• Arctic Office

    German Arctic Office The Arctic has become a key area where changes may raise complex sociopolitical issues of global importance. The development of the Arctic will affect Germany, Europe and the whole [...] working in the Arctic for more than 30 years. It is one of the few institutions worldwide with long-term interdisciplinary scientific research the northern polar region and the Arctic Ocean - from the seabed [...] in the Arctic Region, and informs German stakeholders from science, politics and industry with consitent information from the global Arctic research community. Forums and Events The German Arctic Office

  • Little researched current impacting on winter sea ice in the Arctic

    is thought to be the warming of Atlantic water that flows from Europe’s Norwegian Sea into the Arctic Ocean, passing through the Barents Sea and the Fram Strait in the process. However, not all the Atlantic [...] In the last few decades, the Arctic sea ice has receded ever further, including increasingly in winter when the extent of sea ice is at its most prominent. One of the main drivers of this development is

  • Facility Bhv

    O values in ice and water samples from the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as the δ 13 C values of dissolved inorganic carbon in the water of the polar oceans. In addition, our laboratories offer the possibility [...] input) and changes in the supply of nutrient silicon and its use in polar and subpolar ocean regions (e.g. Southern Ocean, North Pacific) can be reconstructed on geological time scales. For the measurements [...] Clumped isotopes δ 13 C + δ 18 O (biog. carbonate, foraminifers) Option: clumped isotopes Changes in ocean circulation, nutrient content and deep water ventilation (δ 13 C) Hydrographic changes (δ 18 O, Δ47)

  • News from the CSD

    scheduled tasks were done and that the arctic winter 2017/2018 can come… Max Schwanitz, September 2017 _________________________ Stopover of our time-travel into the future ocean to investigate the growth of cold-water [...] complementary expedition in the frame of our time-travel into the future ocean with conditions predicted by the recent IPCC report for the oceans at the end of the century. It was the last trip within the third-part [...] was relatively good, expectations were cautiously optimistic. However, as is often the case in the Arctic, circumstances took a different path. Upon arrival, the team was welcomed with thick clouds and strong

  • Journey through space and time

    expedition to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next two months, an international research team will analyse the feedback effects between global warming and sea ice retreat in the Arctic Ocean. The investigations [...] ons will focus on the differences in the melting of various sea ice types – representing the Arctic of the past decades, the present and the future. A parallel airborne campaign will complement the me

  • Arctic Zooplankton

    transfer in Arctic Marginal Ice Zones: ( www.mare-incognitum.no/index.php/cleopatra-ii ) Transdrift: The transpolar system of the Arctic Ocean: ( www.transdrift.info ) Fram: Frontiers in Arctic Monitoring [...] warming, the inflow of Atlantic water into the Arctic increases, and this may lead to a shift in the dominant species which may have severe consequences for the Arctic food web. Copepod (Photo: T. Scherzinger) [...] 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

  • Polar 5 + 6

    degrees Celsius. The polar 6 research aircraft of the Alfred Wegener Institute flies over the Arctic Ocean during an IceBird sea ice thickness campagne. (Photo: Esther Horvath) AWI researchers use the [...] the Earth’s crust, ice- and snow-covered areas, oceans and the atmosphere. Several times a year, Polar 5 and Polar 6 fly weeks-long expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. They carry on board a diverse range [...] Alfred Wegener Institute’s research is conducted in the inaccessible, ice-covered regions of the Arctic and Antarctic, making research aircraft indispensable. Currently the AWI relies on the research planes

  • The Arctic Ocean was never completely frozen – not even during the Ice Ages

    entire Arctic Ocean during the coldest phases of the Ice Ages. A new study, now published in Science Advances , questions this idea. The research team found no evidence of such a permanent, pan-Arctic ice [...] ice shelf. Instead, the Arctic Ocean appears to have been covered by seasonal sea ice, allowing open water—and life—to persist even during the harshest glacial periods of the past 750,000 years. This discovery [...] discovery sheds new light on how the Arctic has responded to climate extremes in the past—and how it may evolve in the future.

  • Profile

    Research Meltwater pools on the Arctic Ocean. The polar regions and oceans are central drivers of climate-related processes. (Photo: Stefan Hendricks, Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Oceans cover seventy percent of [...] by their fascinating diversity, they hold resources essential to humanity’s survival. Not only do oceans and their ecosystems fulfil a key role in the control of global environmental processes; they are [...] cities and claims to usage rights are often concentrated, the vast and unpopulated regions in the Arctic and Antarctic are also transforming. Not only are the polar regions highly sensitive to climatic

  • Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology

    A main focus is to carry out multidisciplinary field studies and experimental work in the deep Arctic Ocean. In December 2008 a Joint Research Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology of the Helmholtz [...] Marine Microbiology ( MPI-MM ) in deep-sea research, and to set up a new research focus on the deep Arctic Ocean. The Joint Research Group comprises the expertise of the MPI-MM in the area of marine microbiology [...] al projekts Find out more TECHNOLOGY Instruments and gears to facilitate research in the deep Arctic Ocean Find out more Section Head: Dr. Frank Wenzhöfer Lead MPI-MM branch: Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius Assistance