Sergey Zimov

Sergey Zimov, born 18 July 1955, is a Russian scientist who resides in Cherskii, Sakha Republic, Russia. He studied and received his degree in geophysics from Far East State University, located in Vladivostok, Russia.

Zimov founded the Northeast Science Station near Cherskii in 1977. Twelve years later, in 1988, he began the Pleistocene Park project. In 1991, Sergei Zimov was awarded the Wolf Vishniac Award at the tenth International Symposium On Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB).

Coordinates: 69 degrees 30 minutes North latitude, 161 degrees 30 minutes East longitude

Sergey Zimov is a co-founder and the director of the Northeast Science Station, one of the world's three largest Arctic stations. Located near Cherskii, Russia on the mouth of the Kolyma River, 150 kilometers south of the Arctic Ocean, the station serves as a year-round base for international Arctic research. Its focus lies on carbon cycles, methane fluxes, paleoclimate, and the changing ecosystem. Founded in 1977, the Northeast Science Station boasts three laboratories, a network of field sites, tools for data analysis and communication, transportation, accommodation for visiting researchers, and a year round staff of six. A barge floating on the Kolyma River serves as a traveling dormitory and laboratory.

In collaboration with Dr. Terry Chapin and Dr. Katey Walter-Anthony, Sergey Zimov has published a collection of scientific papers exposing the importance of permafrost and high-latitude carbon dioxide and methane emissions in the global carbon cycle. These papers identified methane ebullition from thermokarst lakes to be a significant source of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Permafrost is a large global carbon reservoir which has remained frozen throughout much of the Holocene. Due to recent climate change, the permafrost is beginning to thaw, releasing stored carbon and forming thermokarst lakes. When the thawed permafrost enters the thermokarst lakes, its carbon is converted into carbon dioxide and methane and released into the atmosphere. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and the methane emissions from thermokarst lakes have the potential to initiate a positive feedback cycle in which increased atmospheric methane concentrations lead to amplified global climate change, which in turn leads to more permafrost thaw and more methane and carbon dioxide emissions.

Zimov began the Pleistocene Park project in 1988 in northeastern Siberia near the Northeast Science Station in Cherskii, Sakha Republic, Russia. …

« L'hypothèse de Zimov » feature-length documentary (90 and 52 min) ; international co-production involving Arturo Mio, 13 Productions, ARTE France (France), Take Five, RTBF (Belgique) and Ethnofund (Russia). Film written and directed by Denis Sneguirev, in Russian and English; in post-production for a release scheduled for November 2021. (Film site; ARTE Germany)