From May 30 to June 3, the 4th Baltic Earth Conference will take place in Jastarnia on Hel peninsula, Poland. The focus is on a comprehensive scientific assessment of the Baltic Sea region, especially with regard to the effects of climate change. The conference is jointly organized by the International Baltic Earth Secretariat at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, the Leibniz Institute of Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), and the Institute of Oceanology at Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot.
Press Release Archive
How close is the tipping point? New studies on the Atlantic current system
With a new publication in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, climate researchers from Kiel and Warnemünde once again contribute to the understanding of changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – also known as the “Gulf Stream System”. It is important both for the global climate as well as for climate events in Europe. The authors focus on the question, whether human-induced climate change is already slowing down this global oceanic circulation. According to the study, natural variations are still dominant.
IOW researcher Maren Voß will be the first Björn Carlson Baltic Sea Prize laureate
The Björn Carlson Baltic Sea Prize of the Swedish Björn Carlson Baltic Sea Foundation, which will be awarded for the first time this year, goes to Prof. Maren Voß from the IOW. She is being honoured for her groundbreaking research on the importance of nitrogen in marine cycles and particularly its role in the overfertilisation of the Baltic Sea. The prize, endowed with 3 million Swedish kronor, will be awarded in Stockholm on June 3, 2022.
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.
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.
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!
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.
A Threat to the Baltic Sea? Long-term development of pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread, highly toxic and often carcinogenic environmental pollutants. Marion Kanwischer from the IOW and her team have studied the long-term development of PAH pollution in the Baltic Sea. Although the overall contamination has eased in recent years, PAHs still pose a toxicological threat to the Baltic Sea. Traffic emissions are a major contributor to the current PAH pollution.
Michael L. Zettler, senior scientist at the IOW, has been researching the occurrence and living conditions of the inhabitants of the seabed of the Baltic Sea and other seas – the so-called zoobenthos – for many years. Now he has contributed his profound expertise to a monograph on the marine bivalves of Germany, thus closing, together with co-author Axel Alf, a gap in the renowned series “Die Tierwelt Deutschlands”.