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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.

Bowhead whales likely reproduce beneath the sea ice northwest of Spitsbergen, while using the open water in the eastern Fram Strait as a migration corridor. This conclusion comes from researchers in the Ocean Acoustics Group at the Alfred Wegener Institute, who recorded the calls of bowhead whales using underwater recorders and analysed the records with artificial intelligence. Their study on bowhead whale habitat use in relation to sea-ice cover has now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Climate change and the associated rising temperatures are melting more and more frozen ground in the Arctic. This dissolved matter contains large amounts of organic carbon which is flowing into the central Arctic ocean. In a new study, scientists led by Alfred-Wegener-Institute quantified how much terrestrial organic matter accumulates in the central Arctic Ocean. Using chemical fingerprints, they were able to assess how fast it degrades, thus releasing additional CO2 to the ocean. These findings are an important basis to project how inputs from land…

On board the Polarstern research vessel, an international group of young scientists will immerse in the fascinating world of marine research. They are not only learning the basic methods of oceanography, but also the difficult art of communicating science in a comprehensible and inspiring manner. For the fifth time now, the Alfred Wegener Institute is organising this extraordinary training programme with a host of partners. This year once again under the direction of Professor Karen Wiltshire (now at Trinity College in Dublin), the participants benefit…

The ice sheet in Greenland faces many changes and one of them is hiding in plain sight - the snowy layer covering most of its surface. Normally acting as a sponge for refreezing meltwater, this layer is important for the overall fate of the ice sheet, but it’s changing in ways researchers currently do not fully understand. Now, a substantial grant from the European Research Council (ERC) enables an international consortium to investigate this problem. 

Swarms of krill in the Southern Ocean form the second tier of the Antarctic food pyramid, following plant plankton. If stocks were to shrink due to over-intensive fishing, this would incur direct consequences for many animal species that feed almost exclusively on krill. From 20 to 31 October, the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) will take place in Hobart, Australia, where the future regulation of krill fishery will represent a central topic. Prior to this, an international…

Climate researcher Prof. Dr. Markus Rex is one of three distinguished recipients of this year’s NOMIS Award for groundbreaking interdisciplinary research. The NOMIS Award is one of the most prestigious and generously funded international scientific awards. The scientist from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) received particular recognition for leading the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition between the autumns of 2019 and 2020. For a year, the research…

Climate models suggest that climate change could reduce the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). However, observational data actually shows that this ability has seen no significant decline in recent decades. In a recent study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have discovered what may be causing this. Low-salinity water in the upper ocean has typically helped to trap carbon in the deep ocean, which in turn has slowed its release into the atmosphere – until now, that is, because climate change is increasingly altering the…

Driftwood plays a key role in Arctic coastal ecosystems: it stores carbon, stabilises coastlines and provides a habitat for animals. At the same time, it can offer clues regarding climate change in the Arctic region, providing information on the likes of storm surges, coastal erosion and shifting fluvial dynamics. Despite the crucial role it plays, there is still a lot that we do not know about the large-scale distribution patterns of driftwood. Now, for the first time, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have systematically mapped driftwood…

Arctic permafrost stores massive amounts of organic carbon in its frozen soils and deeper deposits. However, as the Arctic warms particularly rapidly, these deposits are thawing out. As a result, more and more greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere. There has been little research on where and how quickly permafrost thaws, as well as on the processes that cause the rapid thaw. PeTCaT (Rapid Permafrost Thaw Carbon Trajectories) is an international project that, above all, aims to increase our knowledge of these rapid thaw processes. Under…