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Press Releases
What happens to the nutrient cycle when typhoons churn the sea: Insights from the eye of the storm
In September 2018, an expedition as part of the German-Chinese project MEGAPOL was affected by the super typhoon “Mangkhut”. This resulted in the collection of unique data sets on the nutrient budget in the impacted part of the South China Sea. Enormous amounts of nutrients were mixed into the surface water from deeper layers, where they tripled the growth of phytoplankton in a few weeks.
Looking beneath the surface of the changing oceans: IOW supports successful deployment of new Argo Float sensors
As part of the DArgo2025 project, Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency coordinated the successful validation and deployment of new sensors on automated drifting buoys, so-called Argo floats. These sensors can now be deployed worldwide. In this context, the IOW evaluated novel nutrient sensors that were tested in the Baltic Sea. The project, which ended in December 2021, was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
„Indecent“ witnesses: Using faecal lipids to reconstruct human population growth in the Baltic Sea region
What rivers carry into the Baltic Sea usually ends up in one of its deep basins. Geologists find so-called proxies in these deposits – evidence they use to reconstruct earlier environmental conditions. In a recently published study , Jérôme Kaiser from the IOW and Mathias Lerch from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research show that population development and wastewater history in the Baltic Sea region can also be reconstructed in this way – with the help of the remains of faeces!
Confirmed: If sewage sludge is applied to fields, microplastics can get into deeper soil layers and onto adjacent areas
The fact that sewage sludge from municipal waste water treatment plants contains a high proportion of microplastics has already been shown in earlier studies. It was suspected that the use of such sludge for fertilising fields could also promote the uncontrolled input of microplastics into the wider environment. Now, studies conducted as part of the project MicroCatch_Balt funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research confirm this assumption.
Sea grass is no patent solution for climate change
Regenerating sea grass beds in coastal waters aims at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to fight climate change. However, tropical sea grass beds can release more carbon dioxide than they absorb. This was shown in a study by an international research team led by biogeochemist Bryce Van Dam from the Helmholtz Centre Hereon, in which also scientists from the IOW participated.
» Read more … Sea grass is no patent solution for climate change
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