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UN Plastics Treaty

solving the problem with consumers. But researchers see another source of the plastic problem: the petrochemical industry, which produces the plastic. And that’s also precisely the crux of the negotiations [...] Uruguay – the beginning of a lengthy process intended to end with the approval of a binding treaty in Busan. Although the parties agreed that the treaty should address the entire lifecycle of plastics, [...] summaries of the current state of research, helping the delegates make informed choices. “All decisions and measures designed to stop the global flood of plastics have to be made and developed on the best

Awards and honors

focuses on understanding the drivers of sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice changes from the satellite era to a warmer world. SO-ASE aims to unravel the fundamental physics of ice-climate interactions [...] Development (ESD) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German UNESCO Commission. The klimafit core team includes: at AWI: Dr. Renate Treffeisen, Dr. Klaus Grosfeld, at the WWF Germany: [...] Stephanie Arndt , 2023. Video of the Prize winner Silent Hero Preis Stephanie Carstensen , 2023. Video of the Prize winner Doctoral Award Dr. Luisa von Albedyll , 2022. Video of the Prize winner

World's largest fish breeding area discovered in Antarctica

filmed thousands of nests of icefish of the species Neopagetopsis ionah on the seabed. The density of the nests and the size of the entire breeding area suggest a total number of about 60 million icefish [...] breeding at the time of observation. These findings provide support for the establishment of a Marine Protected Area in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. A team led by Autun Purser from the Alfred [...] Fascinating discovery
Near the Filchner Ice Shelf in the south of the Antarctic Weddell Sea, a research team has found the world's largest fish breeding area known to date. A towed camera system ph

Antarctic hotspot: Fin whales favour the waters around Elephant Island

little about the life of the world’s second-largest whale. That makes the findings of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Johann [...] Antarctic Peninsula
During the era of commercial whaling, fin whales were hunted so intensively that only a small percentage of the population in the Southern Hemisphere survived, and even today, marine [...] where in the peak month of May, so many fin whale vocalizations can be heard that the individual calls merge into a veritable chorous of sound, as the research team now reports in the journal Royal Society

Expedition to the Most Powerful Ocean Current

landmass, sending up to 150 times the flow of all the world’s rivers clockwise around the frozen continent. It connects all the other oceans, and is thought to play a key role in regulating natural climate swings [...] Southern Ocean
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the planet’s most powerful and arguably most important. It is the only one to flow clear around the globe without getting diverted by any landmass [...] swings that have repeatedly swept the earth for millions of years. But much is still not known about how it works, including how it might now respond to human-induced climate change.

Look, who is calling?

different types of killer whales live in the Southern Ocean. They are known to differ in feeding ecology and appearance. However, little is known about the distribution and behaviour of these different [...] whale ecotypes. To answer these questions, scientists monitor the whales’ communication with specific underwater sound recorders. However, so far nobody knew, which calls the different ecotypes are using

Daily up and down of the plankton animals in the sea

Southern Ocean
A unique series of measurements taken over several years in the Antarctic Ocean provide new findings about the daily vertical migration of zooplankton communities: scientists of the Thünen [...] Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries in Hamburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven observed changes during the year and between years. The Antarctic zooplankton is the main source of food for many [...] many fish and whale species, including the largest mammal in the world, the blue whale.

“80 questions about the southern tip of the world” – The international Antarctic community formulates tomorrow’s challenges to research

Press release