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On July 15, 2005, the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research will celebrate its 25th anniversary at its headquarters in Bremerhaven. Since 1980, the institute has been conducting research in the Antarctic and the Arctic, as well as in the North Sea and in other temperate oceans. It has continued the successful polar research of the early 20th century, inseparably connected with the names of Alfred Wegener and Georg von Neumayer. Today, the institute’s research activities range from plate tectonics and food webs to the causes and effects…

Anniversary of the Friedrich Hustedt Study Centre for Diatoms at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

On July 1st, the Friedrich Hustedt Study Centre for Diatoms will have been established for 40 years. With approximately 80,000 microscope slides, the extended diatom collection of Friedrich Hustedt, born in Bremen in 1886, is one of the largest of its kind anywhere.

Exactly 75 years ago, on April 1st, 1930, the ‘German Greenland Expedition Alfred Wegener’ left from Copenhagen with fourteen participants. Determining the thickness of the Greenland ice shield as 2700 metres represented a sensational scientific success of the one-year operation. However, extreme environmental conditions of the Arctic made the expedition very strenuous. Alfred Wegener, expedition leader and founder of the theory of continental drift, fell victim to these extreme conditions. Currently, Wegener’s research interests continue to be pursued…

March 11, 2005 marks the 175th birthday of Eduard Dallmann, a pioneer of German Antarctic research. Through his expeditions, Dallmann, who was born in Blumenthal (now part of Bremen) contributed significantly to the knowledge about Antarctica. He named numerous island groups and straits. From 1873 onwards, the ‘Grönland’, one of the first sailing ships equipped with an auxiliary steam engine in Antarctic waters, sailed under his command. Today, the ‘Dallmann Laboratory’ on King George Island, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institure for Polar and Marine…

Long-term monitoring studies at the ‘Biologische Anstalt Helgoland’ (BAH), part of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, document rapid ecological changes in the North Sea. Scientists explain these changes primarily with the introduction of non-native species and global climate change. Investigations that have been carried out continually since 1962 provide evidence for this notion. The nearly unbroken record of physical, chemical and biological parameters, collected regularly on work days by the ‘Biologische Anstalt Helgoland’,…

Since December 2004, artist Lutz Frisch has been installing a ‘library in ice’ at Neumayer Station, part of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. The library contains approximately 1000 books and is open for actual use. Fritsch contacted artists and scientists of all disciplines in person and asked them to select and donate one book each for this extraordinary place. The books are dedicated to the nine over-wintering scientists who spend 15 months in this icy environment. On Wednesday, January 19, the ‘library in ice’ will be…

On Tuesday 21th of December 2004 a European team involved in Epica (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) reached the drilling depth of 3270.2, which is five meters above the bedrock at Dome C, on the central plateau of the east Antarctic ice sheet. The ice is melting at the bedrock and it has been decided to stop at this depth to avoid any danger of direct contamination of the basal water. The drilling operation has therefore been terminated.

Since November 27, an ice floe has served as home as well as working place for 55 scientists from 11 nations. The research icebreaker ‘Polarstern’ of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven has been tied up firmly to a drifting ice floe in the Antarctic Weddel Sea. As part of the expedition ‘Ispol’ (Ice Station POLarstern), the floe is the object of a several week investigation by glaciologists, biologists, oceanographers and meteorologists. The area of investigation represents a unique ocean region, because it has the…

On October 3rd, the German research vessel “Polarstern” of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research will return to Bremerhaven from its 20th arctic expedition. During the last leg of the voyage, 44 scientists from Germany, Russia and South Korea, supported by crew members, helicopter pilots and technical staff, investigated the region north and west of Spitsbergen. Emphasis was placed on geophysical and geological studies of Fram Strait and Yermak Plateau. Of primary importance were seismic surveys of the upper kilometres of the ocean…

For the very first time, the genetic make-up of a planktonic marine alga has been sequenced. During this process, a team of international scientists found unexpected metabolic pathways in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. The results will be published in the scientific journal ‘Science’ this week.
The fact that Thalassiosira pseudonana operates a urea cycle, has been a special discovery. Up to now, this metabolic pathway for ammonia detoxification was known only from the liver cells of animals and humans. It remains unclear how the cycle works in the…