Polar regions are critically implicated in our understanding of global climate change. This is particularly the case for the Arctic, where positive feedback loops and climate tipping points enhance complexity and urgency. Half of the Arctic and much of the world’s permafrost zone lie within Russian territory. Heightened geopolitical tensions, however, have severely damaged scientific collaboration between Russia and previously well established academic partners in western countries. Isolation is now causing increasingly large data gaps in arctic research that affect our ability to make accurate predictions of the impact of climate change on natural and societal systems at all scales from local to global. Here, we argue that options to resume both practical knowledge of collaborative working and flows of research data from Russia for global arctic science must continue to be asserted, despite an increasing tendency for the Arctic to become disconnected. Time is short, as preparations for the fifth International Polar Year begin to gather momentum. While sanctions remain in place, efforts to foster peer to peer connections and re-activate effective institutional cooperation are vital to address the grand challenges of global climate change.

极地地区对于我们对全球气候变化的理解至关重要。北极地区尤其如此，那里的正反馈循环和气候临界点增强了复杂性和紧迫性。一半的北极和世界大部分永久冻土带位于俄罗斯境内。然而，地缘政治紧张局势加剧严重损害了俄罗斯与西方国家此前良好的学术合作伙伴之间的科学合作。孤立现在正在导致北极研究中的数据差距越来越大，影响我们准确预测气候变化对从地方到全球各个尺度的自然和社会系统的影响的能力。在这里，我们认为，尽管北极脱节的趋势日益明显，但必须继续主张恢复协作工作的实践知识和来自俄罗斯的全球北极科学研究数据流的选择。时间紧迫，第五届国际极地年的筹备工作已开始紧锣密鼓。尽管制裁仍然存在，但努力促进同行联系并重新启动有效的机构合作对于应对全球气候变化的重大挑战至关重要。