News

Manganese nodules on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean are an important breeding ground for deep-sea octopuses. As reported by a German-American team of biologists in the current issue of the journal Current Biology, the octopuses deposit their eggs onto sponges that only grow locally on manganese nodules. The researchers had observed the previously unknown octopus species during diving expeditions in the Pacific at depths of more than 4000 metres - new record depths for these octopuses. Their specific dependence on manganese nodules for brooding eggs…

The East Antarctic ice shelves may be more vulnerable to climate change than previously assumed. A research team in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute has detected large amounts of meltwater on the Roi Baudouin shelf ice. This is due to strong winds that blow away the snow. This is the result of a study which has now been published in the online edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.

Kongsfjorden situated in western Spitsbergen is a Mecca for marine biologists and climatologists. Consequences of global change become apparent fast and are clearly visible on a small scale.

Good news for archaeologists and natural scientists! You will be able to continue to use the radiocarbon method as a reliable tool for determining the age of artefacts and sample materials. The reduction of the carbon isotope 14C in the atmosphere accelerated by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and the associated distortion of the radiocarbon age of materials can be precisely identified - by measuring the carbon isotope 13C. This is the result of a study by AWI geoscientist Dr Peter Köhler, which was published today in the journal Environmental…

Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Technologie-Transfer-Zentrum Bremerhaven have taken a major step forward in their search for an alternative to fishmeal, an expensive and ecologically problematic fish feed ingredient.

A group of organisators and participants of the transit cruise of the so-called Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) visited the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar dnd Marine Research (AWI) last Saturday. The guests subsequently started for their expedition with the research vessel Akademik Treshnikov from Bremerhaven towards Cape Town.

Together with the city of Bremerhaven and the Fischereihafenbetriebsgesellschaft (FBG - fishing port operator), the Alfred Wegener Institute has specified the potential use of the area on the Klußmannstraße. A Technical Centre for technical development work as well as expedition preparations is to be built on the opposite side of the AWI campus at "Am Handelshafen". The design by kister scheithauer gross architects (ksg), who also realized parts of the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, prevailed in a tendering procedure.

Norwegian and German scientists meet for a seminar in the "Haus der Wissenschaft" in Bremen for a seminar  on 16 November 2016. Together they are going to talk about Arctic biodiversity: Current state and research perspectives.

In Antarctica internationally leading ice and climate scientists of 14 institutions from ten European countries are looking for the oldest ice on Earth. Goal is to find the place, where in Antarctica the ice core can be drilled which goes furthest back in Earth’s history. Such a core would allow to deciphering past processes in the climate system to improve prognoses for the future. The European Commission funds the project “Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice” (BE-OI) with 2.2 million Euros, which is coordinated by the German Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz…

An EU-financed project investigating ways to improve weather and climate prediction in the face of a rapidly changing Arctic officially started this month. Known as APPLICATE (Advanced Prediction in Polar regions and beyond: modelling, observing system design and LInkages associated with a Changing Arctic climaTE), the €8 million project, financed by the EU HORIZON 2020 Research and Innovation programme, involves 16 partners from nine countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and will be carried…