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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…

A team from the Physical Oceanography section of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), led by Hongyan Xi, contributed to the recently published 9th Copernicus Ocean State Report. Coordinated by Mercator Ocean International on behalf of the European Commission, the report summarizes the latest developments in global and European ocean monitoring.

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications reveals that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a key driver of global climate variability, is projected to undergo a dramatic transformation due to greenhouse warming. Using high-resolution climate models (Figure 1), a team of researchers from South Korea, the USA, Germany, and Ireland found that ENSO could intensify rapidly over the coming decades and synchronize with other major climate phenomena, reshaping global temperature and rainfall patterns by the end of the 21st century.

The A.G. Huntsman Medal is awarded annually by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) in recognition of outstanding contributions to marine research. This year, Karen Wiltshire, former Vice Director of the AWI and Professor of Climate Sciences at the Trinity College Dublin, was honoured with the award for her scientific work. The award ceremony will take place on 15 October at Government House in Halifax. The distinguished lecture will begin at 10 a.m. in the Ford Auditorium of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and will be broadcast live via Microsoft…

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…

AWI marine biologist Melanie Bergmann participated in the WISSENSWERTE dialogue forum on 30 September as an expert on microplastics. In a panel discussion with other experts from the fields of toxicology, chemistry and medicine, she spoke about the potential effects of plastic particles on the human body and health. WISSENSWERTE is a German-language conference for science and journalism that takes place annually.

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…

By signing the Inklupreneur Pledge, the Alfred Wegener Institute is setting an example for greater inclusion in the workplace. The initiative aims to create new career prospects for people with disabilities and to embed inclusive structures in the institute's corporate culture on a long-term basis. The collaboration started with a kick-off meeting with Inklupreneur on 23 September. More information.

The final symposium of the EU project Arctic PASSION took place in Potsdam on Monday and Tuesday. This marks the conclusion of the project, which was coordinated by AWI researcher Michael Karcher over the past four and a half years. The programme featured lectures and panel discussions that combined scientific perspectives on Arctic environmental observation with the knowledge of indigenous communities. The symposium is followed by the project’s two-day General Assembly.