Press Release Archive

26.06.2019

Yes, they can! First proof of bacterial manganese(IV) oxide use for survival near H2S “dead zone”

The Black Sea, with its permanent stratification, large oxygen-free water masses and extensive zones of toxic H2S, is an excellent natural laboratory to study survival strategies of specialised organisms. IOW Microbiologist Jan Henkel and colleagues have investigated how bacteria are nevertheless able to grow there. They now for the first time present proof in the renowned scientific journal PNAS that a bacterium that frequently occurs near the “dead zone” specifically uses manganese(IV) oxide to gain metabolic energy from H2S and convert it into non-toxic sulphate.

20.05.2019

Dutch royal couple visits the IOW (with photo gallery)

His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands are visiting the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) this afternoon as part of their working visit to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. They will be accompanied by Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and a high-ranking Dutch-German delegation. The visit marks the festive conclusion of the Dutch-German colloquium "North Sea meets Baltic Sea" at the IOW with about 50 invited scientists. German and Dutch researchers will report to the royal couple on their cooperation on climate change, sea-level rise, coastal protection, pollutants and microplastics in the sea and sign a declaration of intent on future cooperation.

15.04.2019

IOW marine physicist Hans Burchard receives the Georg Wüst Prize for outstanding achievements

Hans Burchard, deputy head of IOW's Physical Oceanography Department, has been awarded the Georg Wüst Prize 2019 from the German Society for Marine Research for outstanding contributions to marine research. He received the award, which is supported by the journal “Ocean Dynamics”, at this year's Annual General Meeting of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). With this award, which has been awarded for the eighth time this year, the DGM honours Burchard's work on the significant advancement of computer-aided modelling of turbulence and other dynamic processes in the ocean.

09.04.2019

Another four years funding for the Leibniz Science Campus Phosphorus Research Rostock

At the beginning of April, the Leibniz Association decided to support the Leibniz Science Campus Phosphorus Research Rostock (P Campus) for another four years with a good 1.13 million euros. The P Campus, which was founded in 2015 and brings together five Leibniz institutes from the region and the University of Rostock, will thus be able to continue and expand its successful interdisciplinary research into the essential element phosphorus and its role in the environment and in economy.

21.02.2019

Little helpers: Phosphorus anomaly in the Black Sea can be explained by bacterial removal

A team led by microbiologist Heide Schulz-Vogt from the IOW was able to show that conspicuous phosphorus anomalies in the Black Sea can be attributed to the fascinating abilities of certain large bacteria. Until now, the scientific community was not able to explain this phenomenon. In a recent article in The ISME Journal, the authors now show that so-called magnetotactic bacteria, which are capable of accumulating polyphosphate and can migrate in a directed manner within the water column thanks to their magnetic properties, are the main cause of phosphate displacements.

19.02.2019

BRIESE Prize 2018: Focus ocean acidification – Great progress in Baltic Sea pH monitoring and more

Jens Daniel Müller from the IOW has been awarded this year's BRIESE Prize for Marine Research. The jury honours his research on the distinctive features of ocean acidification in marginal and coastal seas. Müller used the Baltic Sea as an example to show that acidification takes place under fundamentally different conditions there than it does in the open ocean. With the advancement of a high-precision optical pH measuring method, which until now could only be used at high oceanic salinities, but which now can also be applied in less salty water, he also created the basis for making pH changes in brackish water comparable worldwide.

30.01.2019

Raising data treasures with ODIN 2 by easily surfing through over 60 years of Baltic Sea monitoring

This year, the first international agreement on joint monitoring of the Baltic Sea marine environment turns 50: As early as 1969, the riparian states for the first time carried out measurements along a coordinated station network as part of a so-called “Baltic Year”. The Warnemünde oceanographers have been involved ever since and are making a significant contribution to this valuable long-term data set. Their more than 70 million data, some of them even dating back to 1951, are now freely accessible and can be visualised user-friendly with the ODIN 2 research tool developed by the IOW: https://odin2.io-warnemuende.de.

17.01.2019

Bad food?
How mesozooplankton reacts to blue-green algae blooms

A group of marine researchers around the IOW biologist Natalie Loick-Wilde has succeeded in deciphering the mysterious feeding behaviour of mesozooplankton in the presence of cyanobacterial blooms by analysing stable nitrogen isotopes in amino acids. They found that contradictory observations, according to which both the dominance of herbivorous and carnivorous diets occurred, can be explained by the aging process of a blue-green algal bloom. In view of an assumed future worldwide increase in such blooms, their findings open up new perspectives on potential developments within a key group of the marine food web.

14.01.2019

Model results: Baltic Sea could return to a good environmental status

In the largest model comparison ever carried out for the Baltic Sea region, an international team of authors led by Markus Meier, oceanographer from Warnemünde, came to the conclusion that a good status of the Baltic Sea environment can be achieved if the measures planned in the Baltic Sea Action Plan to reduce nutrient discharges are consistently implemented. They thus contradicted the view that climate change in general makes it impossible to achieve this goal. At the same time, however, they confirmed that climate change would lead to an increase in eutrophication if the nutrient load remains high.

07.01.2019

Is climate change a threat to marine ecosystems in the Benguela upwelling system? New project kicks off

The three-year research project EVAR to investigate possible climate change impacts on key biogeochemical processes in the Benguela upwelling system off South West Africa, a very important fishing ground, was launched on January 2, 2019. The project is funded by the German Ministry of Research with about 3 Mill. euros and is headed by the IOW. Scientists from the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at Bremen University and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel are also participating, together with their colleagues from the University of Namibia and the National Marine Information and Research Centre NatMIRC.