News

Microplastic contamination has reached the Arctic

Tourists help scientists reveal microplastic pollution on remote Arctic beaches

[21. July 2023]  Quantifying the amount of microplastic that appears on beaches and understanding where it came from is difficult. Scientists asked tourists on Arctic cruises to take part in a program of sample collection while visiting Svalbard and used these samples to identify microplastics that probably originated from ships and fishing net.

New AI project on permafrost launches

[18. July 2023]  An international group of experts with the participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute receives a grant of $5 million from Google.org for the development of an AI system that can be used to study the thawing of the Arctic permafrost even faster and more effectively.

Effects of hypoxia on benthic biogeochemistry

Studies at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Basin with the deep-diving submersible Alvin

[06. July 2023]  On a current expedition with the US Research Vessel Atlantis, benthic studies are carried out with the deep-diving submersible Alvin. Felix Janssen, scientist in the HGF-MPG bridging group for deep-sea ecology and technology at the AWI and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPI), is joining this expedition at the moment. Led by the former MPI group member Tina Treude, who is now Professor at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the expedition aims to study seafloor biogeochemistry in oxygen deficient waters of the Santa Barbara Basin and the role of sulfur-oxidizing microbial mats that are forming at the sediment-water interface.

EU project OLAMUR

Aquaculture within offshore wind farms

[05. July 2023]  Ensuring global food security for the growing population is an important topic that many researchers are dealing with. As the demand for food and sustainable resources increases, the world's oceans play an increasingly important role in the nutrition, health and well-being of populations. But the production of marine resources can no longer be sustained by ecosystems and natural fisheries production only. The EU project OLAMUR, which runs from January 2023 to December 2026, aims to help combine aquaculture production with renewable wind energy.

Helmholtz joint project MOSES

How polluted is the Elbe River?

Helmholtz researchers trace the path of environmental chemicals, nano- and microplastics, and nutrients from the Elbe to the North Sea

[26. June 2023]  Germany’s watercourses, including the Elbe River, are polluted by external discharges from industry, agriculture, and sewage treatment plants. However, this pollution changes along the course of the river - as a result of many sources of pollution and because degradation processes change the substances. In a joint measurement campaign, researchers from several Helmholtz Centres want to take a closer look at how environmental chemicals, nano- and microplastic particles, and nutrients enter the Elbe and then the North Sea.

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