May 26, 2008. Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) through human activities have a well-known impact on the Earth's climate. Its other, less well-known impact is ocean acidification, with uncertain consequences on marine organisms and ecosystems. The European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) will be launched on 10 June 2008. Its goal is to document ocean acidification, investigate its impact on biological processes, predict its consequences over the next 100 years, and advise policy-makers on potential thresholds or tipping points that should not be exceeded. The World's oceans cover over 70% of the planet's surface, contribute half of its primary production and contain an enormous diversity of life. Thus it is not surprising that they provide i...

PRESS RELEASE Commencing in August 2008, the University of Akureyri will be offering a Master's Program in Polar Law. This Program is designed for both lawyers (two semesters leading to an LLM-degree) and non-lawyers (four semesters leading to an MA-degree), preparing them for work in both public and private sector, in national and local governments, international organizations, with indigenous peoples of the Circumpolar North, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations, and national and transnational corporations. The deadline for applications is June 5 for Home/EU students and April 15 for overseas students. The Master's Program will provide a unique focus on Polar Law. It lays emphasis on certain chapters in public international law, such as...

PRESS RELEASE Alfred-Wegener-Institut for Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Institute for Polar and Marine Research Communications Dept. Postfach 12 01 61, 27515 Bremerhaven/Germany Tel. ++49 471 4831-1376, Fax ++49 471 4831-1389 email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The Antarctic deep sea gets colder RV Polarstern finished first Antarctic field season within the International Polar Year Bremerhaven, April 21, 2008. The Antarctic deep sea gets colder, which might stimulate the circulation of the oceanic water masses. This is the first result of the Polarstern expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association that has just ended in Punta Arenas/Chi...

ANTARCTIC CLIMATE & ECOSYSTEMS COOPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRE Media Release embargoed until 10:00 am 17 April 2008 Polar Year expedition returns with evidence of ocean change The Aurora Australis returns to Hobart this morning, after completing a major oceanographic expedition across the Southern Ocean. The Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (CASO) voyage obtained the most accurate and complete measurements of the ocean currents between Australia and Antarctica yet taken, providing important information that will improve models used to predict climate change. “We have collected a remarkable data set of observations from the Southern Ocean, covering a wide range of physical, chemical and bio...

PRESS RELEASE Alfred-Wegener-Institut for Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Institute for Polar and Marine Research Communications Dept. Postfach 12 01 61, 27515 Bremerhaven/Germany Tel. ++49 471 4831-2008, Fax ++49 471 4831-1389 email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Methane sources over the last 30,000 years New insights into natural changes in atmospheric methane concentrations Bremerhaven, April 17, 2008. Ice cores are essential for climate research, because they represent the only archive which allows direct measurements of atmospheric composition and greenhouse gas concentrations in the past. Using novel isotopic studies, scientists from the European Project for Ice Coring In Antarctica (EPICA) w...

PRESS RELEASE Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Institute for Polar and Marine Research Communications Dept. Postfach 12 01 61, 27515 Bremerhaven/Germany Tel. ++49 471 4831-1376, Fax ++49 471 4831-1389 email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Seven months on a drifting ice floe Drift expedition NP 35 has produced unique data about the hibernal atmosphere above the central Arctic Bremerhaven, April 14, 2008 For the first time, a German has taken part in a Russian drift expedition and has explored the atmosphere above the central Arctic during the polar night. Jürgen Graeser, a member of the Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and M...

On Tuesday, April 8, middle- and high-school students from Fairbanks, Shageluk and Wasilla, Alaska, will join with students from the other end of the globe, in Ushuaia, Argentina, in a live two-hour videoconference that is part of International Polar Year (IPY) activities at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The students will respond to a focus question about the important seasonal indicators in their area (such as budburst, leaves changing colors, or river/lake freeze-up or break-up), and how those indicators may be impacted by climate change. They will then discuss their answers with each other and with several arctic and antarctic scientists who will be on hand. This videoconference, similar to one that was held a year ago on the UAF campus, is part of an Internat...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 4, 2008 Children near both poles will have a chance to talk to each other and scientists about changes they are seeing in their own environments and how people are adapting to those changes during an International Polar Year pole-to-pole videoconference Tuesday, April 8, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Through the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment program, known as GLOBE, students in Fairbanks, Shageluk and Wasilla, Alaska will exchange their research ideas and interact with students from Ushuaia, Argentina, as well as with scientists from Alaska, Colorado and Argentina. The exchange is part of the IPY GLOBE Seasons and Biomes project, which trains K-12 teachers and students ...

Media release: 22 March 2008 The final sailing south in the world’s largest Southern Ocean climate experiment gets underway today when the Aurora Australis sets sail from Hobart. Aurora Australis is the last of 20 international research vessels deploying instruments in the Southern Ocean as part of an International Polar Year (IPY) experiment known as CASO, for Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) is leading the voyage, which includes a team of researchers from the Centre’s partner organisations includ- ing the Alfred Wegner Institute (Germany) and the National Institue of Water and Atmospher- ic Research (New Zealand). “By pooling resources, s...

Columbus, Ohio …This year and next, middle school teachers have a unique opportunity to engage their students in one of the most massive scientific programs ever undertaken--the International Polar Year. Scientists from 60 countries are studying changes in the polar regions while many other groups are involved in educating the public via content-rich web sites, real-time broadcasts, and exhibits. How to make this complex undertaking accessible to students is the subject of Science and the Polar Regions, an online publication from the Middle School Portal of the National Science Digital Library. Mary LeFever, author of the publication, has identified more than three-dozen web-based resources for use in the middle school classroom. Among them are activities t...