News

Oldenburg. A German-American research team led by Professor Iliana Baums from the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB) and Dr Samuel Vohsen from Lehigh University in the US has discovered two highly unusual bacterial species in the tissue of two deep-sea corals from the Gulf of Mexico. These previously unknown coral symbionts have an extremely reduced genome and lack the ability to obtain energy from carbohydrates, the team reports in an article published in the scientific journal Nature…

The Amazon region is a global hotspot of biodiversity and plays a key role in the climate system because of its ability to store large amounts of carbon and its influence on the global water cycle. The rain forest is threatened, however, by climate change as well as by intensified deforestation activities. An international team of researchers that includes scientists from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, the Geosciences Department, the Institute for Environmental Physics of the University of Bremen and the Alfred Wegener Institute, have…

Flatfish and shrimp are caught in the North Sea by using trawls that are dragged across the seabed. This releases carbon into the water and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, as shown by the latest research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon. The study is part of the collaborative project APOC. Partners are the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND). The researcher's effort for…

A combination of multiple stressors reduces the acclimation potential of Atlantic herring larvae. A recent study shows that an increased temperatures and bacterial exposure together impair the larval stress response. The outcomes of the study highlight the high sensitivity of herring early life stages towards multiple climate change-related stressors. The study was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment by scientists from the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), the Alfred…

National and international water policy must adapt to ongoing, accelerated changes in the global water cycle and respond to them quickly and comprehensively. This is the key message of the WBGU report 'Water in a heated world', which the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) today presented to Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Mario Brandenburg.

The Arctic is a key region for global environmental changes and developments in security policy that also concern Germany. In the following, Dr Volker Rachold, head of the Arctic Office at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), explains why the federal government has updated its Arctic policy guidelines in view of the rapid climate warming and geopolitical changes like the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. On 18 October, these revised guidelines – which the Arctic Office contributed to – will be…

Toxic trace elements such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium naturally occur in small quantities in coastal seas. However, human activities, such as industry and agriculture, contribute significantly larger amounts. A new study has examined how climate change already affects the distribution and accumulation of these elements and how it could impact them in the future. One of the findings: Climate-related natural events are releasing more contaminants, which pose a risk to both human and animal health. However, there is still insufficient knowledge…

Microbes were the only life form on Earth for most of the history of our planet. Even today, they still make up the majority of species that are vital to the health of our planet. They produce much of our oxygen, help plants grow, maintain biogeochemical cycles and thus sustain our ecosystems. A. Murat Eren, a researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM) and the Carl von…

The 21st Coastal Summer School, which brought 17 young researchers from eight countries to the Biological Institute Helgoland, came to an end. This year, the participants delved deep into topics relating to offshore wind farms and get an idea of how they can be integrated into ecosystems in various ways. The Alfred Wegener Institute, the Helmholtz Center Hereon and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, together with other research institutions, gave participants theoretical and practical insights into their projects, while an industry…

The doors of our Wadden Sea Station on Sylt were open to the public on Saturday, 7 September - and the interest of Sylt residents, islanders and tourists in celebrating our 100th birthday was huge.