News

[27. June 2023]  The project MonitorShrimp, which is making considerable strides in improving animal welfare and performance in the context of shrimp farming, is the outcome of a consortium combining the AWI, Oceanloop and Sander Holding. The participating researchers have developed a computer vision system that allows early detection and monitoring of the tiny creatures’ growth, population size, mortality and stress.

[08. June 2023]  A successful cooperation in international polar research celebrates its 20th anniversary. In 2003, the German Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the French Polar Research Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) merged their stations Koldewey and Rabot on Svalbard to form the AWIPEV base. Since then, scientists from both countries have jointly been conducting research there on the effects of climate change in the Arctic as part of the Ny-Ålesund research station coordinated by Norway. The anniversary of the successful partnership will be celebrated on June 14, 2023, at a festive event at the French Embassy in Berlin.

[23. May 2023]  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.

[22. May 2023]  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

[17. May 2023]  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 nodules. According to their findings, in some cases e.g. the radioactivity of radium-226 in the nodules exceeds the safe limit defined in the German Radiation Protection Ordinance one hundred- to one thousand-fold. …