Scientists in the Polar Biological Oceanography Section are building a new understanding of how polar ecosystems will respond to climate change.
Our research foci include
- the biogeochemistry and ecology of sea ice, links to the pelagic system and environmental factors controlling these interactions
- the interaction of polar ecology with the global climate through plankton productivity and particle sedimentation to the deep ocean, a process known as the Biological Pump, and
- the diversity and ecophysiology of key polar organisms, which illuminates the limits to adaptation that is possible under climate change.
Section head
Prof. Dr. Morten Iversen
0471/4831-1824
Deputies
PD Dr. Barbara Niehoff
Prof. Dr. Bettina Meyer
Admin. assistant
Tanja Glawatty
Website
Tanja Glawatty
Research focuses
Polar pelagic biology and ecology
We explore the biology of polar plankton, its role in the ecology of the Polar Oceans as well as its efficiency in stimulating the biological pump which is, in fact, mitigating the greenhouse effect.
Research groups:
Ecophysiology of pelagic key species
Biodiversity
Image analysis as well as molecular measurement processes are, among other diversified equipment and methods, our tools to examine biodiversity in polar ecosystems, for example in sea ice or in the water column.
Research groups:
Molecular biodiversity of eukaryotic microbes
Biogeochemistry and Ecology of sea ice
We analyze the role of sea ice in the field of carbon fluxes as well as nutrient fluxes between sea ice and adjacent water bodies and in the sea ice itself.
Research groups:
Sea ice ecology and -biogeochemistry
