News

New members of the DAM International Advisory Board

The DAM International Advisory Board is starting the new year with some old and some new faces.

Climate change and human impact: Looking into the future of the ocean

METEOR expedition M197 uses the eastern Mediterranean as a laboratory for the future

Strong saltwater inflow into the Baltic Sea detected

A large influx of saltwater into the south-western Baltic Sea is currently being detected. The autonomous measuring station operated by the IOW at the Darss Sill has been measuring a strong inflow of salty water throughout the water column since 20.12.2023, which is a comparatively rare occurrence. Over Christmas day, it will become clear whether the inflow is similar in scale to the major saltwater intrusion in 2014.

Millions of mysterious pits in the ocean decoded

Study led by Kiel University shows for the first time how vertebrates shape the North Sea seafloor

Hydrothermal Mercury – the natural story of a contaminant

Human influences are responsible for the majority of mercury pollution in the ocean

Key to predicting heat events in Central Europe

GEOMAR study on atmospheric patterns and sea surface temperatures

Giving the Arctic Back Its Ice

Even if the global community were to double down in its efforts to protect the climate, it would not be able to give the Arctic Ocean back its ice. But, in a symbolic act, Hamburg-based conceptual artist Swaantje Güntzel has done just that: on 18 November, at Båtsfjord in the far north of Norway, she produced ice cubes from meltwater taken from the North Pole and let them slip into the sea. This artistic intervention is part of Güntzel's year-long fellowship at the Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS).

Adapting to hypoxia: Zooplankton influence the efficiency of the biological carbon pump in the Humboldt Current off Peru

arine organisms play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. Phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it in organic matter that sinks to the deep ocean where it can be stored for long periods of time. Until now, this process – the biological carbon pump – was thought to be particularly efficient in oxygen-poor areas. A new study by researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel suggests that the influence of certain zooplankton species on the biological carbon pump has been underestimated. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Climate change could trigger methane release from the deep ocean

Why re­gional dif­fer­ences in global warm­ing are crit­ical

Tiny fossils in mar­ine sed­i­ments verify that cli­mate mod­els provide ac­cur­ate cal­cu­la­tions of av­er­age ocean tem­per­at­ures dur­ing the last gla­cial max­imum around 20,000 years ago, but that the spa­tial dis­tri­bu­tion of sim­u­lated tem­per­at­ures is too uni­form and thus only par­tially valid for pre­dict­ing fu­ture cli­mate. A new method now shows how past cli­mate model sim­u­la­tions can be bet­ter as­sessed. Dr. Lu­kas Jonkers of MARUM – Cen­ter for Mar­ine En­vir­on­mental Sci­ences at the Uni­versity of Bre­men, and his team of col­leagues, have now pub­lished their res­ults in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Protecting the ocean and using it sustainably in the fight against the climate crisis

Statement by the Board of the German Marine Research Alliance on the start of the global climate negotiations and the amendment of the Federal Climate Protection Act

Being prepared for storm surges on the Baltic Sea coast

Kiel researchers evaluate the future protection potential of dikes and show flooding scenarios for the German Baltic Sea coast until 2100

Research vessel Polarstern sets course for the East Antarctic

Yesterday evening, the research vessel Polarstern set off from Cape Town for a special region: Two expeditions in East Antarctica will focus on the history of the instability of the ice sheet there and its interactions with ocean circulation. On the first leg, which will last around two months and be led by GEOMAR, the main focus will be on oceanographic, geoscientific and biological work; the second leg will be led by Kiel University and will have a geoscientific focus, with researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute involved in both expeditions. The change of personnel and ship supply will take place in Hobart at the beginning of February. On the occasion of the Polarstern’s first call in an Australian harbour, an exchange with representatives from science and politics is planned.