Natalia Shakhova

Dr. Natalia Shakhova joined the IARC as a visiting research scholar from the Pacific Institute of Geography, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok. Her primary research interest is methane climate forcing and methane observations in the high- latitude ecosystems. Her study contributes well to the ongoing NSF Project : Connections Among Atmospheric Forcing, Runoff and Conditions in the East-Siberian and Laptev Seas (OPP 0230455; PIs: I.Semiletov, and G.Weller)). In cooperation with the GI (V.Romanovsky) and I.Semiletov she initiated studies of arctic Alaskan lakes to evaluate their role in the regional greenhouse gases budget. Within the framework of CHAMP (Permafrost/Soil) she is doing field measurements of CH4 release from the northern lakes and thermokarst taliks. She cooperates with the GI permafrost group for joint analysis of permafrost dynamics and changes in CH4 concentrations derived from the methane and permafrost databases. She plans to study the detection of methane release from the subsea hydrates and their role in greenhouse forcing at IARC in the future.

Shakhova received her Ph.D. from Orenburg State Medical University in 1993. From 1984 to 1994 she was a research scientist of the Laboratory of Medical Geography in the Pacific Institute of Geography, Vladivostok. She studied biogeochemistry of trace-metals and trace-elements, technogenesis micro- and macroelementosis and their influence on human health and mortality. She participated in six Far East expeditions along the Far Eastern Pacific Rim. Since 2000, she has been working on joint projects with the Arctic Regional Center and Vitus Bering Laboratory.