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Press Release Archive

04.11.2019

Is the Baltic Sea at a crossroads? Future scenarios for the combined effect of climate change and nutrient load

Can effective marine management mitigate climate change impacts so that the Baltic Sea regains a good environmental status? Can record blue-green algae blooms and other extreme events with an impact on future tourism be averted? A team led by Markus Meier from the IOW now presents a study, in which various greenhouse gas and nutrient pollution scenarios are modelled up to the year 2100. Only in the most optimistic scenario – nutrient reduction according to a perfect implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan – a good environmental status is achievable and extreme algae blooms can be avoided despite increasingly frequent heat spells.

06.08.2019

Burst Hope: No chance for environment-relieving plastic decomposition by bacteria

No, they won’t help us with this particular environmental problem: Bacteria are definitely not able to decompose plastic released into marine environments, and they are unlikely to acquire this ability through evolution. This is the conclusion reached by IOW microbiologists Sonja Oberbeckmann and Matthias Labrenz in a comprehensive review study concerning biofilms on microplastics.

31.07.2019

How stressed are coastal seas by humans and climate? Expedition with research vessel SONNE to the South China Sea

On August 2, 2019, the German research vessel SONNE sets off from Singapore for the SO269-SOCLIS cruise to the South China Sea under the lead of IOW scientist Joanna Waniek. At more than 70 sampling stations, 24 German and 16 Chinese scientists will investigate, how natural materials and anthropogenic harmful substances are distributed in the shelf area and deeper oceanic regions, which physical processes are responsible for observed pattern, how far the pollution halo of industrial centres and large conurbations reaches into the sea, and how different climate conditions affect the relevant processes. The expedition ends on September 3 in Hong Kong.

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.