Archive of News and Press Releases

Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius,deutsche Meeresbiologin und Professorin der Universität Bremen, seit November 2017 leitet sie das Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Bremerhaven. Geboren: 5. März 1967 (Alter 51 Jahre), Frankfurt am Main Ausbildung: Universität Hamburg Feld: Meeresbiologie Auszeichnungen: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preis, Gustav-Steinmann-Medaille,Deutscher Umweltpreis 2018
Press releases

Prof. Antje Boetius receives the 2018 German Environmental Award

The 2018 German Environmental Award goes to Antje Boetius and a team of wastewater experts from Leipzig. The Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is glad to see the deep seas and polar regions, the last great expanses of unspoiled nature, attracting more attention. Helmholtz President Prof. Otmar D. Wiestler has praised Boetius as a strong advocate for preserving our oceans.
Weekly report

Geophysics in the fog and an exciting sediment core

In week two of our four weeks of expedition we have continued our reflexion seismic work in the Northern Greenland Sea.
Arctic lakes
Press releases

How Arctic lakes are accelerating climate change

In the future, climate change could abruptly increase the amount of methane released by lakes in the permafrost regions of the Arctic. The explanation: because of thawing permafrost, these lakes are expanding, and below them the water is gnawing away deeper and deeper into the previously frozen soil where microbes now can produce methane. An international research team, including experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, has now determined that the rapid thaw under lakes has been neglected in models so far and that bacterial decomposition of organic…
Weekly report

Transit from Tromsø and first research operations in the Northeast Greenland area

The cruise PS115.1 on Polarstern focuses on a geoscientific research program, which has the aim to clarify the geological development of the northern North Atlantic and the shelf area of the surrounding regions.
Abb. 1: Ein Wasserprobennehmer und ein Gerät, das autonom Partikel aus der Wassersäule filtriert, werden verankert. Die orangen Kugeln oben leisten Auftrieb, damit die Geräte möglichst nahe an der Oberfläche arbeiten können. Fig. 2: A water sampler and an instrument which can autonomously filter particles from the water column are being moored. The orange balls at the top provide the necessary buoyancy for the instruments to work close to the surface.
Weekly report

Mooring Work on Foggy Days

After two long weeks of intense work we can be more than happy with what we have achieved! All our instruments worked really well, we took and analysed lots of water and sediment samples, recorded hundreds of pictures from the water column and of the sea floor so as to document life in the deep sea and we recovered almost a hundred instruments which were continuously recording water mass and current properties for the past two years.
Ein reiner, Eiskristall, beobachtet am Lichtmikroskop (grünes Bild) und gleichzig am Interferenzmikrokop (rotes Bild). Das Bild am Lichtmikroskop zeigt deutlich die Morphologie der Kristalle und das Wachstum der Dendriten. Aus den charakteristischen gestreiften Interferenzmuster im rechten Bild werden Informationen zu dem Wachstum der Kristalle in der Höhe, also senkrecht zu der basalen Fläche, abgeleitet. Die Maßstableiste entspricht 0,2 mm. Erschienen in Proceedings of National Academy of Science; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1807461115
Press releases

Questioning conventional understanding of antifreeze proteins

Scientists have discovered that an ice-binding protein (fcIBP) from the sea ice microalga does not fit in the conventional classification of ice-binding proteins, suggesting unknown mechanisms behind its antifreeze property. This finding could lead to a broader application of the antifreeze protein in food and medical industries.
POGO-Stipendiaten 2017/18 mit Betreuerin auf Helgoland
Press releases

Ten scholarship holders in oceanography honoured

Today ten scholarship holders from around the globe presented their final papers at the Wissenschaftsforum conference centre in Berlin as part of the Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography. For the past ten months, all have been engaged in a training programme addressing all oceanographic disciplines at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). To close this important chapter of their lives with due pomp and splendour, there will be a festive graduation ceremony. Representatives of the programme’s…
Weekly report

Chemistry on Board

Now we have been working in the working area for 7 days which were intense but successful. A lot of moorings were recovered and deployed. We also took many water and sediment samples and videos which are part of the work of the FRAM infrastructure. This has kept many of us busy, but also happy with the success. We will tell you more details on this next week. But today, let’s hear from two of our groups which are doing chemistry on this ship.
Young Arctic sea ice. This image was taken with the IceCam, installed in the hull of the EM-Bird, the AWI sea ice thickness measuring sensor, which in pulled underneath a helicopter above the sea ice to measure its thickness. The camera points vertically downwards and takes photos of the area directly underneath the bird.
Online news

Six German-Russian research groups receive three-year funding

The new German-Russian funding programme "Helmholtz-RSF Joint Research Groups" has completed its second selection round. The Helmholtz Association and the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) have selected six further Joint Research Groups, including one with participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute.
Weekly report

Into the Arctic

A walk through the ship shows: Everything is ready to go! Just a few days ago there were partly unpacked transport boxes everywhere (from whole containers to small cardboard boxes).