Archive of News and Press Releases
Powell Basin
Out of the heavy sea ice of the Weddell Sea, we have spent the past week in open water and loose sea ice in the Powell Basin. So far, we have conducted a short bathymetric survey, deployed a lander, completed an oceanographic transect and collected geological and biological samples.
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Colonisation in Slow Motion
There is a wide variety of animals living on the Arctic seabed. Attached to rocks, they feed by removing nutrients from the water using filters or tentacles. But it can take decades for these colonies to become established, and they probably don’t achieve their natural diversity until much later. These are the findings of a unique 18-year study by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), which has now been published in the scientific journal “Limnology and Oceanography”.
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ICES Service Award to AWI Biologist Jennifer Dannheim
The International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) honors Jennifer Dannheim with the ICES Service Award for her work as Chair of the Working Group on Marine Benthal and Renewable Energy Developments (WGMBRED).
Further to the North and two more stations
During the last week, we continued our northward travel to the Erebus and Terror Gulf completing two more stations. Another highlight were curtesy visits between the Polarstern and the Argentinian vessel Almirante Irizar.
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Ocean sink for man-made CO2 measured
Not all of the CO2 generated during the combustion of fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. The ocean and the ecosystems on land take up considerable quantities of these man-made CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere. Without this sink, the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere and the extent of anthropogenic climate change would be considerably higher.
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Northward journey and the first station
During the last week, we travelled for more than 60 nautical miles to the north and only stopped our journey for the first sampling station where we deployed most of our scientific equipment. Since then, we are busy to analyse water, sediment and benthos samples or to preserve them for later onshore analyses.
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Step by step
We are now almost within sight of A68 and a survey to measure the thickness of the sea ice has already crossed A68. Unfortunately, heavy ice conditions made our progress quite cumbersome. During the past week, we literally nudged our way metre by metre through the ice. At times, our progress was so small that it did not even compensate for the displacement of the ice-drift.
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Larsen C Ice Shelf Remains a Mystery
A few days ago, the captain and the head of the current Polarstern expedition jointly decided to abandon their efforts to reach the Larsen C Ice Shelf. Since dense sea ice and ice ridges blocked the planned route, the ship has now set course for alternative research sites further to the north.
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AWI hosts the King and Queen of the Netherlands
On the evening of 6 March 2019, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands will visit the Alfred Wegener Institute as part of their tour of the State of Bremen. Dutch and German researchers will report to the royal couple on their collaborations regarding climate change, biodiversity and nature conservation, sign a joint declaration, and subsequently gather for a festive dinner.
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On the way
Right now, we are southeast off James Ross Island in the western Weddell Sea breaking our way to the iceberg A68 and the Larsen C ice shelf. The distance to the northern tip of A68 measures ca. 75 nautical miles (nm), slightly over 135 km. To our working area, the area where A 68 broke of the Larsen C ice shelf, the distance is ca. 180 nm (330 km)…
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