The study gives a morphofunctional assessment of the state of the thyroid gland of tundra voles (Microtus oeconomus Pall.) in conditions of an increased radiation background (the Ukhta district of the Komi Republic (Russia) and the 30-km zone of the Chernobyl NPP), as well as in an experiment with chronic external gamma irradiation in the low dose range. The work summarizes the experience of more than 35 years of field and laboratory research. The authors have noted the high sensitivity of the thyroid gland to chronic radiation against the general irradiation of the organism both in natural conditions and in the experiment. The repeatability of the observed effects in voles from natural populations and the comparability of some effects with the morphological changes occurring in animals after exposure to ionizing radiation in the experiment indicates the radiation nature of these effects. The tundra voles living in conditions of increased radiation background have been identified for a greater variety of morphological rearrangements in the thyroid parenchyma than the experimental animals. The complex and ambiguous nature of the thyroid gland responses to radiation exposure indicates the possibility of a significant increase in the risk of negative effects of ionizing radiation in contrast with the expected results of biological effects\' extrapolation from high to low doses.

The priority of state policy of the Russian Federation is to make conditions for sustainable social economic development of national regions, including the territories of the Arctic Zone. The successful solution of these tasks is possible only if there is sufficient amount of labor resources and at achieving positive dynamics of main demographic processes. The purpose of the study is to establish characteristics of both dynamics of main demographic processes and reproductive health of Northerners as exemplified by the Republic of Komi.
METHODS: The retrospective ecological epidemiological study was carried out using reports of the Federal statistical observation. To evaluate demographic processes the values of main demographic parameters were calculated. To analyze dynamics of demographic processes time series of demographic coefficients were constructed and values of growth rate indicators were calculated.
RESULTS: The number of male and female population of the Komi Republic in 1990-2023 decreased by 46.5% and 37.1%. The specific weight of people older than able-bodied age increased in males from 4.9% to 14.7% and in females from 15.7% to 31.6%. The number of females of fertile age (16-49 years) in the Komi Republic decreased by 152.602 people (-47.5%) and their general fertility rate decreased by 33.3%. The birth rate in the group of young women aged 15-19 years decreased in 1990-2021 by 80.1%; and of women aged 20-24 years decreased by 60.4%. The frequency of abortions tends to decrease, but significantly exceeds the national average values.
CONCLUSIONS: The replacement-level fertility is not achieved in the Komi Republic. Taking into account the peculiarities of demographic, social economic processes, it is necessary to develop and to implement regional program of reproductive health improvement.

UNASSIGNED: The role of soil invertebrates in the cycle of substances, soil-forming processes and the provision of ecosystem services is undeniable. Therefore, soil invertebrates are valuable in bioindication studies. Comprehensive research of soil invertebrates in the production area of Mondi Syktyvkar JSC as the largest pulp and paper enterprise in the European part of Russia was initiated in 2003. A huge amount of data about composition, abundance and structure of soil macro- and mesofauna along an impact gradient was accumulated during the period from 2003 to 2019 years. These data can be used to study local biodiversity, monitor the state of soil invertebrate communities and assess the impact of the pulp and paper industry on the environment.
UNASSIGNED: Datasets here presented include information from a monitoring programme for soil invertebrates that inhabit coniferous forests in the production area of Mondi Syktyvkar JSC (Komi Republic). The assemblages\' structure of macrofauna, collembolans and nematodes are described. Information on the number of individuals of springtail species, nematodes genera and macrofauna taxa is given. A total of 11146 sampling events of macrofauna, 6673 sampling events of Collembola, and 2592 sampling events of Nematoda are recorded along a gradient of air pollution from pulp and paper industry emissions.

BACKGROUND: Invertebrates are important elements of aquatic ecosystems and play a crucial role in the transformation of matter and energy in continental water bodies. Communities of aquatic invertebrates are characterised by high sensitivity to pollution by nutrients and toxic substances and acidification of water bodies; they serve as good bioindicators of the quality of the aquatic environment and impacts on hydroecosystems. All hydrobionts participate in the processes of self-purification of water bodies.The presented dataset provides information on the aquatic invertebrate community of a large northern river. During 2018-2020, we collected data on changes in the quantitative indicators of the development of benthic and planktonic communities, as well as the species diversity of their fauna. The dataset combines information about the occurrence and abundance of benthic and planktonic invertebrates and summarises data of aquatic invertebrate species found in the Vychegda River in the zone of influence from the pulp and paper mill.
CONCLUSIONS: The presented dataset is part of a monitoring programme of the river ecosystems in the production area of Mondi Syktyvkar JSC (the European North-East of Russia, Komi Republic). The dataset describes the structure of benthic invertebrate and plankton communities in the Northern Dvina River Basin. The data on the finding and abundance of large taxa of aquatic invertebrates and species of some groups: Oligochaeta, Cladocera, Copepoda, Rotifera, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera are presented. In total, the resource includes 8720 findings of invertebrates, of which 6041 are for zoobenthos organisms and 2679 for zooplankton organisms.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the data paper was to introduce into scientific literature the results of scientific work carried out for the third edition of the \'Red Data Book of the Komi Republic\'. The article reflects methodological approaches to the formation of a list of rare and in need of protection species and describes the corresponding datasets published in GBIF.
CONCLUSIONS: Information about 7,187 occurrences of 438 rare species and infraspecies included in the third edition of the \'Red Data Book of the Komi Republic\' have been published.

