The Polar Regions - The End of the Eternal Ice

07 November 2019/Kiel, Berlin. The new "World Ocean Review 6", published by mare in cooperation with the German Marine Research Consortium and the Future Ocean Network in Kiel, focuses on the dramatic climate-induced changes in the Arctic and Antarctic and their far-reaching consequences for humans ...

Global distribution of ΔCH4 calculated from observational data. From Weber et al., 2019.

How much methane is released by the ocean?

25 October 2019/Kiel. Methane (CH4) is a strong greenhouse gas that has both anthropogenic and natural sources. The ocean also plays an important role. A new study published in the journal Nature Communications by American and German scientists, involving GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research i...

Healthy bladderwrack Fucus vesiculosusis. Photo: Uli Kunz.

Acceleration and brake processes to adapt to global change

15 October 2019/Kiel. More short-term heat waves, long-term warming and acidification, increasing eutrophication and oxygen depletion - marine ecosystems are subject to many changes. Just as diverse are the reactions of marine organisms to individual factors. Biologists at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre fo...

Map of the most important tipping elements in the Earth System overlain on the Köppen climate classification. There are three groups of tipping elements: melting ice bodies, changing circulations of the ocean and atmosphere, and threatened large-scale ecosystems. Question marks indicate systems whose status as tipping elements is particularly uncertain. Source: PIK, 2017.

Climate knowledge for research and politics

11. October 2019/Bergen, Kiel. Due to human activities, more and more trace gases are released to the atmosphere, leading to global warming in the atmosphere but also to ocean acidification and deoxygenation. This impacts the marine ecosystems, e.g. coral reefs are in danger as the ocean w...