Archive of News and Press Releases
Tracking marine litter in the Arctic from the air
On the current Polarstern expedition, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute have deployed a multicopter with a high-resolution camera to quantify marine litter floating on the sea surface. The deep-sea researchers had recorded a marked increase of man-made litter on the Arctic seafloor over the last ten years. That was the reason to now start the programme for the quantitative analysis of waste-entry on the sea surface.
Find out more
Ice algae: The engine of life in the central Arctic Ocean
Algae that live in and under the sea ice play a much greater role for the Arctic food web than previously assumed. In a new study, biologists of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research showed that not only animals that live directly under the ice thrive on carbon produced by so-called ice algae. Even species that mostly live at greater depth depend to a large extent on carbon from these algae. This also means that the decline of the Arctic sea ice may have far-reaching consequences for the entire food web of the…
Find out more
Water World
As already announced in the last weekly report, today we will provide details about the work of the phyto-opticians, biogeochemists, planktologists and sedimentologist during RV Polarstern expedition PS99.2. Their goal is to investigate the organisms and processes in the water column.
Find out more
In the air, in the water column and at the deep seafloor
For about a week we have been operating in our investigation area, i.e. the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) Observatory HAUSGARTEN. In addition to our “traditional” gear to study the open and deep ocean, like water samplers, plankton nets, sediment corers and moorings, we will also deploy a number of comparably complex high-tech gear to complement our long-term studies. This includes an Un-manned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), a 3000 m depth-rated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), free-falling lander systems (Bottom-Lander) and - for the first time in…
Find out more
In times of great famine, microalgae digest themselves
In a recent study, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have determined the molecular mechanisms which microalgae apply in order to switch from rapid cell division to growth-arrest during times of acute nutrient deficiency. In laboratory experiments, the scientists have been able to observe that calcifying microalgae in a state of nutrient deficiency initially tweak their metabolism to be more economic and efficient before, out of necessity, they even partially digest themselves. The molecular…
Find out more
Plate tectonics without jerking
The earthquake distribution on ultraslow mid-ocean ridges differs fundamentally from other spreading zones. Water circulating at a depth of up to 15 kilometres leads to the formation of rock that resembles soft soap. This is how the continental plates on ultraslow mid-ocean ridges may move without jerking, while the same process in other regions leads to many minor earthquakes, according to geophysicists of the Alfred Wegener Institute.
Find out more
Intensification and poleward shift of oceanic boundary currents
Global warming results in fundamental changes to important ocean currents. As scientists from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute show in a new study, wind-driven subtropical boundary currents in the northern and southern hemisphere are not only going to increase in strength by the end of this century. The Kuroshio Current, the Agulhas Current and other oceanic currents are shifting their paths towards the pole and thus carry higher temperatures and thus the risk of storms to temperate latitudes. For this study, researchers evaluated a wealth of independent…
Find out more
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…
Find out more
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…
Find out more
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.
Find out more