UNASSIGNED: The dataset with 49,726 bryophytes occurrences (49,261 moss occurrences and 465 liverworts occurrences), located predominantly on the territory European north-east Russia, is described in this data paper. The dataset was based on the digitised moss labels from the Institute of Biology of Komi Scientific Сenter of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences herbarium (SYKO). The information from the labels was recognised, cleaned and brought into compliance with the Darwin Core. More than 99.9% of occurrences were georeferenced with a precision of at least 3 km. For each occurrence, the original label image URL was given. The dataset contains occurrences of 539 moss and liverworts taxa (species and lower ranks) belonging to 190 genera and 75 families.
UNASSIGNED: Information about 49,726 bryophytes occurrences was published in GBIF. The dataset was based on label data of 94% of SYKO herbarium moss collection specimens. Most of the occurrences were described with the following fields: occurrenceID, institutionID, collectionCode, catalogNumber, basisOfRecord, scientificName, taxonRank, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, recordedBy, identifiedBy, associatedMedia, day, month, year, country, countryCode, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, geodeticDatum, coordinateUncertaintyInMetres, georeferencedBy.

Occurrences of the invasive plant species Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden. in the Komi Republic (northeastern part of European Russia) were recorded and published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF http://www.gbif.org) using the RIVR information system (http://ib.komisc.ru/add/rivr/en). RIVR stands for \"Rasprostranenie Invasionnyh Vidov Rastenij\" [Occurrence of Invasion Plant Species]. This citizen science project aims at collecting occurrence data about invasive plant species with the help of citizen scientists. Information can be added by any user after a simple registration (concept) process. However, the data published in GBIF are provided only by professional scientists. The total study area is approximately 19,000 km2. The GBIF resource contains 10894 Heracleum sosnowskyi occurrence points, each with their geographical coordinates and photographs of the plants in the locus of growth. The preliminary results of species distribution modelling on the territory of European North-East Russia presented.

The number of tick-borne infections in the northern European regions of Russia has increased considerably in the last years. In the present study, 676 unfed adult Ixodes persulcatus ticks were collected in the Komi Republic from 2011 to 2013 to study tick-borne rickettsioses. Rickettsia spp. DNA was detected by PCR in 51 (7.6%) ticks. The nucleotide sequence analysis of gltA fragments (765bp) from 51 ticks indicated that 60.8% and 39.2% of the ticks were infected with Rickettsia helvetica and Candidatus R. tarasevichiae, respectively. The gltA fragments showed 100% identity with those of Candidatus R. tarasevichiae previously discovered in Siberia and China, whereas R. helvetica showed 99.9% sequence identity with European isolates. The ompB had 8 nucleotide substitutions, 6 of which resulted in amino acid substitutions. In the sca9 gene, 3 nucleotide substitutions were detected, and only one resulted in amino acid substitution. The smpA, ompW, and β-lactamase genes of R. helvetica also showed a high level of sequence identity.

The causes of the recent rise of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) incidence in Europe are discussed. Our objective was to estimate the impact of air temperature change on TBE incidence in the European part of the Russian Arctic.
We analysed the TBE incidence in the Komi Republic (RK) over a 42-year period in relation to changes in local annual average air temperature, air temperature during the season of tick activity, tick abundance, TBE-prevalence in ticks, tick-bite incidence rate, and normalised difference vegetation index within the area under study.
In 1998-2011 in RK a substantial growth of TBE virus (TBEV) prevalence both in questing and feeding ticks was observed. In 1992-2011 there was 23-fold growth of the tick-bite incidence rate in humans, a northward shift of the reported tick bites, and the season of tick bites increased from 4 to 6 months. In 1998-2011 there was more than 6-fold growth of average annual TBE incidence compared with 1970-1983 and 1984-1997 periods. This resulted both from the northward shift of TBE, and its growth in the south. In our view it was related to local climate change as both the average annual air temperature, and the air temperature during the tick activity season grew substantially. We revealed in RK a strong correlation between the change in the air temperature and that in TBE incidence. The satellite data showed NDVI growth within RK, i.e. alteration of the local ecosystem under the influence of climate change.
The rise in TBE incidence in RK is related considerably to the expansion of the range of Ixodes persulcatus. The territory with reported TBE cases also expanded northward. Climate change is an important driver of TBE incidence rate growth.