• Outreach

    Times' reports! Arctic climate change and the consequences for microalgae Contribution to the scientific expert reports section on the website of Scientific Year 2016/17 Resistant Arctic microalgae (De [...] (Deutschlandfunk, 25.1.2017) Radio interview on the responses of Arctic phytoplankton to climate change on the occasion of the Arctic Frontiers conference 2017, Deutschlandfunk. Tiny algae, hugely resilient [...] 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. Algal diet (Rheinpfalz

  • Open waters around the North Pole: Arctic sea ice in retreat

    Arctic Ocean
    This September, the Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk to 4.1 million square kilometres (sq km)-the second lowest in the history of satellite measurements. It is exceeded only by the all-time [...] all-time record low of 3.4 million sq km in 2012. "Once again, a massive loss of sea ice in the Arctic," says Prof. Lars Kaleschke from Universität Hamburg's Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability

  • On thin ice in the warm Arctic

    Sea Ice
    The Arctic sea ice continues to dwindle: Since the 1970s, when satellites first began monitoring the white sheet covering the Arctic Ocean, its February extent was never as small as it was this [...] this year. The reason: warm air intrusions, which are not only hitting the Arctic more frequently, but are also intensifying and reaching farther north.

  • Oceanic microseisms

    layers of the ground, oceanic microseisms can spread over many hundreds of kilometres. It is now well researched how strong storms not only generate large waves, but also increased oceanic microseisms activity [...] other way round: what does oceanic microseisms tell us about the nature of the ice over the course of the seasons? To answer these questions, we use data from our ice-going ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) [...] microseismics were also recorded, which we are currently analysing. Map of the Arctic and Antarctic. The red stars mark the oceanic microseisms research projects. (Graphic: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Contact

  • Ocean_and_Climate_Change_12Oct2020.pdf

    shifted location • Arctic Ocean: • Increased coastline erosion – e.g. village relocation • Cultural change – subsistence lifestyle facing problems Changes in the ocean impact people Arctic Ocean and extreme [...] weather Impacts on people J. Francis What’s happening in the Arctic Ocean? • Warmer air reduces air column density, shifting wind fields Arctic Ocean and extreme mid-latitude weather Impacts on people J. Francis [...] PowerPoint Presentation Ocean and climate change Dr. Rebecca Rolph Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Potsdam, Germany • How the ocean regulates climate • Changes in the ocean • What these changes

    File type: application/pdf
    Referenced at:

  • Ocean: FRAM

    look beyond the moorings and the Hausgarten into the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The Fram Strait connects the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. Unlike the shallow water conjunction to the Pacific [...] Arctic long-term observatory FRAM 5,000 metres seawater plus ice separate the seafloor from boisterous life in the upper water layers of the Arctic Ocean. Additionally there is a strong change between [...] deep and thus the main region for exchange of water between the Arctic and the global oceans. Due to its importance for the global ocean circulation the Fram Strait has long since been a focus area of

  • Ocean eddies could explain Antarctic sea-ice paradox

    have now shown, the ocean may weaken warming around Antarctica and delay sea-ice retreat. Given that many models are not capable of accurately reflecting this factor and the role of ocean eddies, the study [...] Climate Research
    Despite global warming and the sea-ice loss in the Arctic, the Antarctic sea-ice extent has remained largely unchanged since 1979. However, existing climate model-based simulations

  • Ocean biogeochemical modelling

    develops, runs and analyses global ocean biogeochemistry models, with a special interest in the polar regions. A special focus is on feedbacks between climate change and the ocean carbon cycle. The group hosts [...] (see Research ). We contribute to and coordinate the ocean carbon sink estimate in the Global Carbon Budget , particularly the ensemble of Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Models that includes FESOM-REcoM." [...] feedbacks in the carbon cycle and in the marine ecosystem, with a special interest in the Arctic and the Southern Oceans. Surface chloropyll a concentration in an eddy-resolving simulation (1 km horizontal

  • Ocean Warming and Thawing Permafrost Reduce the Arctic Ocean's Biological Carbon Storage and CO2 Uptake

    The Arctic experiences some of the most rapid climate changes on the planet, resulting in significant sea-ice melt. This transformation exposed the Arctic Ocean to increasing sunlight, driving a 56% rise [...] nutrients and carbon into the Arctic Ocean, delivered from rivers and coastal erosion. While it might seem logical that these additional nutrients would enhance the ocean’s biological carbon pump, - boosting [...] ecosystem impoverishment are undermining the pump’s efficiency, challenging assumptions about the Arctic’s ability to store carbon in a warming world.

  • Observatories

    the establishment of the FRAM (Frontiers in Arctic marine Monitoring) Ocean Observing System improves our monitoring capacities. LTER Observatory HAUSGARTEN Ocean Observing System FRAM [...] Understanding the ocean, and the complex physical, biological, and biogeochemical systems operating within it, is a challenge for the opening decades of the 21st century. The establishment of multidisciplinary [...] multidisciplinary ocean observatories by the Alfred Wegener Institute will help to provide the means to accomplish this goal. Ecological time-series work at the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) site HAUSGARTEN