Archive of News and Press Releases
A short stopover?
On 23rd June, we reached Longyearbyen and the expedition PS99.1 came to an end. The hydrographical, biological and geological studies of the two EUROFLEETS2 projects, explained in detail in our first weekly report, could successfully be completed. Within only 2½ days available ship-time we managed to sample the water column and the seafloor, to map the seafloor with a towed camera system, and to exchange moorings with current-meters and sediment traps at a total of 40 stations at water depths between 150 and 1800 m. Exhausted but as happy as could be for…
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Siberian larch forests are still linked to the ice age
The Siberian permafrost regions include those areas of the Earth, which heat up very quickly in the course of climate change. Nevertheless, biologists are currently observing only a minimal response in forest composition. In the places where, when considering the air temperature, pine and spruce forests should be growing, Siberian larch trees are still thriving. The cause of this paradox has been tracked using million-year-old bee pollen by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Cologne, and international partner institutions. The…
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Heinz Miller to receive the 2016 SCAR Medal for International Coordination
Prof. Heinz Miller from the Alfred Wegener Institute has been selected to receive the 2016 SCAR Medal for International Coordination.
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AWI Scientist Antje Boetius honoured
Professor Antje Boetius, Alfred Wegener Institute, was elected as Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, she will be awarded the Goldschmidt Medal 2016 due to be presented in Japan.
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We are on the way – finally!
That’s what we’ve been heading for since weeks and months – finally it’s real! In the early evening on the 13th June 2016 we set sail for the long passage from Bremerhaven to the Arctic. We, that is 45 crew members and a total of 51 scientists, engineers, technicians and students with the common goal to conduct multidisciplinary investigations in the atmosphere, the water column and at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean.
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New equipment for the AWI - "Gardener"
Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) are setting out with the research vessel Polarstern towards Spitsbergen, to use newly developed equipment in the Arctic Ocean. Autonomous instruments on the seabed, in the water column and in the air will complement the long-term measurements of the deep-sea research group. In this way researchers can analyse the climatic changes in the Arctic and their impact on the fauna in the future with higher temporal and spatial resolution.
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Helmholtz Association adopts open access policy
Scientific publications involving scientists from the Helmholtz Association should be freely available to the public. This is the intention of a new open access policy recently adopted by the Assembly of Members of Germany’s largest research organisation. According to this policy, publications in the natural sciences should be made available free of charge within six months at the latest; in the humanities and social sciences the deadline is twelve months.
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The Expedition PS 99 from Bremerhaven to Tromsø
The RV Polarstern expedition PS99 to the Arctic will start on 13 June 2016 in Bremerhaven and lead to study areas northwest of Bear Island, south of Spitsbergen and in the central and eastern Fram Strait.
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Biological studies on the shelves off the Antarctic Peninsula
The waters around the Antarctic Peninsula are characterized by significant environmental changes and pronounced natural gradients in physical characteristics. The journal Polar Biology has now dedicated a special issue to this region. The articles in the issue report a wide range of results on the ecology of the Southern Ocean.
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Research vessel Polarstern expected in Bremerhaven
On Wednesday, 11 May 2016, the research vessel Polarstern is expected back in its home port of Bremerhaven after a good six months of Antarctic expeditions. In the austral summer, the research vessel of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), penetrated into the southern Weddell Sea as far as the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, where oceanographic and biological work was the focus. In addition, the expedition members provided logistical support for a research camp there.
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