News

No two worms are alike

New study confirms that even the simplest marine organisms tend to be individualistic

[11. April 2024]  Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. AWI-researchers report on a surprising discovery: even simple marine polychaete worms shape their day-to-day lives on the basis of highly individual rhythms. This diversity is of interest not just for the future of species and populations in a changing environment, but also for medicine.

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

Ocean sediment cores reveal climate-related fluctuations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in past epochs

[27. March 2024]  Der Antarktische Zirkumpolarstrom spielt eine wichtige Rolle für die globale Umwälzzirkulation, den Wärme- und CO2-Austausch zwischen Ozean und Atmosphäre und die Stabilität der antarktischen Eismassen. Ein internationales Forschungsteam unter Leitung des Alfred-Wegener-Instituts und dem Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory hat nun an Klimaarchiven in Sedimenten aus dem Südpazifik die Fließgeschwindigkeit in den letzten 5,3 Millionen Jahren rekonstruiert.

Enormous Ice Loss from Greenland Glacier

Melt rates of 130 metres per year measured under the 79° N Glacier

[22. March 2024]  Ground-based measuring devices and aircraft radar operated in the far northeast of Greenland show how much ice the 79° N Glacier is losing. According to measurements conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, the thickness of the glacier has decreased by more than 160 metres since 1998. Warm ocean water flowing under the glacier tongue is melting the ice from below. High air temperatures cause lakes to form on the surface, whose water flows through huge channels in the ice into the ocean. One channel reached a height of 500 metres, while the ice above was only 190 metres thick, as a research team has now reported in the scientific journal The Cryosphere.

POLARIN: Network for polar research infrastructures

Alfred Wegener Institute to coordinate new EU research infrastructure project in the polar regions

[29. February 2024]  From now on, a network of 50 partner institutes will provide access to polar research infrastructures. Over the next five years, the European Union will provide 14.6 million euros in funding for the new POLARIN project (Polar Research Infrastructure Network). Slated to officially launch on 1 March 2024, the project will promote interdisciplinary research that addresses the scientific challenges in both polar regions.

Greenland's ice-sheet

Warm Atlantic water is melting Greenland’s largest floating ice tongue

AWI researchers simulate ocean circulation below the ice of the 79° North Glacier in northeast Greenland

[20. February 2024]  Although the tongue of the 79°North Glacier on the north-east coast of Greenland has hardly become any shorter in recent decades, it has become increasingly thinner. A study team from the Alfred Wegener Institute can now explain why. Using a computer model, they were able to show that warm water from the Atlantic flows into the cavern under the glacier tongue and melts the ice there from below.

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