News

Prof Antje Boetius, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute: “We were extremely pleased and relieved to pick up on the signals from the political community that the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag has opted to provide funding for the procurement of the Polarstern II. Thanks to this wonderful news from the Adjustment Session on the Federal Budget for 2022, we have come a major step closer to acquiring a modern, high-performance and sustainable successor to our research icebreaker Polarstern." 

The idea of growing sargassum in huge algae farms is one of five projects that the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation is funding in the coming year. The aim is to find new solutions that make the long-term storage of large amounts of CO2 sustainable and economical.

AWI Director Antje Boetius will participate in a panel discussion on "What kind of science architecture is required to deliver relevant science to policy?" on May 12, starting at 3:10 pm. The panel discussion is organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in cooperation with UNESCO as part of the Ocean Decade. The event will be streamed live. Further information on the Ocean Decade Laboratory.

AWI director Antje Boetius will participate in a scientific seminar in Monaco on May 11, starting at 2:30 pm. The title: "Northbound - The North Sea and the Arctic Ocean: threats and solutions. Antje Boetius will give a keynote speach at the event. The seminar is organized by the Monegasque "Institut oceanographique" and Prince Albert of Monaco. The seminar will be streamed live.

According to estimates, by 2040 the level of plastic pollution could reach 80 million metric tons per year. Plastic particles have now been detected in virtually all spheres of the environment, e.g. in water bodies, the soil and the air. Via ocean currents and rivers, the tiny plastic particles can even reach the Arctic, Antarctic or ocean depths. A new overview study has now shown that wind, too, can transport these particles great distances – and much faster than water can: in the atmosphere, they can travel from their point of origin to the most…

Presentation of the Carl Weyprecht Medal at the 28th International Polar Meeting of the German Polar Research Society. (DGP) on 2 May 2022 in Potsdam, from right to left: Prof. Dr. Hugues Lantuit (AWI, awardee), Dr. Gerlis Fugmann (IASC, awardee), Dr. Heidemarie Kassens (Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the DGP), Prof. Dr. Cornelia Spiegel (Chair of the DGP), Minister Dr. Manja Schüle (Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research and Culture, MWFK), apl. Prof. Dr. Bernhard Diekmann (local host of the DGP meeting).

An international group of experts says the production of new plastics should be capped to solve the plastic pollution problem. The authors argue that all other measures won’t suffice to keep up with the pace of plastic production and releases. The letter was published in the journal Science.

This week, around 200 participants in the MOSAiC project are gathering in Potsdam.

Until now, measures to protect climate and biodiversity have often been developed in parallel. However, this is now considered outdated because many approaches can protect both climate and biodiversity. Targetted at the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference, an international team of scientists has assessed the role of the potential future global biodiversity targets (Post-2020 Action Targets for 2030) for climate protection and found that about two thirds of these targets can also help to slow climate change.

Can iron-rich dust fertilize the ocean, stimulate algae growth there, and thereby capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? An international research team with the participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute used deep-sea sediment cores from the Scotia Sea to investigate whether this hypothetical greenhouse gas sink had an effect during ice ages. Although dust input was high during ice ages, no evidence of a fertilization effect could be found in the Antarctic Ocean. Rather, the production of algae, for example, and thus carbon dioxide sequestration,…