News

After eventful and busy months, the Arctic season ends this weekend with the Polarstern expedition called ArcWatch-1. The team of almost 100 crew and scientists measured sea ice thickness and properties, recorded the currents and chemical properties of the ocean and investigated life in and under the ice, in the open water and at the bottom of the deep sea. Their data show significant changes compared to previous expeditions. On 7 September 2023, Polarstern reached the North Pole, and on 20 September there was the world's first livestream of an ROV…

The right mix of trace elements is essential to a healthy diet. That’s true not only for humans, but also for phytoplankton. As a key carbon dioxide sink, these tiny algae in the Southern Ocean can have significant effects on the global climate. In this regard, a new study from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the University of Bremen reveals an interesting connection: When phytoplankton simultaneously have access to more iron and more manganese, their biotic communities change. As a result, the algae can bind more CO2 and form more of their…

In the “weather kitchen,” the interplay between the Azores High and Icelandic Low has a substantial effect on how much warm water the Atlantic transports to the Arctic along the Norwegian coast. But this rhythm can be thrown off for years at a time. Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research finally have an explanation for why: Due to unusual atmospheric pressure conditions over the North Atlantic, low-pressure areas are diverted from their usual track, which disrupts the coupling between the Azores High,…

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse is back in Bremen after spending five years on the seventh continent amid ice, cold and polar nights. The greenhouse has carried out numerous plantings, with harvests totalling approximately one tonne of fresh vegetables for research, to supply the overwintering crews of Neumayer Station III that is operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). With its return, the EDEN ISS project comes to an end, leaving behind a wealth of experience on…

Open Day at AWI-Helgoland: The Biological Institute Helgoland opened its doors to the public. The public and tourists took up the offer with great interest and informed themselves about the current research at the AWI Helgoland site. Hands-on science enthused young and old alike. Whether it was getting to know the animals and plants in Helgoland's waters, marveling at the beautiful black and white photos by Franz Schensky or learning more about the reintroduction of the European oyster.

Five weeks after setting sail from Tromsø, Norway, the Alfred Wegener Institute's research vessel Polarstern makes a stop at the northernmost point on Earth. Here, too, the international team of researchers is investigating the coupling between sea ice, the ocean and its life, including within the deep sea. So far, the Arcwatch-1 expedition, launched on August 3, 2023, has delivered some surprising discoveries: For example, 2023 is characterized by unusual ice drift, which is affecting communities under the ice. In addition, the team has discovered an…

The Elbe transports contaminants, stemming from industry, agriculture, and water treatment plants, to Germany’s North Sea coast. Their concentrations vary due to inlets found along the course of the river, but also due to degradation and sedimentation processes in the river and its estuary. Throughout this summer, experts from various Helmholtz Centres used a multi-system approach to investigate how the concentration and composition of the environmental chemicals, nano- and microplastic particles, nutrients and climate gases found in the river change on…

Increasingly, marine organisms from all over the world are being carried into German coastal waters by humans, whose diversity and ecology they can fundamentally change. For example, the German North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts are now characterized by non-indigenous marine organisms. Their occurrence and rate of introduction is used as an international assessment criterion for the ecological status of marine areas. In cooperation with the Schleswig-Holstein State Office for the Environment, the AWI North Sea Office has compiled an overview of all known…

Many of the models used to make climate projections are unable to dynamically reflect permafrost. A new study involving experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute has for the first time applied an extensive ensemble of 17 climate models to quantify how said models portray permafrost in warm climates. Drawing on a comparison of models for a warm period during the mid-Pliocene roughly three million years ago, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the researchers conclude that the near-surface permafrost extent was less than 10…

Due to intensifying sea-ice melting in the Arctic, sunlight is now penetrating deeper and deeper into the ocean. Since marine zooplankton respond to the available light, this is also changing their behaviour – especially how the tiny organisms rise and fall within the water column. As an international team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now shown, in the future this could lead to more frequent food shortages for the zooplankton, and to negative effects for larger species including seals and whales. The study was just released in…