The Research Station Samoylov Island is situated in the Lena Delta in the northeast of Siberia (Russian Arctic). The delta extends over 150 kilometres into the Laptev Sea and represents one of Russia’s largest conservation areas. The region is crucial to understanding the processes affecting the permafrost of the Siberian Arctic. The station is operated by the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, and mainly used by the Russian-German LENA research expeditions, which continue from spring to autumn every year. These activities are primarily organised by three institutes: the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (Germany), the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (St. Petersburg) and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Yakutsk). Samoylov Island (N 72°22’, E 126°29’) can be reached from Tiksi by helicopter (45 minutes), by motorboat (4 hours) or, when the waters freeze over, by all-terrain vehicles (8 hours).
The station can host up to 20 scientists. The field work during the expeditions LENA aims at investigating the evolution of the region’s geology, climate, and biology during the Quaternary with a special focus on the interaction of the permafrost landscapes with recent climate warming and its consequences. Several long-term measurement sites for the monitoring of permafrost conditions, micrometeorology, trace gas exchange, biology, etc. are installed on the island and have been providing important data for the expeditions and the research community as a whole since 1998.