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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.

The European Commission has officially established ACTRIS as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). With its ERIC status, ACTRIS is now officially recognised as a European research infrastructure for atmospheric research. It provides science, industry and public authorities with access to a wide range of high-quality data, technologies, services and resources, and to promote cutting-edge research and international cooperation in the field of atmospheric research.

The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea - and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have now reported this in the journal Environmental Science and…

Anthropogenic climate change has, together with the intensive use and destruction of natural ecosystems through agriculture, fishing and industry, sparked an unprecedented loss of biodiversity that continues to worsen. In this regard, the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are often viewed as two separate catastrophes. An international team of researchers led by Hans-Otto Pörtner from the Alfred Wegener Institute calls for adopting a new perspective. In their review study just released in the journal Science, they recommend (in addition to complying…

Wie bedenklich sind die Munitionsreste zweier Weltkriege, die noch immer in alten Wracks am Grund der Nordsee und anderen Meeren liegen?

The demolition now underway on Helgoland will make room for construction of the BLUEHOUSE, which will offer a uniquely interactive permanent exhibition on marine research. Its 600 square metres of exhibition space will be home to various exhibits designed to promote learning and discovery.

For several years, a team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute used underwater microphones to listen for seals at the edge of the Antarctic. Their initial findings, just released in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, indicate that sea-ice retreat has had significant effects on the animals’ behaviour: when the ice disappears, areas normally full of vocalisations become very quiet.

Polarstern returned to her home port of Bremerhaven with the morning tide today after a seven month Antarctic expedition and is now being unloaded. The ship will spend the next few weeks at Lloyd Werft for routine maintenance and repairs before departing for the Arctic again at the end of May.

In a large-scale experiment that has just begun on the island of Helgoland, a team of 30 researchers is testing to which extent the ocean is able to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. In mesocosms, free-floating closed experimental facilities, the group investigates whether the ocean can absorb more carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through the addition of slaked lime and what influence this has on plankton communities in the sea. The experiment is part of the research consortium RETAKE of the research mission “Marine carbon sinks…