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Iron is an important micronutrient without which phytoplankton cannot grow. Pursuing a unique approach, a team from the Alfred Wegener Institute has now, for the first time, demonstrated experimentally that Antarctic phytoplankton can utilise iron from glacial meltwater. By contrast, however, the microscopic algae were unable to utilise iron released from groundwater into seawater. This contradicts previous assumptions, which were not experimentally proven, that iron from groundwater is also bioavailable, as the team has now published in the journal Comm…

On 23 January, Member of the German Bundestag (MdB) Leif Erik Bodin visited the AWI site on Sylt. He was welcomed by Maarten Boersma, Kerstin Mölter and Sabine Horn, before being given a tour of the institute that offered insights into the research activities conducted at the site. The visit concluded with an exchange on current topics.

Research on changes in the Arctic is urgent. The polar regions are like an air conditioning system for the planet. However, glaciers and sea ice are rapidly receding. International cooperation is crucial for polar research in order to understand climatic changes and their impact on life in the Arctic. This is why the Dutch Research Council is funding six projects in which young Dutch researchers are working together with scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute to explore key questions related to climate change and Arctic ecosystems.

A look at the history of our planet‘s climate reveals an interesting phenomenon: as it gets warmer in the region around the North Pole, it tends to get colder around the South Pole. It is almost as if the Nothern and Southern Hemisphere are sitting on a seesaw that swings back and forth. Correspondingly, climate researchers call this opposing temperature behavior the „bipolar seesaw“. However, an international study, in which the Alfred Wegener Institute took part, now shows that in the past glaciers in the north and south retreated at the same time…

Permafrost is an important carbon storage on Earth. However, climate change and its effects are increasingly altering permafrost landscapes around the world, releasing greenhouse gases. To monitor the state of permafrost comprehensively, long-term and sustainably, the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) has been collecting high-quality measurement data in its data platform since the 1990s. Over the last few years, scientists from the Permafrost Section in Potsdam have reorganized the data platform and now made it public on the new GTN-P…

For three decades, the crews and employees of the F. Laeisz shipping company have supported AWI research in the Arctic and Antarctic, both on land and at sea. Laeisz has operated the Polarstern since New Year's Eve 1995. On 15 January, the AWI honoured this successful collaboration during celebrations in Bremerhaven. A special memento was presented as a token of appreciation for the trusting and successful cooperation.

The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the University of Bremen had already secured extensive data sets from the USA in 2025. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) has now approved around 860,000 euros in funding to systematically identify, secure and store endangered data over the long term, based on the PANGAEA data platform.

An international research team from the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), a scientific deep ocean drilling program in which the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) is involved, has found that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreated far inland at least five times during past warm periods. In a new study, the researchers analyzed geochemical signatures of deep-sea sediments from the Amundsen Sea. The results highlight the sensitivity of the ice sheet to warming and its potential to contribute to future sea level rise. The study was published in the…

Extreme events change the ecology of oceans abruptly: For example, a marine heat wave in 2003 had such strong effects on species composition and trophic interactions of the subpolar North Atlantic that these impacts last until today. Researchers led by the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries in Bremerhaven just described this. The study has recently been published in Science Advances.

On his return journey from a research expedition in the Antarctic Bellingshausen Sea, AWI geoscientist Johann Klages sent a message in a bottle for his children in February 2023. He has now received an email from Tasmania: an employee of the Central Coast Council found the message in a bottle during a weekend trip on the west coast of Tasmania in August 2025 - but the letter he sent was returned to the sender despite the correct address.