In the Southern Ocean may in large quantities at the sea surface driving plankton algae carbon dioxide content of surface to significantly reduce, which may have an impact on the global carbon cycle.
This is a result on 4 February in Cape Town completed Antarctic expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. An international team of scientists is the recent findings and pressing issues of Antarctic research, on 5 February at a workshop on board the icebreaker Polarstern discuss.
Federal Minister of Research, Dr. Annette Schavan will use the opportunity to meet with representatives of leading research institutions and South African Minister of colleagues. As early as 6 February will leave Polarstern to the next Antarctic expedition. The aim of this 2007/08 entirely within the International Polar Year related expedition is to understand the role of the Southern Ocean for past, present and future climate.
The Southern Ocean – a key region for global climate events
On the expeditions of the German research vessel Polarstern provide researchers from around the world during the International Polar year 2007/08 pioneering work in understanding the Southern Ocean. This giant ring Ocean around Antarctica is still largely unexplored. But as he decisively influenced the climate of the whole earth, is an intensification of the research is urgently needed. The International Polar Year provides a unique opportunity to bring together the scientific efforts of various countries in order to gain a significant share of knowledge.
First results of the expedition
The Polarstern expedition had now completed on 28 November 2007 started in Cape Town. She was the living creatures, and above all dedicated to biogeochemical cycles in the sea. 53 scientists from nine countries have studied under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bathmann of the Alfred Wegener Institute, among other things, the biological carbon pump in the Southern Ocean. Plant plankton binds through its photosynthetic activity removes atmospheric carbon and carbon dioxide in this way. The researchers have discovered that melting sea ice has a surface lens sweeter and made it easier water. The fact growing plankton bloom was already partly fallen, and has its organic material transported to the deep sea. At the bottom were caused thereby metabolic processes.
The scientists tested a driving on the edge of sea ice in the water Algae. This algal bloom was so great with 700,000 square kilometers, about twice as Germany. The researchers wanted to know of under what physical conditions such algal blooms and their impact on both the animate and the inanimate environment. Their measurements showed that the carbon dioxide content in the surface water has decreased significantly. The measurements have also shown that the plankton bloom in the surface water has an impact on the community of life on the seabed. For the first time ever, the entire water column in the Southern Ocean at the same time and fully sampled from the surface to the seabed in the deep sea. This inventory of the flora and fauna will also serve as a basis for comparison for future studies.
During this expedition, Polarstern also provided strong support as an icebreaker, so that the components for the new German Antarctic station Neumayer III could be unloaded, despite severe ice conditions.
International Workshop
On 5 Of February, held in Cape Town on board the Polarstern, an international workshop on climate research in the Southern Ocean. The scientists aboard the French research ship Marion Dufresne and the German research vessel Polarstern will meet with South African partners, to share results and to deny future cooperations. In Cape Town most of the German expedition to Antarctica to start. The cooperation with South Africa should be strengthened both in the field of marine sciences, as well as the logistics and expanded. Federal Minister of Research, Dr. Annette Schavan will attend the workshop.
The next Polarstern expedition
On 6 February starts the next Polarstern expedition to Antarctica led by Dr. Eberhard Fahrbach of the Alfred Wegener Institute. The main program of the expedition is in the International Polar Year 2007/08. The CASO (Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean) and the GEOTRACES project will have to record the goal of today’s physical and biogeochemical conditions in the Southern Ocean. Instruments on board the Polarstern, as well as spilled in the sea anchors and drift bodies which descend into the deep sea to measure the ocean currents in the Southern Ocean, the distribution of trace substances, transport of water masses and the interactions between ocean and ice, and between ocean and atmosphere. The trip ends on 16 April in Punta Arenas, Chile.
Teachers accompany the expedition
The International Polar Year is not only new insights into the climate system of the earth be won. Involve the public, especially the young generation in the current research and to provide comprehensive information is a central concern. To support this, there are two teachers on board Polarstern. Charlotte Lohse from Hamburg and Stefan Theisen from Kiel will participate actively in the research and therefore not only to refresh their knowledge of current climate research, but also carry these with telephone and Internet to their students further.
“I hope I can bring myself many impressions from this expedition to take home, to give pupils a clearer picture of the polar regions. Prior to the trip and in conversations with my students I have with the young people a great deal of enthusiasm for the subject Antarctic experience, “said Charlotte Lohse, teacher at the Heisenberg-Gymnasium in Hamburg.
The Alfred Wegener Institute conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and in oceans of mid and high latitudes. It coordinates Polar research in Germany and provides important infrastructure, eg the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctic for international scientific enterprises. The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the fifteen research centers of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organization in Germany.
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