Tyrtikov, Alexey Pavlovich

Alexey Pavlovich Tyrtikov ^[1] was born in the village of Lykovo, Vladimir Region, on February 14, 1922 into a peasant family. In 1939, he entered the Faculty of Biology of Moscow University . In 1942 he was drafted into the army. In August-September 1945, as a commander of a sapper platoon (special mine company), he participated in the defeat of Japanese troops in Manchuria . He graduated from the biology faculty of Moscow State University in 1947 and was left in graduate school. Since that time, all scientific activity has been connected with the North. In 1952, Alexei Pavlovich defended his thesis "Distribution of root systems and tree growth depending on the temperature of the soil in the Igarka region." Since 1954, as a senior researcher at the Institute of permafrost science of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he has been participating in expeditions to Yakutia (the valleys of the Yana , Indigirka , Selemdzha , Aldan Plateaus ), North-Eastern and Western Siberia. In 1957-1960 he worked at the Igark Permafrost Station. In 1963, Aleksey Pavlovich returned to Moscow University, Department of Geobotany ^[2] , where he continued research on plant life and vegetation dynamics in permafrost soils, took part in the development of the inter-faculty problem “Natural Resources of Western Siberia and Their Economic Use”. He participated in all-Union and international conferences on the northern subjects, actively worked in the biology section of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology . Every year he conducted field research in the tundra of the Yamal , Gydansky , Tazovsky peninsulas, as well as in the forest-tundra and northern taiga from the Ob to the Yenisei , on the Kola Peninsula , and other regions of the North of the USSR. On expeditions, he was accompanied by students and graduate students who performed work under his leadership. Among the students of A.P. Tyrtikov who gained fame in the scientific world, N. S. Aralov and S. A. Balandin should be mentioned. E. B. Pospelov, O. B. Signalov, Yu. P. Soldatenkov, A. A. Tishkov ^[3] Daughter of A. P. Tyrtikov, Konstantinova N. A. ^[4] - a recognized authority in the field of bryology, a leading specialist -hepatikologist (researcher of the liver ), doctor of sciences, professor. A.P. Tyrtikov was a keen photographer. His photographs illustrate both his own work and the work of colleagues.

A.P. Tyrtikov is recognized in the scientific community as one of the founders of the modern theory of the interaction of vegetation and permafrost, the influence of vegetation on seasonal thawing and freezing of soils, and the development of permafrost forms. Long-term studies of plant communities representing succession series in the strip of rare-standing forests and forest-tundra led him to the conclusion that the tundra was attacking the forest (contrary to the usual view) as a result of changes in the thermal regime of soils under the influence of fires and humans. The provisions of A.P. Tyrtikov firmly entered into modern permafrost (geocryology) , cryolithology , and engineering geology. A. P. Tyrtikov created a unique lecture course “Tundra Studies”, which he gave for more than 20 years to students of the biology faculty of Moscow State University. There are no textbooks for this course either in Russia or abroad. Based on the patterns of vegetation dynamics revealed by A.P. Tyrtikov, lately it has been possible to come close to solving the problem of the origin of ice-saturated upper horizons of permafrost, understanding the mechanisms of thermokarst . Extremely relevant provisions on the impact of catastrophic changes of vegetation on thawing soils (as a result of fires). These developments are widely used in the preparation of permafrost forecasting, solving the problems of land reclamation in industrial development, and paleogeographic reconstructions of the Holocene . It should be noted a number of significant reviews on the physiological ecology of tundra plants published in recent years of the scientist (1980-1985).

• The growth of tree roots in length at the northern limit of forests. // Bull. MOIP. Otd. Biol. 1954.T.59, No. 1
• The effect of vegetation on the freezing and thawing of soils. M., 1969
• Vegetation cover dynamics and permafrost development in Western Siberia. M., 1974.
• The dynamics of vegetation and the development of permafrost landforms. M., 1979.
• Forest at the northern limit in Asia. M., 1996. 144 p. ISBN 5-87317-006-1

• Abramova L.I., Gubanov I.A., Rabotnov T.A. Department of Geobotany of Moscow University. 75 years since the foundation. M., 2004. ISBN 5-8125-0553-5
• In memory of Alexei Pavlovich Tyrtikov (1922-1989) // Bull. MOIP. Sep. biol. 1991.V. 96, issue 3. S.138-144 (with a portrait and a full list of published works).