13.04.2021
Carbon-Hotspots in the Baltic Sea
Marine plants such as seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and salt marshes sequester large amounts of carbon in the sea floor. In the German Baltic Sea, for example, seagrass meadows currently store around 3 to 12 megatons. This is significantly more than was previously known, as the first results from Dr. Angela Stevenson from GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel show.
Further press releases from Helmholtz
01.12.2022
Biodiversity Summit in Montreal
From December 7-19, 196 nations will meet to determine a new global biodiversity framework. In addition to species and nature conservation, climate protection is also being discussed, because the two…
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21.11.2022
Arctic Carbon Conveyor Belt Discovered
Every year, the cross-shelf transport of carbon-rich particles from the Barents and Kara Seas could bind up to 3.6 million metric tons of CO2 in the Arctic deep sea for millennia. In this region…
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11.11.2022
Researching the environmental impacts of deep-seabed mining
To what extent does polymetallic nodule mining impact the ecosystem in the deep sea? This is what the MiningImpact expedition SO295 with the research vessel SONNE is investigating for the next two…
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10.11.2022
Ranking of the main drivers of global biodiversity and habitat loss
The conversion of natural forests and grasslands to intensive agriculture and livestock is the biggest cause of global biodiversity loss. This is the main result of an study led by researchers from…
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07.11.2022
Carbon removal in Germany: Which approaches have the highest potential?
Carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere by natural or technical means. Researchers from the Helmholtz Climate Initiative, led by the UFZ, have investigated the potential of various…
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03.11.2022
Antje Boetius once again appointed Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute
Polar researcher and deep-sea biologist Antje Boetius will head the Alfred Wegener Institute, which she has coordinated since November 2017, for another five years. In her first term as Director, she…
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01.11.2022
Full Speed Ahead for Climate-friendly Coastal Research
Today, German Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger christened the Alfred Wegener Institute’s new research vessel Uthörn at the Fassmer shipyards in Berne. The new ship,…
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17.10.2022
Antje Boetius and Markus Rex accept Arctic Circle Prize
The Alfred Wegener Institute and the MOSAiC research expedition were awarded the Arctic Circle Prize on Saturday, 15 October 2022 in Reykjavik. With the prize, the international organisation Arctic…
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05.10.2022
Arctic Ocean: Greater Future acidification in summer
Over the past 200 years, our planet’s oceans have absorbed more than a quarter of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As a result, their acidity has increased by nearly 30 percent…
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14.09.2022
New Method Makes It Possible to Measure Arctic Sea-ice Thickness, Even in Summer
Over the past several decades, the Arctic has warmed much faster than the rest of the world. With consequences for its sea ice. In order to gauge the thickness of ice masses in the North Pole region,…
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09.09.2022
Deforestation has consequences for reservoir water quality
Climate-related forest dieback in reservoir catchment areas can influence drinking water quality. UFZ researchers have demonstrated this for the Rappbode reservoir in the Harz region. Such indirect…
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31.08.2022
Emperor Penguins Live up to 600 Kilometres Farther North than Previously Assumed
Before they reach the age of one, young emperor penguins from Atka Bay, near the German Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic, swim far north, beyond the 50th parallel south. Consequently, the…
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29.08.2022
Floating Summer School
On 30 August, 14 young investigators from around the globe will depart from Bremerhaven, bound for Cape Town. During the cruise, known as the North South Atlantic Training Transect, they’ll gain…
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23.08.2022
Vital Ventilation
Dying reefs and once-vibrant corals that have since lost all colour: climate change is having massive effects on the architects of undersea cities. As waters grow warmer, the phenomenon of “coral…
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18.08.2022
Noise affects life on the seafloor
Oceans have their own unique soundscape. Many marine organisms, for example, use sound for echolocation, navigation or communication with conspecifics. In recent decades, however, more and more…
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16.08.2022
Polarstern Returns to Bremerhaven
The Research Vessel Polarstern was in the Arctic for the past seven weeks. There, the summertime sea-ice extent declined by ca. 40 percent over the past 40 years – making it one of the most visible…
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15.07.2022
Sustainable collaboration: Using the AWI’s polar aircraft in the Harz
In Germany, the Harz is a region particularly hard hit by climate change: storms, arid conditions and subsequent bark beetle infestations are causing unprecedented damage to the forest. Sea-ice…
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07.07.2022
150 Whales Observed Feeding Together
After blue whales, fin whales are the largest whales in the world – and human beings have hunted both species to near-extinction. After the ban on commercial whaling in 1976, the stocks of these long…
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30.06.2022
Synergies between biodiversity and climate policy
A GIZ consortium with UFZ participation has published a six-part series of articles on the implementation of political measures against species loss and climate change. It provides examples and case…
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29.06.2022
Thawing Permafrost is Shaping the Global Climate
How is climate change affecting the permanently frozen soils of the Arctic? What will the consequences be for the global climate, human beings, and ecosystems? And what can be done to stop it? In the…
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28.06.2022
Polarstern Expedition to the Arctic Ice
Today, the research vessel Polarstern will depart on a seven-week-long voyage to the Arctic, where the onset of summer also marks the beginning of the annual sea-ice melting. Over the past 40 years,…
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16.06.2022
5th Anniversary of the German Arctic Office
The Arctic as a hotspot of climate change has become a topic of growing geopolitical and commercial interest over the past several years. What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic – the…
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07.06.2022
The Southern Ocean as never seen before
The features of the ocean floor help determine how water masses and ocean currents move and how they affect our climate. Biodiversity is also influenced by seafloor landforms. Accordingly, having as…
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03.06.2022
Polarstern II: German Bundestag greenlights the construction of new icebreaker
The Research Vessel Polarstern has been underway in the Arctic and Antarctic for 40 years now, giving experts from around the globe the opportunity to safely and effectively conduct research in two…
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25.05.2022
Siberian tundra could virtually disappear by mid-millennium
Due to global warming, temperatures in the Arctic are climbing rapidly. As a result, the treeline for Siberian larch forests is steadily advancing to the north, gradually supplanting the broad…
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10.05.2022
Micro- and nanoplastic from the atmosphere is polluting the ocean
According to estimates, by 2040 the level of plastic pollution could reach 80 million metric tons per year. Plastic particles have now been detected in virtually all spheres of the environment, e.g…
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05.04.2022
The global “plastic flood” reaches the Arctic
Even the High North can’t escape the global threat of plastic pollution. An international review study just released by the Alfred Wegener Institute shows, the flood of plastic has reached all…
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18.03.2022
Dramatic warming in the Arctic
In mid-March 2022, there was a massive influx of warm air into the Arctic, with several unusual phenomena such as heavy rain over the sea ice and massive clouds reaching almost as high as in the…
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01.03.2022
“klimafit” – Learning About Climate Change at Our Doorstep
Rising temperatures, extreme weather events like heavy rain and storms – climate change is becoming more and more visible, and Germany is no exception. In this regard, every region faces its own…
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21.02.2022
The formation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was very different than previously believed
Roughly 35 million years ago, Earth cooled rapidly. At roughly the same time, the Drake Passage formed between South America and the Antarctic, paving the way for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current…
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