News

When plastic ends up in the ocean, it gradually weathers and disintegrates into small particles. If marine animals ingest these particles, their health can be severely affected. Large accumulations of plastic can therefore disrupt the biological balance of marine ecosystems. But which areas are particularly affected? In a recent study, a research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), in collaboration with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), has found large quantities of plastic waste and microplastics in a remote marine…

Yesterday, the Chairman of the Arctic Circle, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, visited the Arctic Office at the AWI site in Potsdam. He first visited the Radialsystem in Berlin and then met with staff of the Arctic Office to discuss the Arctic Circle Forum, which will take place on 7-8 May. Representatives of the German Foreign Office also attended the meeting.

Marine ecosystems are an important part of our earth and climate system: they are home to a wide variety of animal and plant species, produce about half of the oxygen in our atmosphere and provide humans with food. However, their structures and functions are changing under the influence of human activities and climate change: overfishing and pollution, tourism or warming water and changes in ocean circulation are affecting marine ecosystems. In order to better understand how they react to the dynamics of the Earth-human system and how they adapt, the…

Continental glaciers and ice sheets are excellent indicators of current and past climate changes. The Patagonian ice sheet was the largest ice sheet in the Southern Hemisphere apart from the Antarctic in the Earth's history. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now used a sediment core to demonstrate the climate sensitivity of this ice sheet over the last 140,000 years and published their findings in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academie of Sciences.

"Polar Ocean Mitigation Potential" (POMP) is a new EU project involving 16 partners, including the AWI. The aim of the research project is to investigate the effects of climate change on polar biodiversity and the CO2 absorption capacity of ecosystems in polar regions. The kick-off meeting took place from 27 to 29 February 2024 in Copenhagen to discuss future steps and to organise the workflows. The project is led by Aarhus University in Denmark and funded by the EU Horizon Programme. More information.

From now on, a network of 50 partner institutes will provide access to polar research infrastructures. Over the next five years, the European Union will provide 14.6 million euros in funding for the new POLARIN project (Polar Research Infrastructure Network). Slated to officially launch on 1st March 2024, the project will promote interdisciplinary research that addresses the scientific challenges in both polar regions.

Exceeding 2 °C of global warming compared to the pre-industrial period is likely to result in significantly increased deep water temperatures in the Filchner Trough in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, reports a modelling study lead by researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute and published in Communications Earth & Environment. This warmer water could lead to a significantly increased melting rate of the Filchner Ronne Antarctic ice shelf, resulting in a substantial rise in global sea levels.

The Institut Océanographique de Monaco and the Centre Scientifique de Monaco have each signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the AWI to promote cooperation in polar and marine research. AWI Director Antje Boetius signed the agreements today in Monaco. The aim is to promote common interests in environmental and earth system research. Through cooperation in research, logistics and scientific events, both institutions aim to make the best use of their resources.

The Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier – also known as the 79° North Glacier – on the northeast coast of Greenland flows directly into a fjord, where it forms an 80-kilometre-long tongue of floating ice. Although the tongue hasn’t lost much length during the past several decades, it has grown thinner and thinner. A team from the Alfred Wegener Institute can now tell us why. By applying a computer-based model, they were able to show that warm water from the Atlantic flows into the European North Sea and ultimately into the cavern under the glacier tongue,…

The Arctic is changing rapidly due to climate change. It is not only affected by increasing surface temperatures, but also by warm water from the Atlantic, which is flowing in more and more – changing the structures and functions of the ecosystem as it also leads to species from warmer regions, like jellyfish, arriving in the Arctic. Using DNA metabarcoding, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now been able to prove for the first time that these jellyfish serve as food for amphipods on Svalbard during the polar night and thus play a…