Field Science at Sea: A History of Marine Biological Stations
https://doi.org/10.22394/2074-0492-2021-3-209-237
EDN: NYTOET
Abstract
This review article outlines the main lines of the rather long and confused history of marine biological stations in Russia, and shows how most of the stations in question are linked through the people who established and developed them. The focus is on the Russian stations located on the coasts of the northern seas, some of which continue to play an important role in the education of future biologists in the two leading universities of the country. Much has been written about the history of marine biological stations, but at the same time there is a feeling that it is still a rather narrow circle of scholars that knows about them and their significance. The article approaches the history of the stations as a single stream, splitting into separate streams and sometimes gathering again. It focuses on the legacy of this particular research culture, which had grown in Russia from a common European root, but which underwent significant transformations during the Soviet era. The focus is on the stations located in the White and Barents Seas, for the reason that their history starts earlier than, for example, the history of stations on the Far East seas, is much better studied, and also because the author had her own experience of working at one of such stations in the 1980s and 1990s.
About the Author
Julia LajusRussian Federation
Researcher of Laboratory for Environmental and Technological
History, Center for Historical Research, St. Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities, National Research University Higher School of Economics
References
1. Adler A. (2019) Neptune’s Laboratory: Fantasy, Fear, and Science at Sea. Cambridge, Mass.:
2. Harvard University Press.
3. Bekasova A. (2020) Voyaging Towardsthe Future: the Brig Rurik in the North Pacific
4. and the Emerging Science of the Sea. British Journal for the History of Science, 53 (4):
5. -495.
6. Berger V., Naumov A., Zubaha M., Usov N., Smolyar I., Tatusko R., Levitus S. (2003)
7. -Year Time Series (1963–1998) of Zooplankton, Temperature and Salinity in the White Sea.
8. S-Petersburg Washington, Silver Springs.
9. Brattström, H. (1967) The Biologicalstations of the Bergens Museum and the University of Bergen 1892–1967, Sarsia, 29 (1): 7-80.
10. Collins, H. (2010) Tacit and explicit knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
11. Deacon M. (1993) Crisis and Compromise: The Foundation of Marine Stationsin Britain during the late 19th century. Earth Sciences History, 12 (1): 19–47.
12. Kalemeneva E., Lajus J. (2018) Soviet Female Experts in the Polar Regions, M. Ilic
13. (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Women and Gender in Twentieth-Century Russia and the
14. Soviet Union. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan: 267-283.
15. Kinossian, Nadir and Urban Wråkberg (2017) Palimpsests, J. Schimanski and
16. S. F. Wolfe (eds) Border Aesthetics: Concepts and Intersections. New York and Oxford:
17. Berghahn Books: 90–110.
18. Kofoid Ch. A. (2010) The Biological Stations of Europe. Bulletin, No. 4, Washington
19. government printing office.
20. KraikovskiA., Lajus J. (2021) ‘The Space of Blue and Gold’: TheNature and Environment
21. of Solovki in History and Heritage. D. Moon, N. Breyfogle, A. Bekasova (eds.) Place and
22. Nature: Essaysin Russian Environmental History, Winwick: White Horse Press: 37-68.
23. Lajus D.L. (2002). Long-term discussion on the stocks of the White Sea herring: historical perspective and present state. ICES Marine Science Symposia 215: 321-328.
24. Lajus J. (2013a) Field Stations on the Coast of the Arctic Ocean in the European Part
25. of Russia from the First to Second IPY. S. Sörlin (ed.) Science, Geopolitics and Culture in
26. the Polar Region: Norden beyond Borders, Farnham: Ashgate: 111–41.
27. Lajus J. (2013b) Linking people through fish: Science and Barents Sea Fish Resources
28. in the Context of Russian-Scandinavian Relations. S. Sörlin (ed.) Science, Geopolitics
29. and Culture in the Polar Region: Norden beyond Borders, Farnham: Ashgate: 171–194.
30. Lajus J. (2018) ‘Red herring’: The unpredictable Soviet fish and Soviet power in the
31. s. N. Wormbs (ed.) Competing Arctic Futures: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan: 73–94.
32. Lajus J. (2021) Materiality of marine sciencesin late Imperial Russia and early Soviet
33. Union: Research vessels, instruments, laboratory practices. Artefact: Techniques, histoire et sciences humaines, 14: 245–265.
34. Maienschein J. (1989) 100 Years Exploring Life, 1888-1988. Boston: Jones and Bartlett
35. Publishers.
36. Rehbock P. F. (1979) The EarlyDredges: Naturalizing in British Seas, 1830–1850. Journal
37. of the History of Biology, 12: 293–368.
38. Rozwadowski, H. (2018) Vast Expanses: A History oftheOceans.Islington, UK: Reaktion
39. Press, Ltd. Sorlin, S., Lajus J. (2013) An Ice Free Arctic Sea? The Science of Sea Ice and Its Interests, M. Christensen, A.E. Nilsson, N. Wormbs (eds.) Media and the Politics of Arctic
40. Climate Change: When the Ice Breaks NY: Palgrave Macmillan: 70–92.
41. Storm, A. (2014) Post-Industrial Landscape Scars. NY: Routledge.
42. Weiner, D. (1999) A Little Corner of Freedom. Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev. Berkley and LosAngeles: University of California Press.
Review
For citations:
Lajus J. Field Science at Sea: A History of Marine Biological Stations. Sociology of Power. 2021;33(3):209-237. https://doi.org/10.22394/2074-0492-2021-3-209-237. EDN: NYTOET