Archive of News and Press Releases

Short news

Special Issue: Prediction of Arctic change

A special issue in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences presents new research efforts towards a predictive understanding of Arctic climate change and its linkage with Eurasian mid-latitude climate and weather.
[Translate to English:] Wie können die Ozeane als Nahrungsquelle nachhaltig genutzt werden? Das europäische Konsortium SAPEA hat dazu jetzt ein Gutachten vorgelegt.
Online news

Business as usual would not be sustainable

How can the oceans help satisfy the global demond for food. This question has been examined in the first Evidence Review Report by SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) titled Food from the Oceans.
Kuestenerosion auf der russischen Permafrostinsel Muostakh
Press releases

Retreating permafrost coasts threaten the fragile Arctic environment

Permafrost makes up a quarter of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. Climate change means that Arctic coasts are thawing and eroding at an ever greater pace, releasing additional greenhouse gases. A large EU project, coordinated by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), is now exploring the consequences for the global climate and for the people living in the Arctic. But that’s not all: working together with residents of the Arctic region, the researchers will also co-design strategies for the future in…
Europäische Auster
Online news

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.
Online news

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.
Karin Lochte und Antje Boetius
Press releases

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.
Heincke-Expedition HE-408
Online news

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…
Gletscher auf Grönland
Press releases

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.
Weekly report

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.
Weekly report

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.