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AWI Director Antje Boetius provided exciting insights into marine research at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg: in her performative lecture as part of the project “The Ocean is a Noisy Place” by the Hanoverian orchestra “musica assoluta”, she drew attention to the threat to the marine habitat. The program, under the direction of Thorsten Encke, combined classical and contemporary music, science and video art. Video artist cylixe and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff also took part.

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…

This year, the Polar Dialogue took place alongside the Arctic Circle Assembly. Under the leadership of Katrín Jakobsdóttir, former Prime Minister of Iceland, and Antje Boetius, AWI Director and co-chair of the conference, the Polar Dialogue provides an open platform for exchange between scientists and policy makers. The focus will be on science diplomacy and preparations for the 5th International Polar Year 2032-33.

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…

In spring 2025, the Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Prof Antje Boetius, will be appointed president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California. MBARI is one of the most esteemed institutes for marine research and technologies. Based on the US Pacific Coast, it specializes in exploring the deep sea and its unknown diversity of life. “This position will give me a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of innovative deep-sea technologies with a focus on imaging, robotics, sensor systems and AI,” says the…

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…

Nitrogen fixation in ocean eddies is an important component of the local nitrogen cycle in the western North Atlantic. In addition to local environmental conditions, the transport of nitrogen fixers from the more productive Mid Atlantic Bight to the nutrient-poor Atlantic Subtropical Gyre also promotes this process. This is one of the results published by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute together with international experts in the journal Nature Geoscience. To the publication

Sparse sea ice, thousands of datapoints and samples, a surprising number of animals and hydrothermal vents – those are the impressions and outcomes that an international research team is now bringing back from a Polarstern expedition to the Central Arctic. After a four-month-long Arctic season, the Alfred Wegener Institute’s research icebreaker is expected to arrive back in Bremerhaven with the morning high tide on Sunday. 

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…