here on board assessing anthropogenic impacts on the marine ecosystem on our way from Bremerhaven to Fram Strait (and back) and at HAUSGARTEN observatory.

the research icebreaker Polarstern returned from its roughly one month-long Arctic expedition to the Fram Strait between Greenland and Spitsbergen. In the so-called Hausgarten of the Alfred Wegener Institute

oceanographic measurements and biological research in the water column and on the seafloor of the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard.

Arctic Ocean
In the summer months, sea ice from the Arctic drifts through Fram Strait into the Atlantic. Thanks to meltwater, a stable layer forms around the drifting ice atop the more salty seawater [...] as a team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now determined with the aid of the FRAM ocean observation system. Their findings have just been published in the journal Nature Communications

such changes, the research teams on board the Polarstern investigated Atlantic Water Recirculation in Fram Strait and in the marginal ice zone north of Svalbard, as well as ocean/glacier interactions off the

will focus on extended ecological fieldwork at the AWI’s deep-sea observatory Hausgarten and at the FRAM Ocean Observing System between Greenland and Svalbard. 50 researchers and a ship’s crew of 24 will

The long-term analysis of blue whale and fin whale vocalisations in the eastern Fram Strait offers valuable insights into seasonal and annual patterns regarding these species’ occurrence in the region

and an updated Arctic Ocean climatology. This work was funded by the FRAM project: www.awi.de/en/expedition/observatories/ocean-fram.html Publication : Behrendt, A., Sumata, H., Rabe, B., and Schauer, U

changes in the warm northward flow, we monitor the Atlantic Water in the West Spitsbergen Current in Fram Strait by use of an oceanographic mooring array since 1997. Surface waters are densified through cooling [...] storing) Beaufort Gyre, and the Transpolar Drift, which drives the freshwater towards Greenland and Fram Strait from where it is eventually exported to the subpolar North Atlantic. The Arctic freshwater [...] contributes to a destabilization of the Greenland ice streams. We observed Atlantic water warming in Fram Strait and this water is likely to affect the (presently) stable North East Greenland ice stream (NEGIS)

ed by the land masses of North America, Greenland and… Find out more Arctic Long-term Observatory FRAM 5,000 metres seawater plus ice separate the seafloor from boisterous life in the upper water layers