22 December 2011. Prof. Dr. Karin Lochte, director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, signed the cooperation treety with Geo.X in the framework of the annual meeting of the board of trustees on 20th December 2011. Thus seven partner organisations in the region Berlin-Potsdam will concert about geosciences in the areas of research, education, infrastructures, and the promotion of young scientists via the coordination platform Geo.X. “Geosciences of the solid Earth have a science location with high potential in Berlin and Potsdam, to which the research unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute contributes”, says Lochte, “I am looking forward to this cooperation”.

“With the Alfred Wegener Institute we have a further important partner in our Geo.X-cooperation,” adds Geo.X-speaker Prof. Dr. Reinhard Hüttl. „This further strengthens the cooperation of the universities with non-university institutions in the field of geosciences significantly. Together we are moving towards an internationally visible and interdisciplinary operative geo-competence location Berlin-Potsdam.” You can find further information about the cooperation platform on the GEO.X-website...

Ocean acidification caused by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations looks likely to damage stocks of Norwegian costal cod. A study, published by an international group of researchers including biologist Dr. Arne Malzahn from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, reveals that high carbon dioxide concentration in the ocean’s water can cause damage in organs like liver, pancreas, kidneys and eyes of very young Norwegian coastal cod. The scientists from Germany and Norway had reared larval cod for ten weeks in outdoor tanks with three different levels of carbon dioxide concentrations. Afterwards Dr. Arne Malzahn measured their lipid content. “Young cod reared in water with higher carbon dioxide concentration were much fatter than fish reared under normal conditions. One could think this is a positive result, that represents the young fishes’ good body conditions. But this idea is misleading. We could show that for instance a higher level of lipid content in the liver is the result of liver damage and a dysfunction of the organ”, says Arne Malzahn. In the past many scientists have suggested that acidification would not harm marine fish. “Our study shows the opposite because future stock numbers of fish definitely depend on high survival rates at larval stage”, says Dr. Arne Malzahn. The study “Severe tissue damage in Atlantic cod laervae under increasing ocean acidification“ was published in the latest issue of the science magazine Nature Climate Change.