• Ilka Peeken

    record levels found in Arctic sea ice Find out more > BBC | 24.04.2018 Record concentration of microplastics found in Arctic Find out more > Dialogue & Lectures Policy advice Arctic Monitoring & Assessment [...] in the oceans is a current and growing problem, since every year several million metric tons of plastic find their way from the land to the water. Plastic particles are broken down in the ocean by sunlight [...] Climate change is especially putting the polar regions under pressure. Environmental changes in the Arctic result primarily from the decline in the area of sea ice and the decrease in its thickness, since

  • Research infrastructure

    Bremerhaven Nutrient Facility Observatories Ocean: FRAM Water: COSYNA Meteorology Geophysics Ships Polarstern Heincke Uthörn Mya II Aade Stations Neumayer Station III Arctic Station AWIPEV Kohnen Station Marine

  • Bathymetric compilations

    Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) , the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) ,the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) , and the Southwest Indian Ocean Bathymetric [...] world’s oceans by 2030, and hosts the Seabed 2030 Southern Ocean Regional Center (SORC) . SORC’s and IBCSO’ s responsibility is to produce the best possible authoritative map of the Southern Ocean, the South [...] Global and regional bathymetric models IBSCO (International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean) (Graphic: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / IBSCO v2, Dorschel et al., 2022) IBSCO v2 Datenabdeckung (Graphic:

  • Current research

    climate state. doi: 10.1038/NGEO2974 . How the Arctic Ocean became saline FS Heincke in Spitsbergen (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) [06 June 2017] The Arctic Ocean was once a gigantic freshwater lake. Only [...] Atlantic-Arctic Ocean circulation controlled by the subsidence of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/NCOMMS15681 . 2016 Intensification and poleward shift of oceanic boundary [...] present the ocean surface net heat flux. Positive values mean that the ocean release heat to the atmosphere, and [28 June 2016] Global warming results in fundamental changes to important ocean currents.

  • Ice-Tethered Profiler

    collected data can be used, for example, to study changes in the freshwater content of the upper Arctic Ocean, as in the NORTHATLANTIC project. Together with higher-precision data from ship-based expeditions [...] drifting measurement platforms that record vertical profiles of water mass properties in the ice-covered oceans. The systems are moored on the ice and measure temperature, salinity, and pressure in the upper 800 [...] online. The deployment of these autonomous measuring systems is coordinated through the International Arctic Buoy Programme. Contacts Dr. Benjamin Rabe +49(471)4831-2403 Benjamin Rabe@awi. Dr. Mario Hoppmann

  • Members

    nutrients and carbonate chemistry parameters in the Fram Strait and the Central Arctic Ocean. To monitor such parameters in the ocean, it is common practice to analyze discrete water samples obtained e.g. by [...] productivity, strength of the biological carbon pump) are linked in the present-day and future Arctic ocean, as well as to which extent this relationship is driven by differences between functional groups [...] and where nutrients and CO 2 are distributed in the ocean, which has implications for primary and bacterial production and CO 2 uptake by the ocean. In order to understand how such biogeochemical cycles

  • Climate refugee Cod

    Agreement is not achieved. Under conditions of further warming and acidification of the ocean, Atlantic cod and its arctic relative polar cod would be forced to look for new habitats in the far north. Their [...] dwindle. If so, this could be disastrous, as the polar cod is the most important food source for Arctic seals and seabirds. In addition, fishers could lose the world’s most productive area for catching

  • Celebrating 40 Years of the Alfred Wegener Institute

    Anniversary
    40 years of research in the Arctic, Antarctic and in coastal regions: on 15 July, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) celebrates its 40 th [...] and internationally recognised centre for climate research in the two polar regions and the world’s oceans.

  • RV Heincke expedition ends successfully

    funded by JPI Oceans and will create new knowledge and improve our mechanistic understanding of the sources, transport, occurrence, and fate of small microplastics from European waters to the Arctic. The consortium

  • Long Term Observations

    (Neumayer-Station III) Infrasound (Neumayer-Station III) Biology North Sea Arctic (Fram and Svalbard) Antarctic Oceanography Arctic Time series Antarctic time series Terrestrial time series Samoylov Bayelva [...] terrestrial ecosystems and therefore mankind, is exceedingly difficult. The study of atmospheric, open ocean, deep sea or even processes in shallow coastal waters require sustained long-term observations often [...] position in that its scientists jointly generate a particularly large set of time series, in the Arctic, Antarctic as well as the North Sea. These data are used in the context of AWI research programmes