The protected nature area system in Russia is well developed in general, although not as well in the Arctic. On 1 January 1994 the total area of all types of Arctic reserves covered about 19.7 million ha, comprising about 10.2% of the area of the Russian Arctic. There are five categories of protected nature areas: strict nature reserwes (zapovedniki), national nature parks (natsional'nyye parki), nature monuments (pamyatniki prirody), special purpose reserves (zakazniki), and nature-ethnic parks (prirodno-etnicheskiye parki). The system of the zapovednik is unique. The oldest strict nature reserve in the Arctic is Kandalakshskiy (1939). Other major nature reserves include Ostrov Vrangelya (created in 1976), Taymyrskiy (1979), Ust-Lenskiy (1985), and Bol'shoy Arkticheskiy (1993). The first nature-ethnic park in the Arctic, Beringiya, was established in 1993. Because of the unstable economic and political situation in Russia, the nature protection system has a difficult time. Furthermore, the legal structure that defines the purpose of and responsibility for these areas is sometimes not completely clear, and a great deal is dependent on presidential decrees that, through time, have limited validity. The cooperation of Russian, western European, and North American scientists who study birds breeding in the Russian Arctic and migration patterns to temperate regions could give major support to the nature re-serves in the Russian Arctic.

The insect fauna of Heard Island were investigated on the ChallengerExpedition in 1875 (Kirby 1884); the Deutsche Sudpolar-Expedition in 1902 (VanHöffen 1912); and the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition in 1951/52(Brown 1964; Gressitt and Temple 1970; Home 1984). With the addition of Lepidoptera in these last reports, six orders of insects were recognised as occurring on Heard Island, the others being Collembola, Coleoptera, Diptera, Siphonaptera, and Mallophaga. The present note reports the addition of a seventh order, Thysanoptera, to the fauna.

The effects of trampling on six types of vegetation and their underlying soils were investigated on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. One hundred and fifty foot-passes per year for at least the past 10 years have occurred on a typical 6-km stretch of walking track on the island's upland plateau. Trampling favours vascular plants including exotics, especially Poa annua, while bryophytes and lichens are more common in undisturbed vegetation. The abundance of 19 of the 39 most common species appears to be affected by trampling. Track width is positively correlated with exposure and wet soils, and trampling increases the soil bulk density of the track. The contrast between the soil bulk density of the trampled and untrampled soils increases with increasing exposure. While present environmental damage is within an acceptable range over the majority of the island, the extreme environments are likely to suffer unacceptable levels of damage if increased usage occurs with more tourism or expansion of scientific and related activities. This is demonstrated by the diversion of a short section of plateau track in an atypically heavily used area; the diversion sustained substantial damage after 890 foot-passes during a 15-month period.

As is well-known, Kotzebue Sound in Alaska is named after Otto von Kotzebue, who surveyed the area during his second circumnavigation of the globein 1815–1818. However, Otto was not the only member of his family worthy of attention. His father, August von Kotzebue, was the author of Count Benyowsky, one of the earliest plays the action of which is set in the north. The work was written in German in 1794 and was widely translated. In English, in B. Thompson's translation of 1800, it received the subtitle ‘The conspiracy of Kamtschatka.’