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Tabea Rettelbach, PhD student at the AWI, is one of two winners of this year's Bernd Rendel Prize. Her work focuses on the topic of "Permafrost". The Bernd Rendel Prize is awarded annually by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to outstanding young scientists in the geosciences. The award ceremony took place during the annual conference of the German Geological Society - Geological Association (DGGV) from 23 to 26 September in Dresden.

Who are the 100 key figures on the German science scene? Research.Table has selected AWI Director Antje Boetius as one of the leading personalities in the “Science” category. The award recognises her significant contributions to the exploration of the polar regions and the oceans. These areas of research are crucial for understanding climate change and the global environment.

In a new two-part ZDF documentary series, AWI Director Antje Boetius gets to the bottom of the secret of our species' success story and travels to places where researchers are searching for solutions for a future worth living. Both parts are available in the ZDF media library and will be broadcast on television on 29 September and 6 October at 7.30 pm. More Information.

What challenges does climate change pose for northern and eastern Germany? What will water management look like in the future and what problems and solutions are there for human health? Current research findings on these questions were presented and discussed at the 13th REKLIM regional conference on 25 September in Berlin. Britta Behrendt, State Secretary for Climate Protection and the Environment, opened the event with around 250 participants. More information.

The global production of plastics and the resulting plastic waste has increased to such an extent that plastics have become ubiquitous in our environment. Plastics of various sizes are also found along the German North Sea and Baltic coasts. Previous studies of microplastic pollution on German beaches have often been limited to a few locations. In the citizen science project “Microplastic Detectives”, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, together with citizens, have now collected samples from beaches along the entire German coast to be analyzed…

Northeast Greenland is home to the 79° N Glacier – the country’s largest floating glacier tongue, but also one seriously threatened by global warming: warm water from the Atlantic is melting it from below. Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute have however now determined that the temperature of the water flowing into the glacier cavern declined from 2018 to 2021, even though the ocean has steadily warmed in the region over the past several decades. This could be due to temporarily changed atmospheric circulation patterns. In a study just released in…

Microbes were the only life form on Earth for most of the history of our planet. Even today, they still make up the majority of species that are vital to the health of our planet. They produce much of our oxygen, help plants grow, maintain biogeochemical cycles and thus sustain our ecosystems. A review in the journal Cell has now described the astonishing progress that microbiology has made in recent decades 
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Microbes were the only life form on Earth for most of the history of our planet. Even today, they still make up the majority of species that are vital to the health of our planet. They produce much of our oxygen, help plants grow, maintain biogeochemical cycles and thus sustain our ecosystems. A. Murat Eren, a researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM) and the Carl von…

The 21st Coastal Summer School, which brought 17 young researchers from eight countries to the Biological Institute Helgoland, came to an end. This year, the participants delved deep into topics relating to offshore wind farms and get an idea of how they can be integrated into ecosystems in various ways. The Alfred Wegener Institute, the Helmholtz Center Hereon and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, together with other research institutions, gave participants theoretical and practical insights into their projects, while an industry…

AWI Director Antje Boetius has received the 6th international “Global Compact Award” from the TÜV Rheinland Foundation. This award recognizes the polar and deep-sea researcher's commitment to research work and communication. The TÜV Rheinland Foundation awards the prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros, to individuals whose work demonstrates a comprehensive commitment to sustainability and the goals of the United Nations Global Compact.