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The new German research base Neumayer Station III can be seen in its final form for the very first time. A new milestone in the construction of the station is reached after the successful completion of the outer shell. The Shell protects the upper two floors - which are comprised of container modules - from exterior weather conditions.

The German research vessel Polarstern is currently on its way to the Southwest Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean. The team of 48 scientists (30 from India) on board left Cape Town on 7th January to carry out the Indo-German iron fertilization experiment LOHAFEX (LOHA is Hindi for iron, FEX stands for Fertilization EXperiment).

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the engineering company Wärtsilä Ship Design Germany presented the technical design of the European Research Icebreaker „Aurora Borealis“ in Berlin. As a combination of a heavy icebreaker, a scientific drilling ship and a multi-purpose research platform it is planned to operate year-round in all polar waters.

Changes to marine ecosystems caused by climatic conditions show how closely physiological and ecological processes are intertwined. This is described by Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Pörtner, physiological ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, in the current issue of the periodical Science.

The German research vessel Polarstern has returned today to Bremerhaven from the Arctic Sea. It has cruised as the first research vessel ever both the Northeast and the Northwest Passages and thereby circled the North Pole. The third part of the research vessel’s 23rd Arctic expedition, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute in the Helmholtz Association, started its journey on August 12th in Reykjavik and ended it on October 17th in Bremerhaven. The ship travelled a distance of 10.800 nautical miles, equivalent to 20.000 kilometres. On board were 47…

A large international group of researchers succeeded in sequencing the genome of a marine alga. The periodical nature reports that it is the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum (“The Phaeodactylum genome reveals the evolutionary history of diatom genomes” nature online, October 15th 2008). The researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association who participated in the research project concentrated primarily on this diatom’s evolution.

The joint graduate programme “Earth System Science Research School” (ESSReS) will be inaugurated today in Bremerhaven. The interdisciplinary graduate programme will train 24 PhD-students of geo- and climate sciences during the next three years. Apart from the doctorate, far-reaching skills in geo-, bio- and climate sciences will be confirmed for the PhD-students. The research training group is a joint project of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, the University of Bremen and Jacobs University Bremen.…

They come from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Madagascar or the Seychelles: 13 representatives of the Hydrographical Surveys and Mapping Agencies from eleven nations bordering the Indian Ocean are currently participating in a two-week course at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. The aim is to correctly evaluate the threats originating from tsunami events.

The Arctic summer nears its end and the minimum extent of sea ice is reached. The Arctic ice cover amounted to 4.5 million square kilometres on September 12th. This is slightly more than the lowest ice cover ever measured: 4.1 million square kilometres in the year 2007. Scientists are anxious about the development of sea ice because the long-time mean is 2.2 million square kilometres higher. This development did not come about completely unexpectedly, however. A model calculation conducted at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in…