News

The most detailed map of the landscape under the Antarctic ice sheet to date has been created by a team of international scientists under the Head of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and with the participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute. The map, called Bedmap3, covers more than six decades of survey data collected by aeroplanes, satellites, ships and even dogsleds. The results will be published this week in the journal Scientific Data.

On Tuesday, 18 February 2025 as part of a specialist appointment, Federal Minister of Research Cem Özdemir visited the thyssenkrupp Marine Systems shipyard in Wismar. There, he was informed about the current state of construction regarding the new research icebreaker Polarstern for the Alfred Wegener Institute. Shortly before Christmas 2024, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, with support from the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag, had approved the award of contract. With Bettina Martin, Minister of Science for the Federal State of…

Countless tiny icequakes occur deep inside ice streams, as an international research team has been able to demonstrate for the first time. This allows the flow of the ice streams and the associated change in sea level to be estimated more precisely. The quakes are responsible for the fact that ice streams also move with a continuous stick-slip motion and not only like viscous honey as previously considered. The underlying seismic data from inside the NEGIS ice stream in north-east Greenland was recorded by researchers in a 2,665-metre-deep borehole using…

Global warming is producing a rapid loss of plant species – according to estimates, roughly 600 plant species have died out since 1750 – twice the number of animal species lost. But which species are hit hardest? And how does altered biodiversity actually affect interactions between plants? Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute have tackled these questions and, in two recent studies, presented the answers they found buried in the past: using fragments of plant genetic material (DNA) deposited in lake sediments, they were able to gain new insights…

Shrimp in European supermarkets is almost exclusively sourced from farms outside the EU - often without any proof that it has been farmed in a welfare-compliant way. In the ShrimpWiz project, a consortium led by the Alfred Wegener Institute in cooperation with the company Oceanloop is investigating how indoor shrimp farming can be established in Europe and around the world that guarantees animal welfare and is economically viable for companies. They are using computer vision to automatically examine and care for the animals. 

It is a historic milestone for climate research: an international research team involving the Alfred Wegener Institute has successfully drilled a 2,800 metre-long ice core , reaching the bedrock beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. In the fourth Antarctic season of the European Commission-funded project "Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice", the team was able to drill ice that contains a continuous record of the history of our climate as far back as 1.2 million years ago - and probably beyond. The previous age record comes from the EPICA core drilled in 2004, which…

In the Arctic, the old, multiyear ice is increasingly melting, dramatically reducing the frequency and size of pressure ridges. These ridges are created when ice floes press against each other and become stacked, and are a characteristic feature of Arctic sea ice, an obstacle for shipping, but also an essential component of the ecosystem. In a recently released study in the journal Nature Climate Change, experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute report on this trend and analyse observational data from three decades of aerial surveys.

Good news for the German research fleet, German shipbuilding, and international polar research alike: the new Polarstern will be constructed in Wismar by thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.  company received the official contract to construct a new research icebreaker from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) today, marking the end of a two and a half-year-long Europe-wide call for tenders. The new flagship of German climate research will cost an estimated 1.185 billion euros. Following five years of construction, she is to be handed over to the research…

After several years of service under harsh weather conditions, the rotor blades of offshore wind parks are subjected to degradation and surface erosion, releasing sizeable quantities of particle emissions into the environment. A team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now investigated the effects of these particle on blue mussels – a species also being considered for the multi-use of wind parks for aquaculture. In the experiment, the mussels absorbed metals from the rotor blades’ coatings, as the team describes in a study just…

Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, heatwaves at sea – 2023 set a number of alarming new records. The global mean temperature also rose to nearly 1.5 degrees above the preindustrial level, another record. Seeking to identify the causes of this sudden rise has proven a challenge for researchers. After all, factoring in the effects of anthropogenic influences like the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, of the weather phenomenon El Niño, and of natural events like volcanic eruptions, can account for a major portion of the warming. But…