Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies

Address: 5 Sukhe-Bator St, Irkutsk,
Contacts: tel. + 7 (3952) 24-18-70; 24-18-55
Website: biosoil.isu.ru
E-mail: dean@biof.isu.ru

Biology and Soil Studies is one of the oldest faculties of ISU, rich and glorious in traditions, its academic schools are internationally recognized.

The key to its success and high ranking is a highly professional team of lecturers, including 17 doctors of science, professors, 57 associate professors and strong ties with the institutions of the Irkutsk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, foreign scientific and educational institutions and large enterprises in the region.

The present and the future of the faculty are professionally oriented students, captivated by their future profession.

The faculty has 8 departments:

• Botany;
• Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology;
• Vertebrate Zoology and Ecology;
• Microbiology;
• Plant Physiology, Cell Biology and Genetics;
• Physiology and Psychophysiology;
• Physico -Chemical Biology;
• Soil Studies and Land Evaluation.

The faculty maintains contact with the relevant committees of the local authorities, with Russian universities, academic institutions of RAS, RAMS, RAAS, reserves of Siberia and the Far East, with public environmental organizations of the Irkutsk region and Russian regions, with a variety of enterprises. Students have their summer field trainings on the shores of Baikal.

The pride of the faculty are its four museums:

• V.Ch. Dorogostaisky Museum of Vertebrate Zoology;
• I.V. Nikolaev East Siberian Museum of Soil Studies;
• MM Kozhov East Siberian Museum of Microbiology;
• Baikal Museum. Founded in 1919, the Baikal Museum includes over 3,000 exhibits of animals, plants, and invertebrates living on or in Baikal. The museum plays an important role as a training base for biologists: its rich collections provide the basis for scientific research, and many visitors can get acquainted with the unique Baikal fauna. Numerous scientific studies have been conducted using the vast collection of materials from the faculty’s museum collections.

COURSES OF STUDY

BACHELOR DEGREE PROGRAM

Full-time study
Period of study – 4 years

MASTER DEGREE PROGRAM

Full-time study
Period of study – 2 years

RESEARCH

• Study of the peculiarities of the composition, genesis and allocation patterns of vegetation cover in the South of East Siberia
• Long-term dynamics of Baikal phytoplankton
• Study of the mechanisms of resistance among aquatic organisms to stressful environmental factors, for example, the highly specialized endemic species of Baikal
• Fauna, ecology and evolution of Baikal amphipods
• Processes of transformation and elimination of xenobiotics, biotesting of natural and waste waters
• Fauna and ecology of Baikal insects. Problems of invertebrate conservation.
• The structure of the fish population in the reservoirs of the Baikal Rift Zone (BRZ)
• Nutrition and food relationships of the fish of Lake Baikal and other water bodies in the south of East Siberia
• Assessment of anthropogenic impact on productivity of fishing ponds in the Irkutsk region
• Assessment of the current state of biodiversity in protected areas of the Irkutsk region.
• Grayling (Thymallus Cuvier, 1829) of the Holarctic (systematics, phylogeography, peculiarities of ecology)
• Soils of the Baikal region- chronicle of the natural and climatic conditions. Present ecological conditions and environmental management
• Study of the evolutionary, ecological and physiological aspects of functioning of biological subjects in East Siberia and the search for possible ways to use them in biotechnology
• A comparative study of the evolutionary histories of Baikal animals through comparing nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial genes
• Biochemistry and Microbiology of the decomposition of plant materials
• Biotechnological processing of raw vegetable materials, including the acquisition of useful products for agriculture, medicine, food industry and protection of environmental surroundings
• The study of polysaccharides of plant origin to estimate their pre-biotic activity
• Biotechnological potential of microbial communities in the low temperature habitats
• Cytological and molecular bases of animals’ chemoreception resulting from their ecology and life-cycle phases
• Impact of aero emissions from industrial facilities producing aluminium on soil microcenosis, and safety of agricultural products
• Study of structural and functional disorders of mitochondria in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis
• Study of bacterial metals leaching from the waste piles of a surface coal mine

The faculty offers interdisciplinary summer practice on the basis of the station in the village of Bolshie Koty, Lake Baikal, internships, schools and seminars in botany, zoology, hydrobiology, ichthyology, Baikal studies”.