News

In the course of an extensive Antarctic expedition, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research recently investigated several lakes beneath Recovery Glacier that had been previously detected by satellite remote sensing. The experts found very few substantial bodies of water, which is a surprising result: up to that point, the scientific community had assumed that overflowing lakes below the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were the reason that ice masses began sliding and forming ice streams to begin with. This…

Warm, moist air masses from the lower latitudes are the main energy source for the Arctic atmosphere in winter; they have a significant influence on soil temperatures and can produce sea-ice melting. Because climate and weather models still have considerable difficulties when it comes to accurately depicting key processes involved in the transformation of these air masses, AWI researchers recently summarised the current state of knowledge and identified remaining gaps; their study has just been released in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The EU wants to ban single-use, disposable products such as drinking straws and ear swabs, the goal being to reduce the amount of plastic litter in our oceans. We discussed this initiative with two experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) – Dr Melanie Bergmann and Dr Lars Gutow.

UPDATE from 6 November 2018:
At this year’s annual meeting of the international Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), negotiations continued regarding a proposed Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute were instrumental in preparing the application for protected status, which was submitted in 2016. Unfortunately, this year’s negotiations were unsuccessful.

On 25 and 26 October, the spotlight in Berlin will be on Arctic research. On the first day, the focus will be on the Arctic Science Forum, where experts from 20 nations, representatives of indigenous peoples, and NGOs will meet to discuss international collaboration in the context of Arctic research. On the second day, the 2nd Arctic Science Ministerial will convene, followed by public events that will round out the conference.

This morning, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) research icebreaker Polarstern returned to her homeport in Bremerhaven. Over the previous six weeks, nearly 100 contributing researchers and crewmembers had engaged in geoscientific fieldwork, sea-ice experiments and meteorological research in the Central Arctic. In addition, students from the German-Canadian graduate training programme ArcTrain were on board.

A team of 22 scientific expedition participants around deep-sea biologist Dr Thomas Soltwedel from the Alfred Wegener Institute is currently conducting research on board RV Maria S. Merian in the so-called AWI HAUSGARTEN.

It takes time to do a thing well, this also and specifically applies to the deep sea. In a long-term study, marine scientists from Bremen for the first time observed the colonization of a deep-sea mud volcano after its eruption. Only slowly, rich life develops around the crater. The first settlers are tiny organisms that eat methane escaping from the volcano. Thereby, they keep this greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere. By and by, other microbes and eventually higher organisms settle. The present study describes how the colonization of the mud…

New Cluster "The Ocean Floor – Earth‘s Un­charted In­ter­face" at MARUM

Today, EU-PolarNet is presenting urgent polar issues in the European Parliament in Brussels. During a two-hour long policy briefing themed “At the frontline of climate change: Key changes in the Polar Regions that call for European action” the AWI coordinated and EU funded project outlines its five polar white papers.