Media

The IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is working on the publication of the latest assessment report; Prof. Dr. Björn Rost is part of the author team for multiple chapters. Here you find a link to all chapters.  

In episode 40 of 'Science in the living room', Dr. Klara Wolf reports on the unknown microcosm of algae, marine photosynthesis, arctic clone wars and why "being the best" it is not always the recipe for success.

Members of the Marine Biogesciences section prepare to take part in the largest polar expedition ever undertaken, also the 'New York Times' reports!

Contribution to the scientific expert reports section on the website of Scientific Year 2016/17

Radio interview on the responses of Arctic phytoplankton to climate change on the occasion of the Arctic Frontiers conference 2017, Deutschlandfunk.

Microalgae are microscopically small, single-celled algae species and an important source of food in the oceans. Dr Clara Hoppe of the Alfred Wegener Institute examines how changed living conditions as a result of climate change affect Arctic microalgae.

The genetic machinery of a tiny marine organism keeps researchers busy: In times of famine, the microalga Emiliania huxleyi shuts down its cell division. A mechanism that is defective in human cancer. Is there a connection?

25 years ago, the first German arctic research station was opened. On August 10th, 1991, the base on Ny-Ålesund was still called Koldewey Station, nowadays it has been renamed to AWIPEV. Marine biologist Clara Hoppe has already been to AWIPEV three times. A whole village was transformed for scientific purposes, she explains in an interview in the Nordwestradio. One should at all times carry a gun, says Hoppe - because of foraging polar bears.

Plankton extend their survival by digesting their own internal constituents when nutrients become scarce.

When nutrients become scarce, microalgae like Emiliania huxleyi (here shown in a coloured scanning-electron-micrograph) induce an emergency program: To save energy, they shut down their cell division. If they have to subsist for longer, they start to digest their internal organelles, even if this means that they ultimately die. In that case, their remnants can be eaten by their conspecifics, securing a longer survial of the population as a whole, as scientists from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute claim in a recent study.

On the occasion of the opening of the Scientific Year 2016/2017, the Nordseezeitung reports on ten marine researchers of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, amongst them, Clara Hoppe.

The news that reached us early this year were no good. First, measuring stations recorded extremely mild temperatures of 2-6°C above the year-long average, and then, the winter sea-ice extent was significantly smaller than expected. Even if these two extreme incidents cannot be directly ascribed to ongoing Climate Change, they fit well into a long lasting trend...

[Translate to English:] In ihrer Doktorarbeit erforschte Clara Hoppe die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf das Phytoplankton in den Polarregionen - und wurde dabei urplötzlich vor eine große Herausforderung gestellt.

Hardly anyone knows the term 'Phytoplankton', but it indeed produces half of the global oxygen. For the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Dr. Clara Hoppe investigates how Climate Change affects the Phytoplanton in the polar regions.

Scientists of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, have discovered in a recent study that Ocean Acidification can negatively affect diatoms of the southern polar ocean. In laboratory experiments, they observed that diatoms under fluctuating light grow significantly slower when in acidified waters. With this, the team of Dr. Clara Hoppe disproves the prevailing opinion that lower pH-values would stimulate the growth of these unicellular organisms. The new research results appeared today in the Journal New Phytologist.

More than 6000 PhD students contribute to the research success of the Helmholtz Association. What motivates them? What are they exploring? Here, we introduce six young investigators. The choice is not accidental: These are the winners of the Helmholtz-PhD Awards who have been awarded for the very first time this year.

The calcareous microalga Emiliania huxlyei is distributed nearly globally. It belongs not only to the most important oxygen producers of our planet, but also fixes a significant amount of CO₂ into its biomass and its calcite shell, compounds that are to a considerable extent exported to the deep ocean. Thus, the CO₂ is removed from the global carbon cycle for a couple of thousand years. Dr. Sebastian Rokitta has explored during the past three years how the advancing Ocean Acidification affects 'Ehux'. He explains in this video what he found and why this research is so important.

Biologist Clara Hoppe travels to the south pole with jogging shoes, has no fear from deadly seagulls and explores microalgae to save to global climate.