Archive of News and Press Releases
International Oyster Alliance
At an international workshop, nature conservation authorities and organisations, scientists and oyster farmers have founded a European network. Their goal is to reintroduce and restore stocks of the now rare and highly endangered native European oyster.
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The end of the African Humid Period
Researchers from several European institutions found that northern high-latitude cooling played a role in triggering the rapid termination of the African Humid Period 5500 years ago.
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Change of Leadership at the Alfred Wegener Institute
On 1 November 2017 Prof Antje Boetius will assume leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). She will succeed Prof Karin Lochte, who has led the Institute for the past ten years.
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A strong case for limiting climate change
In November 2017, the German research network on ocean acidification BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) reaches its conclusion after eight years of extensive interdisciplinary scientific activity. Experiments and analyses carried out by more than 250 scientists from 20 German institutions clearly indicate that ocean acidification and warming, along with other environmental stressors, impair life in the ocean and compromise important ecosystem services it provides to humankind. A brochure summarises major outcomes of the project for…
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Exploring Greenland’s 79 North Glacier
Following a five-month journey, the research vessel Polarstern returned to its homeport in Bremerhaven on the evening of Friday, 13 October. During the most recent expedition, the vessel reached the 79 North Glacier in Northeast Greenland, where the researchers on board investigated how the ocean temperature, which has been rising over the past twenty years, has affected the glacier’s mass.
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On the outer shelf
In the beginning of the week we left the coast of Greenland. Leaving icebergs and sea ice behind us, we steamed in a south-easterly direction along the axis of Norske Trough toward the mid-shelf, where both a sill can be found in the trough and the northern slope toward the shallow Belgica Bank is particularly steep. In this location we expected to find the inflow of the Atlantic Water to be particularly focussed as a boundary current.
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Between Ile-de-France and Norske Oer
This week started with a disappointment. As a result of very dense sea ice coverage we were unable to recover 3 moorings deployed near the northern edge of the embayment of the 79°N Glacier, in order to observe the circulation at the transition from Norske Trough in the south to Westwind Trough in the north.
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![[Translate to English:] Das NETCARE-Team des deutschen Forschungsflugzeuges Polar 5](/fileadmin/_processed_/7/4/csm_20150416_NETCARE_2015_053_SHendricks_1eff57d1e6.jpg "[Translate to English:] Das NETCARE-Team des deutschen Forschungsflugzeuges Polar 5")
Ten years of exploration with the AWI’s research aircraft Polar 5
The 1st of October 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary since the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) research aircraft Polar 5 began service. In that time, the Basler BT-67 has flown more than 1.3 million kilometres to fulfil essential scientific and logistical duties. In the course of 48 measuring campaigns, predominantly for atmospheric research and geophysics purposes, the airplane has landed on the Arctic sea ice near the North Pole, and at the South Pole.
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AWI Potsdam: Celebrating 25 years
The founding of the AWI Potsdam 25 years ago represented the successful reunification of German polar research. In honour of this occasion, today representatives of the scientific community and politics will look back on a quarter century of polar research at the Alfred Wegner Institute’s Potsdam facilities – including Brandenburg’s Minister for Science, Research and Culture, Dr Martina Münch, and Karl-Eugen Huthmacher from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. They will also inaugurate a new annex on the Telegrafenberg.
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At the 79°N Glacier
We are looking back on a very active and exciting week. In the beginning our work was still concentrated on the area of the shelf break of Northeast Greenland at the mouth of Westwind Trough, with the latter representing a depression leading toward the inner shelf. In the trough relatively warm Atlantic Water can be found near the sea floor.
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