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AWI welcomes its new director
Glaciologist Hajo Eicken has officially taken over as Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute. He returns to Bremerhaven after almost 30 years in Alaska.
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Visit of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
Exchange at the AWI: The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) visited the AWI’s main campus in Bremerhaven. AWI Interim Director Maarten Boersma welcomed the delegation. This was followed by presentations from the AWI faculty and a tour of the institute. The ITLOS is an independent organisation within the UN system, operating on the basis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982.
Hole in the sea ice thickened the Antarctic ice sheet in the past
Polynyas are like a window through which the ocean and the atmosphere can interact. A look into the past shows that today's changes in the Antarctic could prevent these from forming.
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![[Translate to English:] Südlicher Seeelefant (Mirounga leonina)](/fileadmin/_processed_/9/f/csm_2010_BulleMitSender_JPloetz_3c181c2daf.jpg "Southern elephant seal")
Ocean warming drives melting of Antarctic sea ice
Antarctic sea ice plays a crucial role in the ecosystem and physical environment of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Since the ice reflects the sun's rays and blocks heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, it is critical to our weather and climate. Therefore, we need to understand what affects its extent to improve future climate models and prediction. A new study led by the University of Gothenburg and involving the Alfred Wegener Institute contibuting to this research field has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
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Scientific exchange at NCPOR
During a delegation visit to Goa, India, Maarten Boersma, Nicole Biebow, Frank Lamy, Lester Lembke Jene, Hanno Meyer and Wolfram Geissler visited the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) at the invitation of Director Thamban Melot. At the meeting on 12 and 13 March, the participants discussed the further cooperation between the AWI and NCPOR, particularly in the fields of palaeoceanography and within the Antarctica InSync project. The discussions were based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed two years ago.
New measurement campaign investigates clouds over Arctic sea ice
The international research campaign COMPEX (Clouds over complex environment) is kicking off with Polar 5 measurement flights over the Arctic and will investigate the properties of clouds over sea ice that cannot be detected by satellites. Since clouds play a central role in the climate of the polar region, the results will help scientists understand why this region is warming particularly rapidly compared to the rest of the world. The University of Cologne is leading the research campaign. To the original press release.
How microbes use ancient carbon
How is carbon metabolized and processed in different ecosystems? In a recent study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, researchers led by Joely Maak, the study’s first author and researcher in the Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface”, examined the carbon cycle in a unique marine ecosystem.
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![[Translate to English:] Wetterballon](/fileadmin/_processed_/a/f/csm_20120905_Neumayer__SC87926_SChristmann_95cfd8ec36.jpg "[Translate to English:] Wetterballon")
Antarctic Research Trends Report 2025
German research on Antarctic topics is at the forefront internationally. This is shown by the recently published “Antarctic Research Trends Report 2025,” which evaluated around 30,000 academic publications on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean from 2016 to 2024. For example, Germany ranks third behind the US and the UK in terms of publications produced in international cooperation, and fifth in terms of total number of publications. The publications of AWI researchers contribute significantly to this. They consistently rank in the top 10 in the…
Ice loss due to warm seawater
A study led by the British Antarctic Survey, in which AWI geoscientist Johann Klages also participated as co-author, has concluded that the retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet since the end of the last Ice Age around 18,000 years ago has been largely driven by warm seawater, not air. Analysis of sediment cores from the Amundsen Sea continental shelf shows that the ice retreated significantly whenever warm deep water reached the ice shelves. This process is accelerating the melting of the ice sheet once again today. In the area of the Thwaites and…
Major Knowledge Gaps in Understanding the Ocean Carbon Sink
The ocean currently absorbs around 25% of human‑produced CO2, thus slowing down global warming. Climate change, however, is altering this important service. Yet, it is not possible to say exactly how the carbon sink in the ocean will develop in the coming decades, as there is a lack of important scientific data from some of the world's oceans. This is the conclusion of the UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in its latest report to which Prof Judith Hauck from the Alfred Wegener Institute contributed.
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