A federal state budgetary scientific institution of Murmansk Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MMBI RAS) is the oldest institution of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the North of Russia. Since 1935 the Institute has been pursuing comprehensive research of northern seas consistently expanding geography of its activities from Dalnie Zelentsy Bay (Kola Peninsula coast) to the Greenland Sea in the west and the Laptev Sea in the east. In 1996 the Institute has included the southern seas of Russia into the scope of its interests, and since then both the Barents Sea and the Sea of Azov have always been the focus of MMBI research activities.
Formerly MMBI RAS was included as a compound of the Kola Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2014, the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO Russia) is responsible for legal regulation and provision of public services in the sphere of activities carried out by the Institute, including federal property under MMBI management.
MMBI fundamental and applied studies deal with actual problems of climate, marine periglacial, bio-productivity, quaternary and modern geology, aquaculture, bioresources and environmental safety. Primary tasks include investigations of ecosystem processes, and monitoring of the Northern Sea Route, nuclear fleet bases, offshore oil and gas deposits and other areas of the Arctic which are subject to man-caused influence. MMBI also develops marine biotechnologies, works out simulation models of oceanologic processes, and makes environmental assessments of coastal and marine industrial projects.
MMBI possesses the research vessel Dalnie Zelentsy. More than 20 sea and coastal expeditions are carried out annually. This systematic and meticulous work enables the Institute to create and replenish unique oceanographic and biologic databases; to reconstruct the quaternary history of the Arctic nature development; to evaluate the current status of the flora and fauna of Arctic and southern seas; to investigate biota adaptive ways to environmental conditions (climatic changes, anthropogenic pressure); to take an active part in solving problems of nature management and biological diversity conservation in the interests of Russia and the Kola region.
MMBI publishes 5-6 books every year, conducts annually 3-4 international conferences, workshops and meetings, which are acknowledged by the wide scientific community both in Russia and abroad. Highly skilled marine biologists, oceanologists, geologists, physicists and chemists, and technical specialists work in the Institute.
MMBI's 80-year history and experience in multidisciplinary marine research, old traditions, and up-to-date scientific potential and reasonable strategy for further research activities give the Institute optimism and confidence in the future.
