• Research program

    support the development of strategies for adaptation and mitigation. Topic 2: Oceans and Cryosphere in Climate How do oceans and the cryosphere drive climate change, and how can we better predict future [...] profound changes, with significant impacts on humanity. Central to these changes are the polar regions, oceans, and coastal and shelf seas, which play crucial roles in regulating the Earth's climate and supporting [...] ty and have a critical influence on both regional and global climate by affecting sea-ice cover, ocean circulation, atmospheric conditions and finally coastal areas. The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)

  • Sofia Kuzmina

    sofia.kuzmina@awi.de
    Am Handelshafen 12, 27570 Bremerhaven

  • Conferences and Seminars

    ON GRAN CANARIA pg.31 Jan Jacob One Ocean Science Congress 2025 June 3-6, 2025 Nice, France Event Link Poster Judith Matz 56th International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics May 26-30, 2025 Liège, Belgium [...] 14-18th, 2024 Brest, France Event Link Influence of light and silicic acid on the productivity of the arctic phytoplankton community. Attended; co-chaired session “Paleo including the evolution of silicifiers”; [...] 16-20, 2024 Bremen, Germany Event Link Influence of light and silicic acid on the productivity of the arctic phytoplankton community. pg.45 Antonia Thielecke Summer school day on Artificial Intelligence and

  • Seafloor spreading

    speed of several millimetres to centimetres per year (plate tectonics). So-called mid-oceanic ridges run through the oceans. In these zones magma rises from the Earth’s interior to the surface, cools down there [...] magma again. A region in which new seafloor continuously forms is, for instance, Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic. This is a submarine mountain range whose northern foothills extend from the northeast tip of Greenland

  • Data Assimilation Publications

    sea surface temperature observations to constrain upper ocean properties in an Arctic sea ice-ocean data assimilation system. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans , 124, 4723-4743, doi:10.1029/2019JC015073 Pradhan, H [...] ed-grid ocean model under Earth System Modeling Framework, Ocean Modelling , 196, 102546, ​ doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2025.102546 . Bunsen, F. , J. Hauck, L. Nerger , S. Torres-Valdés. (2025) Ocean carbon sink [...] (2018) Arctic-wide sea-ice thickness estimates from combining satellite remote sensing data and a dynamic ice-ocean model with data assimilation during the CryoSat-2 period. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans , 123

  • WG Community & Evolutionary Ecology

    ecology of Arctic coasts Currently, global warming especially causes strong effects on Arctic ecosystems. We study the consequences of increasing water temperatures on species interactions in Arctic benthic [...] in financial support from the Interreg North-West Europe Programme. Exciting results Arctic burrowing Effects of Arctic lugworms Find out more Marine heatwaves Do you remember? Find out more Team PIs: Dr [...] benthic coastal communities. From these investigations we predict future scenarios for a warmer marine Arctic ecosystem and its species communites. Evolutionary Ecology Species invasions as a tool to study rapid

  • Staff Units

    the international level and within the framework of intergovernmental bodies (eg SCAR, IASC, ATCM, Arctic Council, CCAMLR, OSPAR). The office is coordinating the AWI contributions and will perform as an [...] d communication for inter-institutional networks (DAM, DKK, Helmholtz Climate, KDM, UN Decade of Ocean Science, IPCC, IPBES, Leopoldina, etc.), in which the research contributions of the AWI / of Helmholtz

  • Climate modelling

    reflect in detail processes in the ocean, which have a major influence on the climate. In response, the AWI has developed a special ocean model (FESOM), which simulates e.g. ocean currents and sea ice. For their [...] All around the world, there are natural climate archives – the sediments on the ocean floor, ancient ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, wood for tree-ring analyses, and more. These archives contain what [...] computer programmes used to simulate reality: the motion of air masses, radiation from the sun, and ocean currents – they’re all climate-relevant processes that, with the aid of mathematical formulas, can

  • Hajo Eicken

    Arctic Sea ice: Microstructure and geophysical processes Dr Hajo Eicken, Scientific Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute. Sea ice snow Arctic glaciology Sea-ice geophysics is a central research field [...] changes and ocean currents. Although these processes occur on very small spatial scales, they strongly affect the growth, stability, and decay of sea ice and thereby influence both Arctic ecosystems and [...] field within polar and climate sciences. Sea ice covers large parts of the Arctic and Antarctic and plays a key role in the Earth system by linking physical, ecological, and climatic processes. A particular

  • Arctic Pulse

    in the Arctic Ocean (Photo: Esther Horvath) From the boreal forest and tundra to the deep ocean, Arctic Pulse 2027 follows the journey of water, carbon, and sediments across the entire land–ocean system [...] and ocean, Arctic Pulse provides a holistic view of how physical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes interact across the land-ocean interface. These transformations not only reshape Arctic ecosystems [...] freshwater, sediments, carbon, nutrients, and contaminants from land to ocean. These changes directly affect the Arctic ocean’s freshwater balance and circulation, sea-ice, marine food webs, greenhouse-gas