News

The Polarstern recently ended a two-month expedition in the Central Arctic in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The international and interdisciplinary research team, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, focused on the summer melting of Arctic sea ice in three different regimes. The comprehensive inventory revealed major differences between the various sea ice regimes and a low sea ice concentration in the study area. In addition, bacteria and zooplankton dominated the biological communities, while the expected ice algae could hardly be found. 

Just exactly how internal clocks function in zooplankton in the open sea at the mechanistic and molecular level is the core question the BICLOPS junior research group is addressing. Over the next five years, the European Research Council (ERC) will be funding the group led by AWI biologist Sören Häfker to the tune of €1.5 million. 

At the 15th International Palaeoceanography Conference yesterday, Dr Johann Klages from the section Marine Geology at the Alfred Wegener Institute gave a plenary lecture on his research in the Antarctic. The invitation was in recognition of groundbreaking insights that have influenced the community for a long time - and is only possible once in a lifetime for scientists.

Extreme sea surface temperatures in 2023 resulted in high CO₂ outgassing, particularly in the North Atlantic, meaning that the global ocean absorbed less CO₂ overall. Thanks to El Niño, much less CO₂ than usual escaped into the atmosphere in the eastern Pacific, but the outgassing in the North Atlantic negated the positive effect. The fact that the ocean did not lose even more CO₂ is due to physical and biological processes that limited outgassing in spite of the record-high temperatures. It is uncertain, however, as to whether these compensating…

Doris Achelwilm, member of the German Bundestag and member of the parliamentary group “Die Linke”, visited the AWI in Bremerhaven: Prof Dr Maarten Boersma, director interim of the AWI, and AWI administrative director Dr Karsten Wurr welcomed the politician and introduced her to the institute's infrastructure, activities, and research areas. Afterwards, there was time for a discussion about the projects Beyond EPICA, Antarctica InSync, and the new construction of the Polarstern.

Some Fourteen thousand years ago, algal blooms in the Southern Ocean helped to massively reduce the global carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere – as has now been revealed by new analyses of ancient DNA published by a team from the Alfred Wegener Institute in the journal Nature Geoscience. In the ocean around the Antarctic continent, these algal blooms had a significant impact on global carbon dynamics. The current and expected future decline in sea ice in this region now poses a serious threat to these algae, which could incur global consequences.

The international Antarctic research project Antarctica InSync is organizing a second science webinar. The two-day online workshop to advance the scientific planning of Antarctica InSync, an international initiative endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade. To accommodate participants across diverse time zones and ensure broad global engagement, the webinar will take place over two days, with each session offering the same core content. The sessions will be on 9 September, 7 to 09:30 UTC and on 10 September, 15:00 to 17:30 UTC. More information and registration.

AWI climate scientist Dr. Monica Ionita is one of the new IPCC lead authors for the 7th Assessment Report. She will oversee Working Group I, Chapter 4 as lead author. The topic of her field of work is: “Advances in process understanding of Earth system changes”. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is a United Nations institution, also known as the World Climate Council. It publishes reports on the state of the global climate. The 7th Assessment Report will be published in 2029.

What are the global impacts of an ice-free Arctic? How will the Arctic develop with increasing climate warming? What does an ice-free Arctic mean for our environment and our society? These are the key questions that the “i2B - Into The Blue” project addresses.

On Saturday, 9 August 2025, the Mya II opened its hatches as part of the Lister Harbour Festival 2025. There was great interest: around 500 visitors took the opportunity to visit the AWI research vessel and gain insights into ship-based Wadden Sea research.