Press Release Archive

10.04.2018

Pioneer of ocean thermodynamics: IOW researcher Rainer Feistel receives Fridtjof Nansen Medal

On April 9, 2018, Rainer Feistel, physicist at IOW until 2014, received the Fridtjof Nansen Medal 2018 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) at its general assembly in Vienna. The EGU, with about 12,500 members Europe's leading association for geoscientists, honoured Feistel's ground-breaking work in the field of ocean thermodynamics. Particularly by defining the thermodynamic properties of seawater by means of a Gibbs function he created for the first time stringent thermodynamic foundations in oceanography, from which other scientific disciplines such as climate research and engineering also benefited significantly.

09.04.2018

Lavish blue-green algae: Surprising supply of amino acids for zooplankton

In the international journal Limnology and Oceanography, marine biologist Natalie Loick-Wilde from Rostock reports about a study in the central Baltic Sea in which she and her colleagues from IOW and the US-American Georgia Institute of Technology succeeded in proving that blue-green algae produce an excess of amino acids at a late stage of their bloom. In a typically nutrient-poor season, this leads to a surprising food supply for marine microorganisms and thus for the entire food web.

12.03.2018

Learning from our pollution history: a plea for a proactive approach to tackle microplastics

In a viewpoint paper recently published in the scientific journal “Environmental Science and Technology”, two researchers from IOW argue on why it is reasonable to work towards legislative steps, even though the toxicity potential that microplastics may have on nature environment is still not yet conclusively determined.

21.02.2018

New IOW study: Do microplastics harbour additional risks by colonization with harmful bacteria?

The alarming omnipresence of microplastics in rivers, lakes, and oceans increasingly gains the critical focus of research. So far, however, there has been no reliable knowledge as to whether microplastic particles in aquatic ecosystems promote the development of special bacterial communities or even the spread of pathogens. A recent study within the project MikrOMIK* under the lead of IOW has now for the first time systematically investigated whether bacterial biofilms on microplastic particles differ from those on natural materials and how various environmental factors influence the community composition.

09.01.2018

Environmental history told by sludge: Global warming lets the dead zones in the Black Sea grow

Geoscientists IOW, the universities of Oldenburg and Hannover as well as Rutgers University (USA) succeeded now in reconstructing the depositional environment of the last interglacial (Eemian, 128,000 years ago) in the Black Sea with unprecedented details. This enabled for the first time a direct comparison between the current oxygen-depleted conditions in the deep water with those during the Eemian when the water temperatures in summer were 3° higher. It shows that the dead zones of the Black Sea will most probably expand by a future global warming, leading to a significant shrinking of the productive zone in the surface water.

11.12.2017

How do megacities impact coastal seas? Searching for evidence in Chinese marginal seas

Two research projects, which join several German and Chinese partner institutions, were launched into action with a kick-off meeting in Guangzhou, China, from December 4 to 8, 2017. They are supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of 1.25 Mio. Euros and aim at recognising the fingerprint of megacities in the marine sediments of Chinese marginal seas. On the German side, both projects are coordinated by IOW.

04.12.2017

New book from IOW experts: “Carbon dioxide glasses” sharpen view on the state of the Baltic Sea

Bernd Schneider and Jens Müller from IOW recently published a book on the biogeochemistry of the Baltic Sea. What is special is its novel perspective: The marine chemists use investigations into the marine CO2 cycle to obtain comprehensive and highly detailed analyses of marine biogeochemical processes. This new concept strikes new paths towards an efficient ecological monitoring of the sea.

10.11.2017

Rapid mid-Holocene warming triggered the onset of a farming society in Northern Europe

In a recently published article in the renowned journal Scientific Reports, IOW scientists present the outcome of detailed studies on the temperature development during the Holocene in the Baltic region which they conducted together with an international team of geologists, geochemists, archaeologists and fishery biologists. The resulting temperature record reveals explanations for simultaneously occurring human demographic and cultural changes.

21.08.2017

A new indicator for marine ecosystem changes: the diatom/dinoflagellate index

Marine biologist from Warnemünde presents indicator for the state of foodwebs in the Baltic Sea on the basis of long-term data series on the composition of spring blooms

09.08.2017

New BMBF funded project MicroCatch_Balt launched

Where does all the plastic come from? The new project "MicroCatch_Balt" funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research will investigate the sources of plastic particles within the catchment area of the Baltic Sea by taking the Warnow river catchment basin as an example.