News

The rapid climate changes in the Arctic are no longer just the domain of scientists. The shrinking sea ice and collapsing permafrost coasts are now also becoming topics on the agenda of international politics and industry. To be able to offer direct scientific advice to decision-makers, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) has now set up an office for Arctic affairs at its Potsdam site. The German Arctic Office officially commenced work on 1 January 2017 and draws its expertise from a network of scientists…

The thawing and erosion of Arctic permafrost coasts has dramatically increased in the past years and the sea is now consuming more than 20 meters of land per year at some locations. The earth masses removed in this process increasingly blur the shallow water areas and release nutrients and pollutants. Yet, the consequences of these processes on life in the coastal zone and on traditional fishing grounds are virtually unknown.

Manganese nodules on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean are an important breeding ground for deep-sea octopuses. As reported by a German-American team of biologists in the current issue of the journal Current Biology, the octopuses deposit their eggs onto sponges that only grow locally on manganese nodules. The researchers had observed the previously unknown octopus species during diving expeditions in the Pacific at depths of more than 4000 metres - new record depths for these octopuses. Their specific dependence on manganese nodules for brooding eggs…

The East Antarctic ice shelves may be more vulnerable to climate change than previously assumed. A research team in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute has detected large amounts of meltwater on the Roi Baudouin shelf ice. This is due to strong winds that blow away the snow. This is the result of a study which has now been published in the online edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.

Kongsfjorden situated in western Spitsbergen is a Mecca for marine biologists and climatologists. Consequences of global change become apparent fast and are clearly visible on a small scale.

Good news for archaeologists and natural scientists! You will be able to continue to use the radiocarbon method as a reliable tool for determining the age of artefacts and sample materials. The reduction of the carbon isotope 14C in the atmosphere accelerated by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and the associated distortion of the radiocarbon age of materials can be precisely identified - by measuring the carbon isotope 13C. This is the result of a study by AWI geoscientist Dr Peter Köhler, which was published today in the journal Environmental…

Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Technologie-Transfer-Zentrum Bremerhaven have taken a major step forward in their search for an alternative to fishmeal, an expensive and ecologically problematic fish feed ingredient.

A group of organisators and participants of the transit cruise of the so-called Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) visited the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar dnd Marine Research (AWI) last Saturday. The guests subsequently started for their expedition with the research vessel Akademik Treshnikov from Bremerhaven towards Cape Town.

Together with the city of Bremerhaven and the Fischereihafenbetriebsgesellschaft (FBG - fishing port operator), the Alfred Wegener Institute has specified the potential use of the area on the Klußmannstraße. A Technical Centre for technical development work as well as expedition preparations is to be built on the opposite side of the AWI campus at "Am Handelshafen". The design by kister scheithauer gross architects (ksg), who also realized parts of the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, prevailed in a tendering procedure.

Norwegian and German scientists meet for a seminar in the "Haus der Wissenschaft" in Bremen for a seminar  on 16 November 2016. Together they are going to talk about Arctic biodiversity: Current state and research perspectives.