Investigations of the Alfred Wegener Institute show that methane producing microorganisms react to climate changes Bremerhaven, March 30th 2009. Higher temperatures in Arctic permafrost soils alter the community of methane producing microorganisms and lead to an increased emission of methane. Microbiologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute come to this conclusion in the current issue of the periodical “Environmental Microbiology”. The scientists were able to examine permafrost from the ground of the Laptev Sea, a shallow shelf sea close to the coast of Siberia, for the first time. Caused by overflooding with relatively warm sea water, this so-called “submarine permafrost“ is about 10° C warmer than the permafrost on land. It is therefore particularly suited to mon...

Bremerhaven, March 26th 2009. The research aircraft Polar 5 belongs to the Alfred Wegener Institute. It will start on Monday March 30th at 10 o'clock from the regional airport Bremerhaven on an Arctic measurement campaign which will last about four weeks. Measurements of sea ice thickness and atmospheric variables in an area between Spitsbergen, Greenland, northern Canada and Alaska are at the centre of the project PAM-ARCMIP (Pan-Arctic Measurements and Arctic Climate Model Inter comparison Project). Up to twenty German and international researchers will carry out investigations in those areas of the Arctic where no data are yet available. Six research institutes from Germany (Alfred Wegener Institute), Canada (Environment Canada, University of Alberta, York University), the USA (NOAA) a...

Lohafex provides new insights on plankton ecology Only small amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide fixed Bremerhaven/Berlin, 23 March 2009. The Indo-German team of scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography and the Alfred Wegener Institute has returned from its expedition on research vessel Polarstern. The cooperative project Lohafex has yielded new insights on how ocean ecosystems function. But it has dampened hopes on the potential of the Southern Ocean to sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and thus mitigate global warming. On 17 March the scientists reached Punta Arenas, Chile, together with colleagues from five other countries. They carried out an ocean iron fertilization experiment in the south-western Atlantic for arduous two and a...

With the release of Google Earth 5 in February 2009, this freely downloadable virtual globe application gained a feature that makes it much more adept at exploring the oceans: The oceans are now rendered in 3D, using the best global bathymetry dataset currently available. Here's how to get started exploring interesting polar ocean content with Google Earth 5. If you haven't already, download and install the latest version of Google Earth, available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Go ahead and launch it. In Google Earth 5, when you look at the glob...

GATINEAU, February 26, 2009 – Environment Canada is leading an expedition of 10 Canadian scientists onto the frozen Arctic Ocean to learn more about how pollutants move from the air, to the ice and ultimately into the northern ecosystem. The research is taking place near Barrow, Alaska, as part of one of the last major expeditions during the International Polar Year (IPY). The Canadian component of this international expedition, OASIS-Canada (Ocean-Atmosphere-Sea Ice-Snowpack), will focus on mercury, a chemical affecting the health of northern residents. It will also focus on ground-level ozone, which is both a smog pollutant and a greenhouse gas. Were trying to find out how these chemicals get there, how the Arctic tolerates their intrusion and w...

BLAST! is astrophysics Indiana Jones style, a risky adventure story that takes you on an exciting and enlightening journey around the world and across the Universe to launch a revolutionary new telescope on a NASA high-altitude balloon in an effort to understand the origins or our Universe. Five time Emmy winner Paul Devlin follows the story of his brother, Mark Devlin PhD, as he leads a tenacious team of scientists hoping to figure out how all the galaxies formed by launching a revolutionary new telescope under a NASA high-altitude balloon. Their adventure takes them from Arctic Sweden to Inuit polar bear country in Canada, where catastrophic failure forces the team to try all over again on the desolate ice in Antarctica. No less than the understanding of the...

A documentary by Tom Litwin, Clark Science Center and Lawrence R. Hott, Florentine Films/Hott Productions Watch video podcasts from the documentary. The Bering Sea – the oval of water between the Aleutians and the Bering Strait – is no ordinary or inconsequential place. The Bering Sea touches two continents, joins two great oceans, spans hemi¬spheres. It’s huge – one and a half times the size of Alaska – and wondrous. It is home to twenty-six species of marine mammals, including twelve kinds of whales, and over 450 species of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks; no less than 80% of the U.S. seabird population spends...

A message from the ITASC IPY 0809 expedition February 25 — We are in the middle of the Southern Ocean at 51 degrees south, tracking the Greenwich Meridian still six days out of Cape Town, and unfortunately we cannot join you in Geneva tonight.   We are with you in spirit though and celebrating the IPY tonight with a toast onboard the South African Antarctic research vessel SA Agulhas. On behalf of ITASC expedition leader Ntsikelelo Ntshingila, crew members Erika Blumenfeld, Lotter Kock and myself, and all the scientists and engineers who joined us at the ICEPAC IPY Base during its insta...

Written by Gunn Sissel Jaklin: Credit: G.S. Jaklin, Norwegian Polar Institute February 24

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