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Anniversary
Ten-year anniversary of the Neumayer Station III
The scientific and political community alike stress the importance of German Antarctic research
[18. January 2019]
Since 2009 the Neumayer Station III, located on the Ekström Ice Shelf on the eastern coast of the Weddell Sea, has served as the primary base of operations for German Antarctic research activities. The station crew, together with a delegation from the research and political communities, are now celebrating its ten-year anniversary.
Climate change
The pace at which the world’s permafrost soils are warming
New global study reveals rising soil temperatures in permafrost regions around the world
[16. January 2019]
Global warming is leaving more and more apparent scars in the world’s permafrost regions. As the new global comparative study conducted by the international permafrost network GTN-P shows, in all regions with permafrost soils the temperature of the frozen ground at a depth of more than 10 metres rose by an average of 0.3 degrees Celsius between 2007 and 2016 – in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as the high mountain ranges of Europe and Central Asia. The effect was most pronounced in Siberia, where the temperature of the frozen soil rose by nearly 1 degree Celsius. The pioneering study has just been released in the online journal Nature Communications.
Arctic
How larches are conquering Siberia’s high northern reaches
Reconstructing the development of Siberia’s vast larch forests: Ranges of various larch species not chiefly determined by the climate
[29. November 2018]
Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research have for the first time reconstructed the historical development of the larch forests in northern Siberia over the past 9,000 years. This allowed them to identify, which factors determine the ranges of various larch species, and to gauge the forests’ capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide.
New study
Climate refugee Cod
High Probability for loss of breeding grounds if temperature increases by more than 1.5 degrees
[28. November 2018]
The latest research conducted by AWI experts that the chances of survival for the offspring of important fish species will dramatically worsen, if the 1.5 ° C target of the Paris Climate Agreement is not achieved. Under conditions of further warming and acidification of the ocean, Atlantic cod and its arctic relative polar cod would be forced to look for new habitats in the far north. Their populations could dwindle. If so, this could be disastrous, as the polar cod is the most important food source for Arctic seals and seabirds. In addition, fishers could lose the world’s most productive area for catching Atlantic cod, located to the north of Norway. However, the results of the study in the magazine science advances also show that a stringent climate policy…
Arctic
Massive meteorite impact crater discovered
Kilometre-wide iron meteorite proven beneath Greenland’s ice-sheet with AWI’s research aircraft Polar 6
[15. November 2018]
An international research team has discovered a 31-km wide meteorite impact crater buried beneath the ice-sheet in northern Greenland. This is the first time that a crater of any size has been found under one of Earth’s continental ice sheets. The research aircraft Polar 6 from the Alfred Wegener Instittue verified the discovery with radar measurements. The research is described in a new study just published in the internationally recognized journal Science Advance.
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