extent to which marine surface litter facilitates dispersal of marine animals. It certainly represents a whole new dimension. There has always been flotsam like algae, wood or pumice that marine animals have [...] understand marine litter, we still have a great deal to learn. Contact Dr Lars Gutow AWI marine biologist Dr Lars Gutow (Photo: Sina Löschke) Discover more Using Expertise to Combat Marine Litter Litter [...] survival strategies and metabolism of marine organisms like isopods for many years. Recently, his focus has increasingly been on the question of how plastic litter impacts marine organisms and habitats. In the

the enclosed material – referred to as ice-rafted debris - with them. When an iceberg melts during its journey, the ice-rafted debris sinks and is deposited on the seafloor.Icebergs once [...] University, jointly with experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, has shown that this transport of freshwater into the Atlantic may

images from our archive, and investigated marine litter during my expeditions.” The findings are clear: between 2002 and 2011 the amount of litter and debris lying on the ocean floor in one square kilometre [...] which tells us the trawlers are now following the Atlantic cod farther north.” OFOS photo of marine debris found at the bottom of the ocean in proximity of the AWI deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN in the [...] expeditions, she will check back to see how the sponges and other marine life are reacting to the plastic. We already know that marine litter is found in larger denizens of the Arctic such as Greenland

Marine litter
In a new study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), show for the first time that marine litter can even be found at the [...] study were collected in the course of a study on marine mammals and seabirds on board of RV Polarstern: “We just took advantage of these surveys to count marine litter.” Scientists refer to chances such as [...] remains unclear how the litter made it so far north, it is likely to pose new problems for local marine life, the authors report on the online portal of the scientific journal Polar Biology. Plastic has

Marine Litter
An international group of experts says the production of new plastics should be capped to solve the plastic pollution problem. The authors argue that all other measures won’t suffice to [...] of measures will be needed to end the pollution of the air, soils, rivers and oceans with plastic debris and microplastics.

In a letter to the journal Science, an international group of scientists and experts

environmental effects if nothing would be done, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, granted permission to the request of the RV Polarstern [...] helicopter. The activities were focussed first on the recovery of 304 fuel drums. Then debris scattered about the floe was collected, and finally two tractors were taken aboard by crane

This is reported by Mine Tekman from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) together with three other experts in their review article in Science, which devotes [...] who helped develop AWI's online portal litterbase.org, which compiles the scientific literature on marine litter and its impacts in a continuously updated way.

A poorly reversible pollutant of remote areas [...] Research (UFZ) and Professor at the RWTH Aachen University explains: “In remote environments, plastic debris cannot be removed by cleanups, and weathering of large plastic items will inevitably result in the

Scotia Sea, a marine region situated between the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, which is considered the main route and melting area for drifting icebergs. “The icebergs carry debris from the [...] region,” Dr Gerhard Kuhn, geologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and co-author of the study, explained.

Subsequently climate models were used to evaluate

showing off and demonstrating what they are capable of, also on this expedition. All gear used for marine science is deployed (one by one, not simultaneously!). You must have experienced yourself the complexity [...] or ice sheet), it may just gently touch the seafloor, thereby depositing and piling up the rocky debris, which it carries at its base, in form of a characteristic feature with the scientific name “ Grounding

pollutants,” explains Moritz Langer from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). “Consequently, industrial waste from defunct or active facilities was often simply [...] decades this led to micro-dumps full of toxic sludge from oil and gas exploration, stockpiles of mining debris, abandoned military installations, and lakes in which pollutants were intentionally poured. “In many