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Good news from the emperor penguin colony near the German Neumayer Station III in Antarctica's Atka Bay: The food mash fed by the adults is free of microplastics larger than 500 micrometres. This is the result of an analysis of the stomachs of 41 young emperor penguins, which researchers have now published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Before they reach the age of one, young emperor penguins from Atka Bay, near the German Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic, swim far north, beyond the 50th parallel south. Consequently, the current and planned Marine Protected Areas fail to offer them sufficient protection, as researchers including experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute contend in a study just released in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

In the past several years, East Siberia has repeatedly been hit by extreme wildfires. In order to understand which conditions promote the occurrence of wildfires in the region, a team of researchers led by Ramesh Glückler and Elisabeth Dietze from the Alfred Wegener Institute has now investigated the connections between wildfire activity and forest structures in East Siberia for a period beginning roughly 10,000 years ago. To do so, they used lake sediments to reconstruct environmental changes during the timeframe in question. The experts assume there…

On 30 August, 14 young investigators from around the globe will depart from Bremerhaven, bound for Cape Town. During the cruise, known as the North South Atlantic Training Transect, they’ll gain valuable insights into the marine sciences and conduct brief projects on the interactions between the ocean, atmosphere and climate. They’ll take with them three mini-boats constructed by schoolchildren from Germany, Ireland and Spain, containing instruments to measure the air and water temperature.

Dying reefs and once-vibrant corals that have since lost all colour: climate change is having massive effects on the architects of undersea cities. As waters grow warmer, the phenomenon of “coral bleaching” continues to spread. Yet not all corals are equally susceptible. An international team led by Cesar Pacherres and Moritz Holtappels from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven and Soeren Ahmerkamp from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen may have found the explanation:…

Oceans have their own unique soundscape. Many marine organisms, for example, use sound for echolocation, navigation or communication with conspecifics. In recent decades, however, more and more sounds caused by human activities are permeating the waters. A study by the Alfred Wegener Institute now presents evidence that these sounds affect some invertebrates that live in and on the seafloor in ways that important functions they provide for their ecosystems may be impacted.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) refers to a pattern of climatic fluctuations in the tropical Pacific, which, over time, produce major changes in the temperature distribution and currents in the ocean. Humans, animals and even entire ecosystems can feel the effects of ENSO – particularly in the form of the extreme events El Niño and La Niña. Yet we still have no definitive explanation of how global warming influences ENSO, or on whether El Niño and La Niña will be more frequent and intense in the future, or less frequent and weaker. An…

The Research Vessel Polarstern was in the Arctic for the past seven weeks. There, the summertime sea-ice extent declined by ca. 40 percent over the past 40 years – making it one of the most visible impacts of climate change. In order to better grasp such changes, the research teams on board the Polarstern investigated Atlantic Water Recirculation in Fram Strait and in the marginal ice zone north of Svalbard, as well as ocean/glacier interactions off the coast of Greenland. Central research questions included how the ice conditions, ocean heat fluxes and…

In order to understand the Earth as one system and find effective solutions for global challenges, German Geosciences need to be modernised with Earth System Science as the future operating framework. This is the recommendation made by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in its Report on Tomorrow’s Science “Earth System Science: Discovery, Diagnosis, and Solutions in Times of Global Change”. The report, to which AWI Director Antje Boetius contributed, provides an overview of the field of research and proposes steps to be taken.

At the end of June, Albert II, Prince of Monaco visited the French-German research base AWIPEV in Ny-Ålesund / Spitsbergen, which is operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV). The highlight of the visit was the launch of the weather balloon, performed by the Prince himself. (Picture: Oceanographic Institute - Olivier Borde)