News

Invasive Chinese mitten crabs: New project launched to preserve native ecosystems

The international project “Clancy” is intended to find suitable strategies for combating the countless Chinese mitten crabs in Northern European river systems

[13. November 2023]  Invasive species like the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis), introduced roughly 100 years ago, pose a threat to native ecosystems and can do enormous ecological and economic harm. In its latest report, released just a few weeks ago, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) once again highlighted the lack of internationally coordinated strategies to combat invasive species. The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and Dresden University of Technology (TUD), together with partners from Belgium, France and Sweden, have now launched the European project “Clancy”. Its goal: to markedly reduce the mitten crab population in European rivers, improving their ecological status in the process.

Geological drilling mission in West Antarctica’s interior

Ice sheet stability in a 2°C warmer world

[08. November 2023]  Am 16. November bricht ein internationales Team von Forschenden und Bohrfachleuten von Christchurch (Neuseeland) aus in die Antarktis auf, um unter dem inneren Ross-Schelfeis bis zu 200 Meter in den Meeresboden zu bohren. Das Team will geologische Aufzeichnungen über sich verändernde Ablagerungen gewinnen, welche die Umweltbedingungen zum Zeitpunkt ihrer Entstehung in einer wärmeren Welt als heute widerspiegeln. Die Hoffnung ist, dass diese Aufzeichnungen wichtige Erkenntnisse über die Vergangenheit der Westantarktis liefern und wir so mehr über den potenziellen zukünftigen Beitrag der Antarktis zum Anstieg des Meeresspiegels erfahren.

Keeping an eye on the regions when it comes to climate change

[06. November 2023]  Up to now, the results of climate simulations have sometimes contradicted the analysis of climate traces from the past. A team led by the physicist Thomas Laepple from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam and the climatologist Kira Rehfeld from the University of Tübingen has therefore brought together experts in climate models and climate tracks to clarify how the discrepancies come about. The surprising result has now been published in the journal Nature Geoscience: in a way, both sides are right. Climate models correctly simulate global temperature trends, but often underestimate the strength of regional climate fluctuations, especially over the course of decades to centuries.

ERC Synergy Grant

The Arctic's past provides a glimpse into the future

International climate research project receives prestigious funding from the European Research Council

[26. October 2023]  What are the global impacts of an ice-free Arctic? How will the Arctic develop with increasing climate warming? What does an ice-free Arctic mean for our environment and our society? Researchers want to answer these questions with the "i2B - Into the Blue" project, looking back to the past and forward to the future. This project has now been funded with 12.5 million euros by a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for six years. The project's proposers are Dr Jochen Knies and Research Prof Dr Stijn De Schepper from Norway, and climate modeler Prof Dr Gerrit Lohmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Bremen.

Permfrost

Between Arctic Land and Sea

Innovative atlas reveals perilous realities of permafrost thaw

[20. October 2023]  The European funded Horizon 2020 “NUNATARYUK”-project, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, has carried out a comprehensive six-year investigation into the rapidly changing permafrost regions in the northern hemisphere. The project seeks to answer pressing questions about the role of permafrost thaw in the global climate system, and the consequences for ecosystems, the economy, and the people living in these regions. The culmination of this ambitious endeavour is the "Arctic Permafrost Atlas," a ground-breaking publication set to launch during the Arctic Circle Assembly on October 20.

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