Special features and challenges

Politics also touches research

After the submission of the research proposal and the logistical planning of the Aleutbio expedition, for which a Russian work permit was already available, the war in Ukraine broke out. From the German side (based on the recommendation of the Alliance of German Science Organizations of February 25, 2022), the scientific relations with Russia, which had been very vital until then, were frozen, including the AleutBio expedition, which had been planned for years and will now start in Dutch Harbor (USA) on July 24, 2022 and end in Vancouver on September 6, 2022 as planned. Other stations will be sampled, but the overarching questions will be maintained. The expedition is now a German mission in U.S. waters of the eastern Aleutian Trench (see map of study area above).