Archive of News and Press Releases
The pace at which the world’s permafrost soils are warming
Global warming is leaving more and more apparent scars in the world’s permafrost regions. As the new global comparative study conducted by the international permafrost network GTN-P shows, in all regions with permafrost soils the temperature of the frozen ground at a depth of more than 10 metres rose by an average of 0.3 degrees Celsius between 2007 and 2016 – in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as the high mountain ranges of Europe and Central Asia. The effect was most pronounced in Siberia, where the temperature of the frozen soil rose by nearly 1…
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On the way to Neumayer Station III
Having refurbished all oceanographic moorings of the eastern Weddell Sea (Fig. 1), the ship can finally shifts its attention to the biological projects aboard.
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Oceanography
After nearly a week at sea, the oceanographic station work falls into routine: CTD (conductivity – temperature – pressure probe) in the water – lowering to the bottom – hoisting – CTD aboard. This is frequently followed by the deployment of an Argo float, freely drifting profiling probes which will regularly provide the oceanographic key parameters, temperature and salt, from within the upper 2000m of the ocean for the next 5 years.
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A full loaded vessel
As planned, Polarstern pushes away from the pier in Cape Town on 15 December at 4pm, taking off for her 117th expedition to the Antarctic.
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German-Russian Cooperation
Scientists and political representatives are meeting in Rostock today, including AWI Director Antje Boetius. Cooperation in marine and polar research is an essential aspect of German-Russian research cooperation.
Satellite orbits and laser beams
On our way further south, we sailed on various courses and with different speeds.
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Science Day at the Alfred Wegener Institute
December 7 is the day of junior researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute. From 9:00 to 15:00, graduates of all disciplines present their work in the lecture hall. AWI director Antje Boetius welcomes the PhD students, junior group leader Scarlett Trimborn gives a keynote lecture.
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Global Carbon Budget released
At the UN Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland, this year’s Global Carbon Budget was released. For the purpose of the budget, researchers estimate the anthropogenic carbon budget for the planet as a whole; this includes the sources (emissions), the carbon sinks on land and in the ocean, and the carbon content of the atmosphere. The report provides the figures for the year 2017 and offers an initial indicator of the general trend for 2018.
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How larches are conquering Siberia’s high northern reaches
Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research have for the first time reconstructed the historical development of the larch forests in northern Siberia over the past 9,000 years. This allowed them to identify, which factors determine the ranges of various larch species, and to gauge the forests’ capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – an aspect that is directly relevant with regard to potential shifts in the larches’ ranges in the future. Their findings indicate that not air temperature alone determines…
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