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There are many effects of climate change. Perhaps the most broadly known is global warming, which is caused by heat building up in various parts of the Earth system, such as the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere and the land. 89 percent of this excess heat is stored in the oceans, with the rest in ice and glaciers, the atmosphere and land masses (including inland water bodies). An international research team led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and with participation of scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute has now…

Over the next seven years, the three largest marine research institutes in the Helmholtz Association – the AWI, GEOMAR and Hereon – will pool resources to develop their marine technologies. Their goal: to more quickly and efficiently develop underwater robotic systems, ensuring that research can keep pace with the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

Today, Monday, 22 May 2023, the Research Vessel Polarstern will leave her homeport in Bremerhaven, catching the afternoon high tide at ca 3:00 pm and bound for the Arctic Ocean. The four-week expedition, slated to end on 19 July in Tromsø, Norway, will focus on extended ecological fieldwork at the AWI’s deep-sea observatory Hausgarten and at the FRAM Ocean Observing System between Greenland and Svalbard. 50 researchers and a ship’s crew of 24 will be on board.

Manganese nodules in the deep sea contain a wealth of valuable metals that are vital to e.g. the electronics and steelmaking industries. Accordingly, these sectors and many countries have pinned their hopes on deep-sea mining to meet the growing demand for raw materials like cobalt and rare-earth elements. In a study just released in the journal Scientific Reports, experts from the AWI show that such activities could not only have ecological impacts, but also pose health hazards, e.g. in connection with the industrial mining and processing of the…

Research aircraft from the Alfred Wegener Institute have been surveying the ice-covered Arctic Ocean for 30 years. The immense effort of the past 52 expeditions has paid off: 40,000 km of measurement data document the significant decrease in pack-ice thickness as a result of climate change. The time series is the only aeroplane- and helicopter-based measurement series in the world that has been carried out in the Arctic over such a long period. Currently, two Basler BT-67 aircraft are in operation: the Polar 5 and Polar 6.

The research sailing vessel Tara of the French Tara Ocean Foundation has been in Bremerhaven since May 5. Currently, the ship is on the Tara EUROPA expedition. On this mission, the water along the coasts of Europe will be investigated. During the stopover in Bremerhaven, a team from AWI had the opportunity to take a look at the inside of the sailing ship with its three laboratories. The group around AWI director Antje Boetius took the opportunity to talk to the crew and to get to know the Tara Ocean Foundation.

A new app is capable of identifying, visualising and describing macroalgae present in the western and eastern Wadden Sea, and around the island Helgoland. The app, called SeaKey, currently provides details for the identification of 68 brown algae species; green and red algae will follow. Developed by researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute and external cooperation partners, it offers scientific experts and government authorities, students and interested non-experts a straightforward way to measure algae, thanks to its innovative matrix concept.

Norsk Polarinstitutt (NPI) and AWI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Berlin, reaffirming their cooperation. The occasion was the 250th birthday of Henrik Steffens, once professor and rector of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). At the event hosted by the HU's Nordeuropa-Institut, AWI Director Antje Boetius gave a joint presentation with NPI Director Ole Misund on "Polar missions - Current and future drivers of international collaboration in polar science." 

Thousands of tonnes of microplastics are emitted in the German-Danish border region every year. The PlastTrack project, funded by the European Union as part of Interreg Deutschland-Danmark programme, investigates potential dangers for the environment and us humans. The institutions involved also develop tools to monitor and combat plastic pollution in the region. The project is led by the Southern Danish University (SDU) in Sønderborg. On the German side, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel contributes knowledge on the detection of tiny…

The company MACROCARBON SL has just been founded in Las Palmas, on the Canary Islands. It is a spin-off from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and Carbonwave. The start-up is developing algae farms, in which the macroalgae Sargassum will be cultivated. These algae simultaneously bind large amounts of CO2 and produce new raw materials for the chemical industry.