Archive of News and Press Releases
How the climate can rapidly change at tipping points
During the last glacial period, within only a few decades the influence of atmospheric CO2 on the North Atlantic circulation resulted in temperature increases of up to 10 degrees Celsius in Greenland – as indicated by new climate calculations from researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Cardiff. Their study is the first to confirm that there have been situations in our planet’s history in which gradually rising CO2 concentrations have set off abrupt changes in ocean circulation and climate at “tipping points”. These sudden…
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Week 1 at the ice floe
After successfully building up all measurement sites we now have reached a full week with a multitude of observations. This report provides a few examples of what and how we are measuring in our little white floe, we call our home. Oddly enough we didn't manage to give it a name, probably because we all know that it will soon be gone.
With contributions from Ulrike Egerer, Hauke Flores, Allison Fong, Ilka Peeken, Priit Tisler
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In and on the ice
Following our planned schedule three persons where exchanged by helicopter as we passed Longyearbyen.
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How the Arctic Ocean Became Saline
The Arctic Ocean was once a gigantic freshwater lake. Only after the land bridge between Greenland and Scotland had submerged far enough did vast quantities of salt water pour in from the Atlantic. With the help of a climate model, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have demonstrated how this process took place, allowing us for the first time to understand more accurately how Atlantic circulation as we know it today came about. The results of the study have now been published in the journal Nature Communications.
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Why do Antarctic krill stocks fluctuate?
It is only six centimetres long, but it plays a major role in the Antarctic ecosystem: the small crustacean Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill). It's one of the world's most abundant species and the central diet of a number of animals in the Southern Ocean. For a long time, scientists have been puzzled why the size of krill stocks fluctuates so widely. In a new study headed by Prof. Bernd Blasius and Prof. Bettina Meyer, a group of scientists from the University of Oldenburg's Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) and the…
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Geoscientific evidence for subglacial lakes
During the last glacial period – when the ice in the Antarctic was far thicker and extended further offshore than it does today – it has been speculated that subglacial lakes existed beneath it. An international team of researchers has now successfully sampled the metre-thick sediment layers left behind by these lakes contemporary on the seafloor. This is the outcome of a study by Gerhard Kuhn and colleagues, which was published today in the journal Nature Communications.
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Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity officially founded
The habitability of our planet is closely linked to the diversity of its flora and fauna – and not just on land, but also in the water. How and why is marine biodiversity responding to global change? How are these changes affecting marine ecosystems and their functions? And how can society adapt to or mitigate them? From now on, researchers will focus on these questions at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), which was officially inaugurated today at the University of Oldenburg – a step that will allow the University and…
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Memorandum of Understanding signed in China
The Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAA) and the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on their future cooperation.
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Underway observations
On May 24, 2017 at 12:00 Polarstern has departed for the Arctic Expeditions in summer 2017.
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How is climate change affecting fauna in the Arctic?
On Wednesday, 24 May 2017, 49 atmospheric and cloud researchers, sea-ice physicists, marine biologists and biogeochemists will embark on a joint expedition headed for Svalbard. On board the research vessel Polarstern from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) all of these disciplines are focused on just one question: How is the climate changing the Arctic? At the same time, the AWI research aircraft Polar 5 and Polar 6, launching from Longyearbyen (Svalbard), will engage in atmospheric measurement flights.
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