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The Arctic regions are essential for the global climate and for the ecology of the oceans. Their research is crucial to reconstruct former climate systems and to predict future climate development. German and Russian researchers cooperate closely for this purpose. This cooperation has an institutionalized framework since ten years: the Otto Schmidt Laboratory in Saint Petersburg. Researchers from Kiel and Bremerhaven and representatives from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research receive prestigious Russian awards during today’s…

Reseach aircraft Polar 5, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, took off towards Antarctica on Thursday November 12th. Polar 5 will be used in three research programmes in the season 2009/10 and it will logistically support the established Antarctic flight network DROMLAN (Dronning Maud Land Air Network) as well as various field programmes. Including the flight towards Antarctica and back, Polar 5 will probably absolve around 375 flying hours in connection with the expedition.

The earth is currently subject to profound climate change. However, the effects can regionally be highly different. How will global changes impact in detail on the regional scale? In which way will anthropogenic influence and natural climate change affect each other? On which knowledge base can regions react to the expected changes by means of appropriate climate adaptation and mitigation strategies? Eight research centres of the Helmholtz Association focus their competences in the Helmholtz network Regional Climate Change (“Regionale Klimaänderungen”:…

Geoscientists have succeeded in reconstructing the ice conditions in the Fram Strait, a narrow passage between eastern Greenland and Spitsbergen, during the past 30,000 years. They used a new research method. Based on fossilized algal remains in sediment cores, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association in collaboration with colleagues from the University Plymouth, Great Britain, worked out a uniform picture of the expansion of sea ice in this area that is particularly important for worldwide…

Research vessel Polarstern will start its journey October 16th from Bremerhaven to its 26th expedition into Antarctica. The expedition consists of four legs and leads Polarstern, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, at first to Punta Arenas.

Bremerhaven, October 6th 2009. The project Eurofleets (European fleets) funded by the European Commission in the 7th Framework program was recently launched with a meeting of about 100 scientists and fleet operators in Paris. 24 partners from 16 member states of the European Union or associated countries participated to further advance the networking of the European research fleets. The European Commission finances Eurofleets during the coming four years with 7.2 million Euros. The project is coordinated by the French research institute Ifremer. The…

The major research project BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean ACIDification) starts today. It is a joint project which examines the repercussions of oceanic acidification on marine biological communities. The effects of oceanic acidification on lime formation, and growth and development of marine organisms will be examined in an interdisciplinary collaboration within the framework of BIOACID. The project is funded with 8.500.000 Euros by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with the participation of 14 German research institutes…

Kiel/Bremerhaven/Helgoland. Fresh breeze for the dive centre of the Biologische Anstalt Helgoland: Schleswig-Holstein’s Education and Science Secretary of State Jost de Jager handed today a grant notification of 850.000 Euros for the modernization and expansion of this research and training facility over to the directorate of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association.

The first season of the international drilling project NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) in north-western Greenland was completed today. A research team, with the participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, has drilled an ice core of altogether 1757.87 m length on the Greenland inland ice within 110 days. It is expected to contain data on climate history of about 38.000 years.

Three research institutes from the German federal state Bremen among others have set up an observation ward for the long-term observation of a mud volcano in the Norwegian deep sea. This took place during RV Polarstern’s 24th Arctic expedition from July 10th until August 3rd. The endeavours are part of the project ESONET (European Seas Observatory NETwork), funded by the European Union. Its purposes are to provide information about the dynamics of gas eruptions in the next years and to show the consequences of these eruptions, for example on the…