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She has been travelling in the Arctic and Antarctic in the service of research for over 40 years, but there are still areas that are new territory even for the Polarstern: Between two expeditions to East Antarctica, the Alfred Wegener Institute's research icebreaker reached Hobart in Tasmania on 30 January 2024 and will remain there until 6 February. The German Embassy in Australia, together with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the AWI, is inviting representatives from politics, science and society to a celebratory reception on board…

Around Christmas 2023, Germany was flooded in many places. The Elbe also reached a critical level. Now, scientists from UFZ, HEREON, GEOMAR and AWI have mobilised on short notice to investigate how the flood affects the transport of pollutants and nutrients as well as the ecosystems from the Elbe to the German Bight. The operational plan for such a flood event was already in the drawer for several years, but now it had to be executed rapidly during the Christmas holidays.

AWI Director Antje Boetius took part in the event "New perspectives for Franco-German cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region" in Paris yesterday. Together with Gerald Haug, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, Ambassador for Polar and Marine Affairs at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she discussed ways of expanding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, which is becoming increasingly strategically important for both countries.

At Bremen’s scientific institutions, we work together on topics and issues that address the pressing problems of our time. With this in mind, we expressly distance ourselves from all forms of discrimination, exclusion, and xenophobia. These values are set out in a joint declaration of the Bremen research institutions united in the U Bremen Research Alliance and the State Rectors’ Conference.

Climate change will likely affect the spread of pathogens in the ocean: as water temperatures rise, bacteria that are harmful to humans could also appear en masse, posing a biological hazard. The new joint project PrimePrevention, coordinated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, has set itself the goal of developing new tools to help make society more aware of these hazards and prevent or mitigate their adverse effects. It is one of four projects being carried out by the German Marine Research Alliance (DAM) under the umbrella of its third research mission,…

In a new study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) investigated the long-term changes in the Arctic Ocean eddy activity in response to climate warming. The study reveals a remarkable surge in Arctic eddy activity in a warmer climate, a trend that is probably unparalleled when compared to other regions across the global ocean.

A new study from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) investigates crater-like depressions on the seabed, so-called pockmarks. Previous research has been assuming that they are caused by rising gases and liquids. However, the study published in Communications Earth & Environment proposes an alternative assumption: Instead of gases and liquids, vertebrates may be the key to explaining pockmarks. Dr. Jasper Hoffmann from the Alfred Wegener institute, Helmholtz centre for polar and marine research (AWI), was part of this project. The University…

In Berlin, the AWI organized an event on "The Modern Arctic" in cooperation with the Nordic Embassies. The event showed that the Arctic is not only a remote and frozen wilderness, but also a region of dynamic innovation, modern cities and businesses. The Icelandic Ambassador María Erla Marelsdóttir opened the event. AWI Director Prof. Antje Boetius then introduced the topic. This was followed by a panel discussion with international guests.

This year the AWI celebrates the smallest member of its fleet: Mya II is 10 years old. "With the help of Mya II, we collect data as part of a long-term monitoring program that allows us to document ecological changes in the North Sea," says AWI Deputy Director Karen Wiltshire. An anniversary seminar provided insights into the historical research shipping in the Wadden Sea and the work with the multibeam echosounder. Topics such as the MOSES expeditions, the time series of the Sylt Roads and fish monitoring in the Sylt-Römö Bay rounded off the program.

At the end of the year, the magazine "DER SPIEGEL" has once again published a chronicle in which all the important events of the year are summarized in pictures and reports. A photograph of the research vessel Polarstern by AWI photographer Esther Horvath was selected for the pages of September. The picture was taken last summer during the ArcWatch expedition.