• Hans-Otto Pörtner

    IPCC Climate Change Ocean acidification Anthropogenic climate change is altering the living conditions in the ocean more dramatically than in the past 50 to 300 million years. The oceans are becoming warmer [...] which chemically react with constituents of seawater, making the oceans more acidic. But that’s not all: for various reasons, warming oceans store less oxygen. In other words, they gradually lose their lifeblood [...] in the seas simultaneously reduces the number of safe havens remaining to them. Increasing ocean acidification puts organisms under additional pressure. Further, these three climate impacts are mutually

  • Inorganics in organics

    in the polar ocean View from Rpthera Point, Western Antarctic Peninsula. Photo: S. Trimborn (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) In vast areas of the ocean, particularly in the Southern Ocean, marine primary [...] of marine ligands, their chemical structures and turnover pathways are essentially unknown. Ocean acidification, increased glacial melting and changes in aerosol deposition are likely to impact concentration [...] micronutrients in seawater and will focus on biological production and degradation of ligands in polar oceans, their molecular composition, chemical properties and responses to changing environmental conditions

  • Phytoplankton Ecophysiology

    factors such as warming, nutrient deficiency or ocean acidification, by focusing on one of the most sensitive areas on Earth, the subarctic and Arctic Ocean. Thereby, we contribute to the Helmholtz research [...] CO 2 is taken up by the ocean, concentrations of CO2 and bicarbonate increase while the concentration of carbonate ions and the pH decrease, also known as 'Ocean Acidification'. Just like warming, also [...] greenhouse gas, rising CO 2 causes ocean warming: temperatures of the surface waters have already increased by 1.1°C on average, while some regions like the Arctic Ocean changing fastest (IPCC 2022). The

  • Arctic plankton ecology and related sedimentary flux

    Nöthig Research The Arctcic Ocean reacts more sensitive to Gloabal Change than other oceans. Sea ice strongly decraeses, temperatures rise at least twice as much, acidification and, the influence of warmer [...] mainly as part of projects such as FRAM, LTER HAUSGARTEN, PEBCAO in different regions of the Arctic Ocean. The main goal of our arctic research is to understand and follow seasonal and interannual fluctuations [...] Key aspect is to measure the changes of all parameters in relation to rise in temperature and acidification.

  • Nutrient Facility

    life in the ocean, in particular carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon, as driven by physical, biological and chemical processes. Marine biogeochemical cycles play a relevant role in ocean productivity [...] system. The elements of the biogeochemical cycles are considered essential ocean variables (EOV) as defined by the Global Ocean Observing System. In order to study biogeochemical cycles, we need to measure [...] alkalinity, which provides information about the buffer capacity of seawater, relevant to study ocean acidification. The facility is divided in three modules based on scientific topics, as follows. Nutrients:

  • Climate refugee Cod

    of the Paris Climate 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

  • Iron limitation and cycling

    global change will impact the Southern Ocean ecosystem. The availability of trace metals, in particular iron, is considered the key factor in controlling Southern Ocean phytoplankton productivity and community [...] CO2 has already caused significantly higher aquatic CO2 concentrations and lower pH values (‘ocean acidification’) compared to pre-industrial times potentially affecting plankton community structure as well [...] contrasting water masses from the Southern Ocean; namely the naturally iron-enriched waters of the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Orkney Islands and two open ocean sites of the iron-limited waters of the

  • Arctic Zooplankton

    ng of colonisation and expatriation processes. Projects BioAcid II: Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification ( www.bioacid.de ) Cleopatra: Climate effects on planktonic food quality and trophic transfer [...] physiological responses of dominant species to climate chance to predict their role in the future Arctic Ocean. Feeding biology and trophic interactions of key species Who feeds who“ is one of the major factors [...] ( www.mare-incognitum.no/index.php/cleopatra-ii ) Transdrift: The transpolar system of the Arctic Ocean: ( www.transdrift.info ) Fram: Frontiers in Arctic Monitoring Members of the working group PD. Dr

  • Research

    any other oceanic region of the planet and its sea-ice cover is declining faster than models predict. Due to changes in sea-ice cover and stratification, the productivity in the Arctic Ocean may transition [...] predominantly light-controlled to being more nutrient-controlled. Also, the phenomenon of ocean acidification is most pronounced in the Arctic due to the higher solubility of CO 2 at low temperatures as [...] lower alkalinity. To elucidate potential synergistic or antagonistic interactions between ocean warming, acidification or altered light and nutrient availability, we apply multi-factorial incubation matrices

  • Outreach

    Polar and Marine Research, have discovered in a recent study that Ocean Acidification can negatively affect diatoms of the southern polar ocean. In laboratory experiments, they observed that diatoms under [...] deep ocean. Thus, the CO 2 is removed from the global carbon cycle for a couple of thousand years. Dr. Sebastian Rokitta has explored during the past three years how the advancing Ocean Acidification affects [...] Helmholtz-PhD Awards who have been awarded for the very first time this year. Consequences of Ocean Acidification for calcareous algae (Youtube, 17.4.2013) The calcareous microalga Emiliania huxlyei is distributed