25 September - 1 October 2017
This week started with a disappointment. As a result of very dense sea ice coverage we were unable to recover 3 moorings deployed near the northern edge of the embayment [...] observe the circulation at the transition from Norske Trough in the south to Westwind Trough in the north.

transect, Polarstern bit its way through heavy sea ice, hard as concrete and covered with a thick layer of snow. This altogether slowed down our progress into the north significantly. During our journey in the

we started in the marginal sea ice zone east of Svalbard, and then set course north into the central Arctic Ocean.The marginal sea ice zone was mostly covered with decaying sea ice and some larger ice-free

2017
4 January 2017, 2 weeks and 5 days at sea. The morning finds Polarstern alongside the ice shelf edge, or, more precisely, at the north-eastern berth of Atka Sea Port.

Arctic Ocean
This September, the Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk to 4.1 million square kilometres (sq km)-the second lowest in the history of satellite measurements. It is exceeded only by the all-time [...] all-time record low of 3.4 million sq km in 2012. "Once again, a massive loss of sea ice in the Arctic," says Prof. Lars Kaleschke from Universität Hamburg's Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability

initiatives including ICES, SCOR, OSPAR and LTER North Sea time series Arctic time series AWI biological time series locations in the Arctic, North Sea and Antarctic Further information LTER-D LTER Europe [...] LTER time series in the North Sea, Arctic and Antarctic The analysis of long-term ecological patterns and changes is a further focus of AWI’s LTO activities and long-term data sets exist for almost every [...] sensor deployments and molecular methods. The most extensive data resources are available in our North Sea observatory. Further important time series are operated in the arctic observatory Hausgarten. Our

temperatures comes an increasing likelihood of potentially pathogenic bacteria appearing in the North and Baltic Seas. AWI scientists have now proven that a group of such bacteria known as vibrios can survive

Marine Litter
Micro-plastic particles pose a risk not only to sea birds, whales and organisms at the bottom of the sea. In two new studies, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute Hemholtz Centre [...] Polar and Marine Research (AWI) show that plastic waste is also eaten by nautili as well as North and Baltic Sea fish such as cod and mackerel.

Press release