Ilka.Peeken@awi.de
+49(471)4831-1626
Am Handelshafen 12, 27570 Bremerhaven
Building E, Room 2315

for small crustaceans, they represent the basis of food webs in the polar seas. AWI researchers Ilka Peeken and Hauke Flores are currently exploring the connections between the ice and different life forms [...] question of who eats whom “We’re just getting started,” say AWI sea ice ecologists Hauke Flores and Ilka Peeken, who are working together to better grasp the food webs – or who eats whom – under the ice. “For [...] are important for the food webs and how those webs could be affected by climate change,” adds Ilka Peeken. To do so, the researchers not only have to identify which species live under the ice, but also

microorganisms like ciliates, but also by copepods,” says AWI biologist and first author Dr Ilka Peeken. The observation is a very troubling one because, as she explains, “No one can say for certain [...] enormous influence on the composition and layering of the encased plastic particles,” relates Ilka Peeken.

The team of researchers also learned e.g. that ice floes, which are driven in the pacific water [...] sources outside the Arctic Ocean. Instead, they also point to local pollution in the Arctic,” says Ilka Peeken.

The researchers found a total of 17 different types of plastic in the sea ice, including packaging

Polarstern will leave its home port in Bremerhaven, setting a course for the Arctic. Led by Dr Ilka Peeken from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) a team [...] time in the past 30 years that the sea ice has begun melting so early,” explains AWI biologist Ilka Peeken.

Over the past few years, the AWI researchers have narrowed their focus on life under the sea [...] growth, and in turn what the impacts are for animals living in the water or on the ocean floor,” says Peeken. The scientists hope their efforts will improve awareness and understanding of climate change’s effects

Kraberg Dr. Katja Metfies Prof. Dr. Bettina Meyer PD Dr. Barbara Niehoff Dr. Eva-Maria Nöthig Dr. Ilka Peeken Dr. Klaus-Ulrich Valentin Postdocs Dr. Giulia Castellani Dr. Allison Fong Dr. Nicole Hildebrandt

Dr. Katja Metfies (PI, molecularbiology) PD Dr. Barbara Niehoff (PI, zooplankton ecology) Dr. Ilka Peeken (PI, sea ice ecology & flow cytometry) associated scientists: Dr. Eduard Bauerfeind Dr. Hauke Flores

prevent the spread of marine litter? An old fishing net at the coast of Jutland, Denmark (Photo: Ilka Peeken) Significantly reducing the amount of marine litter will require fundamental changes. One way would

Japan (Prof. Dr. Takafumi Hirata) AWI, Polar Biological Oceanography , Bremerhaven, Germany ( Dr. Ilka Peeken ) Richmond School of Arts and Science, Dep. of Geography and Environment (Dr. Tihomir Kostadinov)

and the friendly cooperation during the expedition TRANSSIZ (ARK29-1/PS92).

With kind regards

Ilka Peeken

Arctic, and to discuss how every citizen can do his or her part. Among others, AWI biologist Dr Ilka Peeken will join in the discussion.

Participants have to register in advance; to do so, visit: http:/