the Arctic Ocean. The four-week expedition, slated to end on 19 July in Tromsø, Norway, will focus on extended ecological fieldwork at the AWI’s deep-sea observatory Hausgarten and at the FRAM Ocean Observing

becoming more frequent and intense. The Arctic Ocean also suffers from this development: The absence of sea ice will lead to more extreme fluctuations in ocean temperatures, with abrupt temperature changes [...] Wegener Institute shows how marine heatwaves will also become much more intense and frequent in the Arctic in the 21st century. With drastic consequences for the ecosystem. The researchers published their

Arctic Ocean
The sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean reached its annual minimum of 4.81 million square kilometres on 12 September 2021. As such, the 2021 Arctic sea-ice minimum comes in at 12th place

Nature Scientific Reports
The ice-covered Arctic Ocean is a more important factor concerning the concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere than previously assumed. Experts from the [...] Research (AWI) report on the newly discovered interactions between the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean in a recent online study in the journal Nature’s Scientific Reports.

in the Arctic Ocean (Photo: Esther Horvath) From the boreal forest and tundra to the deep ocean, Arctic Pulse 2027 follows the journey of water, carbon, and sediments across the entire land–ocean system [...] and ocean, Arctic Pulse provides a holistic view of how physical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes interact across the land-ocean interface. These transformations not only reshape Arctic ecosystems [...] freshwater, sediments, carbon, nutrients, and contaminants from land to ocean. These changes directly affect the Arctic ocean’s freshwater balance and circulation, sea-ice, marine food webs, greenhouse-gas

German Norwegian Ocean Forum
From the Arctic to the North Sea: this year’s German Norwegian Ocean Forum was held in Bremen’s Übersee Museum. The spotlight topic of the symposium, which was jointly organised [...] by the AWI, Innovation Norway, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy, was ‘The sustainable future of our oceans’. AWI Director Antje Boetius moderated the event.

amounts of microplastic in arctic sea ice than ever before. However, the majority of particles were microscopically small. The ice samples from five regions throughout the Arctic Ocean contained up to 12,000 [...] patch in the Pacific Ocean, while in turn, the high percentage of paint and nylon particles pointed to the intensified shipping and fishing activities in some parts of the Arctic Ocean. The new study has

Arctic Ocean
The Arctic has a serious litter problem: in just ten years, the concentration of marine litter at a deep-sea station in the Arctic Ocean has risen 20-fold. This was recently reported in

role in Arctic Ocean geophysical research for many years and in various projects. Projects Formation of new seafloor at the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (Photo: [...] Formation of the Arctic Basin The Arctic Ocean is of particular geological interest. It hosts a wealth of different geological provinces ranging from deep ocean basins over prominent ridges to vast shallow [...] perennial sea ice-cover, information on the geological history of the Arctic Ocean is still sparse. As the sea-ice recedes, the Arctic Ocean will see an explosion of research activities. With RV Polarstern

category of mid-ocean ridges, accounting for about 15% of the total length of mid-ocean ridges worldwide. Since ultraslow ridges are located in the Arctic Ocean and the stormy Southwest Indian Ocean and are therefore [...] Ultraslow spreading mid-ocean ridges At mid-ocean ridges, the lithospheric plates move apart at rates of about 5-150 mm/year and new oceanic lithosphere is continuously formed. At low spreading rates of [...] making its way to the ocean floor through a cold, thick lithosphere. Therefore, the formation process of new ocean lithosphere differs at ultraslow spreading ridges from all other ocean basins. Ultraslow ridges