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The polar diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus thrives where many other forms of life would succumb – namely in the sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic. Its survival is guaranteed by an antifreeze protein, which the alga releases into its environment. Biologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have now succeeded in decoding the genetic plan of this natural antifreeze agent and in bioengineering the protein. In a joint project with food researchers from ttz Bremerhaven, investigations will now be…

Global warming is having an effect on the dive behaviour and search for food of southern elephant seals. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association cooperating in a joint study with biologists and oceanographers from the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town have discovered that the seals dive deeper for food when in warmer water. The scientists attribute this behaviour to the migration of prey to greater depths and now wish to check this theory using a new sensor which registers the feeding…

This year the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association (AWI) celebrates the 30th anniversary of the commissioning of Polarstern, the ice-breaking research and supply ship of the German polar research. Despite its age, Polarstern, providing space for a maximum of 55 scientists, still counts among the best-equipped research icebreakers in the world. RV Polarstern has not only reached the North Pole three times in its career but is also an indispensible vessel to supply the German Neumayer Station III in the…

On 31 January 1912, Wilhelm Filchner reached the Antarctic Filchner-Ronne ice shelf named after him in the second German Antarctic expedition. His work showed that, contrary to the hypotheses popular at that time, there was probably a connection between the West Antarctic Peninsula and the East Antarctic.

Even if the current weather situation may seem to speak against it, the probability of cold winters with much snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer. Scientists of the Research Unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have decrypted a mechanism in which a shrinking summertime sea ice cover changes the air pressure zones in the Arctic atmosphere and impacts our European winter weather.

The meteorological observatory at the Antarctic Neumayer Station III is now officially considered to be a climate observation station by virtue of the fact that meteorologists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have been measuring the air temperature in Antarctica on a daily basis for 30 years. One of the results of the long-term research: the air at Neumayer Station has not become warmer over the past three decades.

On 6 January 1912, the annual meeting of the Geological Association in Frankfurt, Germany witnessed the spectacle of one man against the world. On this date, the meteorologist Alfred Wegener, then 31, gave his talk on the formation of oceans and continents, and in the process shook the foundations of accepted doctrine. The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research will celebrate its namesake on the hundredth anniversary of his theory. Together with the Senckenberg Museum, the AWI will host a commemorative colloquium at the historic scene of…

With dog food and a pack of huskies Dr. Veit Helm would not get far on his Antarctic expeditions. Instead, the geophysicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association conducts research on the icy continent from on board an aircraft and successfully completed the first measurement campaign of the new Polar 6 research plane a few days ago. (with photo gallery)

Current Science publication shows: Antarctica was not as climatically isolated as previously thought