Climate change is putting countless marine organisms under pressure. However, jellyfish in the world’s oceans could actually benefit from the rising water temperatures – also and especially in the Arctic Ocean, as researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now successfully shown.
The Arctic is changing rapidly due to climate change. It is not only affected by increasing surface temperatures, but also by warm water from the Atlantic, which is flowing in more and more – changing the structures and functions of the ecosystem. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now been able to prove for the first time that during the polar night, some amphipods on Svalbard feed on jellyfish that flow to the Arctic alongside warm Atlantic water.
The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream transports enormous quantities of ice from the island's interior to the sea, thereby also influencing global sea levels. An international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now determined the age of the icy conveyor belt. According to their findings, it only extended into the interior of Greenland around 2,000 years ago.