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The last complete reversal of the Earth's magnetic field, the so-called Laschamps event, took place 42,000 years ago. Radiocarbon analyses of the remains of kauri trees from New Zealand now make it possible for the first time to precisely time and analyse this event and its associated effects, as well as to calibrate geological archives such as sediment and ice cores from this period. Simulations based on this show that the strong reduction of the magnetic field had considerable effects in the Earth's atmosphere. This is shown by an international team…

As of 1 January 2021, Lower Saxony is part of the federal and state financing for the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). The inclusion of the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, co-founded with the University of Oldenburg in 2017, means that there are now AWI sites in four states.

On Friday, 12.02.2021, the Folkwang University of the Arts organized an online symposium on the topic “Emergency – How relevant is design in crisis situations?”. The students took a closer look at the relationship of art and design to crises and set up a diverse program on the day of the symposium. AWI Director Prof. Dr Antje Boetius also participated with a lecture entitled “Designing the path to future”. 

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Prof. Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten and Prof. Dr. Michail Nikolaewitsch Grigoriev the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of their longstanding work in the field of German-Russian cooperation.

MOSAiC expedition leader Markus Rex gave a lecture on the Arctic research expedition at the SMM. The trade fair is considered the world's leading trade fair for the maritime industry and was held as a purely digital conference for the first time this year. The patron of SMM Digital was the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. The MOSAiC lecture is available online.

Due to construction work in the sea, shipping, and gas and oil extraction, the oceans are becoming increasingly louder. A comprehensive international study has now shown that this noise affects the behaviour of far more animal species than previously assumed. The researchers call for us to listen closely to the ocean and to finally regulate noise worldwide. Viable technological solutions are already available.

The Arctic Ocean was covered by up to 900 m thick shelf ice and was filled entirely with freshwater at least twice in the last 150,000 years. This surprising finding, reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature, is the result of long-term research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the MARUM. With a detailed analysis of the composition of marine deposits, the scientists could demonstrate that the Arctic Ocean as well as the Nordic Seas did not contain sea-salt in at least two glacial periods. Instead, these oceans were filled with…

The Alfred Wegener Institute has risen to the challenge of undertaking an expedition to the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic under pandemic conditions. Consequently, the participants in this year’s first Polarstern expedition will be able to resume their long-term measurements in the Southern Ocean, gathering data that forms the basis for our understanding of polar processes and for urgently needed climate forecasts.

A new study in the prestigious journal Science Advances shows that stress from rising water temperatures reduces ability of corals to adapt to ocean acidification.

The goal of the international Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is to create a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean. In the course of revising the proposal to establish a Marine Protected Area in the Weddell Sea, researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute have also updated the fact sheet and short video about this proposal. The two publications illustrate why the Weddell Sea must be protected.