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For the first time the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has today published a Report on the status of the global permafrost regions. In it an international team of experts clearly explains how climate change is impacting the permanently frozen soils in the Arctic, Siberia and in the high mountain regions, which potential hazards emanate from the thawing ground and the far-reaching consequences countries with permafrost must consider. The researchers also call upon politicians and climate scientists to include the knowledge about the change in…

Dr Juliane Müller will be awarded a second place in the German Study Prize on 6 November in Berlin. The Körber Foundation honours the geoscientist from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association for her pioneering PhD thesis on sea ice distribution.

The research ship POLARSTERN sets off in the early morning hours of 27 October 2012 for an unusual expedition to the Antarctic. This time the ship will not be returning to Bremerhaven as usual at the end of the Antarctic summer, but will be spending the winter in the South Polar Sea for research purposes.

The sea bed in the Arctic deep sea is increasingly strewn with litter and plastic waste. As reported in the advance online publication of the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin by Dr. Melanie Bergmann, biologist and deep-sea expert at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association.

Polarstern is expected back from the Central Arctic expedition “IceArc“ in Bremerhaven on 8 October 2012 after a good two months. 54 scientists and technicians from twelve different countries conducted research on the retreat of the sea ice and the consequences for the Arctic Ocean and its ecosystems over a period of two months in the High North.

Water does not forget, says Prof. Boris Koch, a chemist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. Irrespective of what happens in the sea: whether the sun shines, algae bloom or a school of dolphins swims through a marine area – everything and everyone leaves biomolecular tracks. With the help of a combination of new techniques, Boris Koch and colleagues can now identify and retrace some of these.

An underwater data node, developed by the Institute of Coastal Research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, functions as an underwater “data plug” at the sea bed. With connected sensors, it is possible to carry out real-time year-round measurements of water temperatures, algae concentrations and the sea floor.

“Data from the Heligoland Roads marine sampling site are of immense importance for sustainability considerations of future generations.” With these words the Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Federal Minister of Education and Research, Dr. Helge Braun took celebratory the water sample marking the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Heligoland Roads sampling series.

This year Greenland is experiencing one of the warmest summers in its recent history. This heat wave has meant that an international research team is in the unique position of being able to collect important climate data from the changing Arctic. Until today German and US scientists on board the research ship MARIA S. MERIAN have been studying the extent to which the strong inflow of meltwater into the fjords along Greenland’s west coast are altering the chemical composition of the seawater and thus the living conditions for algae and other…

A team of scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association (AWI) and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has just completed an airborne measurement campaign that allowed for the first time to measure large-scale methane emissions from the extensive Arctic permafrost landscapes.