch of RAS, Novosibirsk). The latest data on the dynamics of habitat, abundance and species diversity of the arctic sandpiper is presented in the fundamental work by P.S. Tomkovich (the Zoological Museum of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow StateUniversity, Moscow), E.G. Lappo (the Institute of Geography RAS) and E.E. Syroechkovsky-Jr. (the Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS).

An article by V.K. Zhirov and O.B. Gontar (the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute, Kirovsk, Murmansk region) is devoted to plant adaptation to conditions of high latitudes. It presents the original principles of classification of introduced plants, which is important for understanding of processes of the climatic change impact on the flora and vegetation of the Arctic. A team under the leadership of