Lake Baikal, (continued)

For this expedition Tatyana has assembled a research team that includes fellow Limnological Institute scientist Marina Podtyazhkina, German mollusk expert Peter Roepstorf, Swiss ecology student Mischa Classen, and Tatyana's own 12-year-old daughter Natasha, a veteran of one prior expedition.

The mood on the G. Titov is one of expectation tinged with impatience: the expedition is almost three days late getting started. Budget constraints -- a relatively new phenomenon for scientists in Russia, where for years the Soviet government provided full funding of scientific institutes -- have forced several postponements, while institute officials searched for a source of affordable fuel for the ship.

"Once we finally got the fuel," says Tatyana, her voice rising with irritation, "we had to wait for clean sheets, which were late. And then I had to go to the market to get food for the trip. I had to look around for a while to find the cheapest cabbage."

"I never used to have any idea how much it cost to mount an expedition," she says. "There was no need to; everything was covered by the institute. But now they can't afford to fund expeditions, so we have to find other sources of money, and keep very close track of our spending. We still manage to complete the same number of expeditions each year, but the difference is that now we have to spend many hours writing grant proposals and searching for money."



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