• The return of the European oyster to the North Sea

    Researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, together with the Bremerhaven Zoo have developed a special exhibition on the reintroduction of the European oyster (Ostrea edulis) into the North Sea. On display are living European oysters in an aquarium, a detailed model of an oyster reef and its inhabitants as well as background information on the ecological importance of the species in the exhibition.

  • The latest findings on the MOSAiC floe

    floe: the sea ice in which the research vessel Polarstern is now drifting through the Arctic was formed off the coast of the archipelago, which separates the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea to the north [...] north of Siberia, in December 2018. Sediments, and even small pebbles and bivalves, were incorporated into the ice during the freezing process, which the on-going melting process has brought to light on

  • Change of Shifts at the North Pole

    the following paragraphs, the team from the first leg of the journey, which was dominated by thin sea ice, review the mission so far: despite extremely challenging conditions, they maintained a steady

  • Two New Records at the North Pole

    MOSAiC
    For days, fast sea ice had slowed the progress of the resupply icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn; bound for the North Pole, her mission was to support the second exchange of researchers and crew in

  • Ten years of exploration with the AWI’s research aircraft Polar 5

    for atmospheric research and geophysics purposes, the airplane has landed on the Arctic sea ice near the North Pole, and at the South Pole.

  • From River Weser to the North Sea

    Wadden Sea National Park the participating researchers will use e.g. empirical and model-assisted analyses to discover how minute plastic particles (microplastics) make their way from land to sea, which [...] Microplastics
    Around the globe, the pollution of rivers, lakes and seas with plastic litter is on the rise. A new project jointly coordinated by the University of Bayreuth and the Alfred Wegener Institute

  • This Evening Sees the Start of MOSAiC – the Greatest Arctic Research Expedition of All Time

    between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, as well as on the ecosystem. Thanks to the collaboration between international experts, the one-year-long ice drift past the North Pole will take climate research

  • Anniversary in the far north

    ice-covered Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard, which they call their HAUSGARTEN. The deep-sea observatory is the first, and still the only one of its kind for year-round physical, chemical and

  • International Summer School

    Helgoland
    In the 18th Coastal Summer School 16 young scientists from nine nations visiting the North Sea island Helgoland for eleven days. The aim of the project is to deepen their knowledge of coastal

  • The last week at sea

    PS119 - Weekly Report No. 8 | 27 - 31 May 2019
    After our storm on last Friday, the sea only calmed down very slowly and station work was only possible with two CTD stations in the late night towards [...] made about 60 km to the West of the spreading centre on its flank. There, the seafloor is parted by North-South orientated, parallel faults covered by young sediment, and we discovered both in the sediments