(Press-News.org) On Thursday, 3 August 2023, the research vessel Polarstern is scheduled to set off from Tromsø, Norway, towards the North Pole. For two months, a good fifty scientific expedition participants will explore the Arctic in transition as sea ice extent reaches its annual minimum in September. They will explore the biology, chemistry and physics of sea ice as well as the effects of sea ice retreat on the entire ocean system from the surface to the deep sea. Eleven years ago, Antje Boetius was part of the largest ever sea ice minumum in the Arctic and its consequences for life in the deep sea. Now she is returning with her team to compare the state of the Arctic today - also with the data from the MOSAiC expedition 2019/20.
“I am very excited to see how sea ice and ocean life have changed over the last decade,” says Antje Boetius. “In 2012, we were on site during the lowest documented summer sea ice extent to date and were able to see significant impacts on the entire ecosystem of the central Arctic Ocean, down to over four kilometres of water depth,” explains the Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). “At the moment, I am monitoring the sea ice situation at www.meereisportal.de particularly intensively. We don’t yet know whether a new minimum will be reached, given the globally hot year 2023 and the fact that the sea ice in Antarctica is at a record low.”
The head of the sea ice physics team and MOSAiC expert Dr Marcel Nicolaus reports: “The ice currently covers an area of just under 7.5 million square kilometres, similar to that of the past two years. This means that there is still about one million square kilometres more ice than in 2012. However, the summer melt is in full swing, and the wind in particular will determine how the porous, brittle ice continues to be distributed in the coming weeks.”
The expedition team is investigating in detail how the composition of the sea ice is changing on site: Helicopter-towed sensors are used to measure sea ice thickness, ice cores allow the sea ice composition to be analysed and algae living in the ice to be studied. An underwater robot measures how much light passes through the ice into the ocean when its surface is still covered by snow or already by melt water ponds. The light is available to micro algae (phytoplankton) as a source of energy for photosynthesis, which live in the upper water layers. What happens to the carbon they bind is being researched (micro-)biologically, chemically and physically from the water surface to the deep-sea floor. The planktologists on board want to follow the path of life directly under the ice into the deep sea, for which they bring out various camera systems as well as autonomous samplers.
Several so-called ice stations are planned for the work: “The ship docks at a floe, then the ice researchers go onto the floe, we deploy various robots and free-fall devices and, in parallel, we look at the creatures at the bottom with the zoologists, more than 4000 metres below. In this way, we recognise connections in all levels of the ocean from the sea ice to the seabed,” explains Antje Boetius. In doing so, the team is returning to the same working areas as in 2012 for comparative studies: to the particularly productive marginal ice zone and regions with perhaps still perennial ice cover in the central Arctic. A range of proven but also new technologies will be used for the work, for example lander systems, deep-sea crawlers and the Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS) developed at the AWI. The return takes place after the summer ice melt, when the autumn sea ice formation begins.
Among the participants is a camera team from UFA Documentary GmbH, which is filming the expedition. The television documentary, which is being produced in cooperation with NDR, is scheduled to be broadcast on ARD at the turn of the year. Already during the expedition, interested parties can gain impressions from on board in the radio program of Radio Bremen and of course also follow the expedition in the Polarstern app (https://follow-polarstern.awi.de/?lang=en) and on the social media channels of the Alfred Wegener Institute. Polarstern is scheduled to return to its home port of Bremerhaven on 1 October.
END
Eyewitnesses to Arctic Change
AWI Director Antje Boetius leads Polarstern expedition to the Central Arctic
2023-08-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New neuroimaging approach could improve diagnosis of schizophrenia
2023-08-02
ATLANTA — New research led by scientists working with Georgia State University’s TReNDS Center has identified age-related changes in brain patterns associated with the risk for developing schizophrenia.
The discovery could help clinicians identify the risk for developing mental illness earlier and improve treatment options. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The research is part of a collaboration by experts from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, the Lieber Institute of Brain Development and the Tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in ...
Scientists discover unusual ultrafast motion in layered magnetic materials
2023-08-02
A common metal paper clip will stick to a magnet. Scientists classify such iron-containing materials as ferromagnets. A little over a century ago, physicists Albert Einstein and Wander de Haas reported a surprising effect with a ferromagnet. If you suspend an iron cylinder from a wire and expose it to a magnetic field, it will start rotating if you simply reverse the direction of the magnetic field.
“Einstein and de Haas’s experiment is almost like a magic show,” said Haidan Wen, a ...
New review calls on Hockey Canada to raise age of body contact from 13 to 15
2023-08-02
Hockey leagues in Canada should overhaul current rules and regulations to raise the age of bodychecking in the game from 13 to 15, says new research into the effect of body contact on teens.
The literature review was led by Dr. Kristian Gouletnorth_eastexternal link of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and calls on provincial and territorial governments to mandate schools – including those involved with school sports – and sports organizations to establish, ...
Robotic grippers offer unprecedented combo of strength and delicacy
2023-08-02
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a robotic gripping device that is gentle enough to pick up a drop of water, strong enough to pick up a 6.4 kilogram (14.1 pound) weight, dexterous enough to fold a cloth, and precise enough to pick up microfilms that are 20 times thinner than a human hair. In addition to possible manufacturing applications, the researchers also integrated the device with technology that allows the gripper to be controlled by the electrical signals produced by muscles in the forearm, demonstrating its potential for use with robotic prosthetics.
“It is difficult ...
The Power of host social interactions in bacterial evolution
2023-08-02
Previous studies in humans and animals showed that hosts in a social condition (sharing the same space) harbor a more similar microbiota composition. Microbial transmission between hosts, which is increased when living in the same household, leads to similar species inhabiting the gut. However, whether bacterial evolution in the gut is affected by microbiota transmission remained unknown.
To fill this knowledge gap, the researchers used an innovative in vivo experimental evolution approach, which revealed an average transmission rate ...
Waves of charge signal rare physics at work inside a superconductor
2023-08-02
‘A place for everything and everything in its place’–making sense of order, or disorder, helps us understand nature. Animals tend to fit nicely into categories: Mammals, birds, reptiles, whatever an axolotl is, and more. Sorting also applies to materials: Insulator, semiconductor, conductor, and even superconductor. Where exactly a material lands in the hierarchy depends on a seemingly invisible interplay of electrons, atoms, and their surroundings.
Unlike animals, the boundaries are less sharp, and tweaking a material’s ...
New method simplifies the construction process for complex materials
2023-08-02
Engineers are constantly searching for materials with novel, desirable property combinations. For example, an ultra-strong, lightweight material could be used to make airplanes and cars more fuel-efficient, or a material that is porous and biomechanically friendly could be useful for bone implants.
Cellular metamaterials — artificial structures composed of units, or cells, that repeat in various patterns — can help achieve these goals. But it is difficult to know which cellular structure will lead to the desired properties. Even if one focuses on structures made of smaller building blocks like interconnected beams or ...
Dimensions to boost discoverability of Oxford University Press online journals and books
2023-08-02
The world’s largest linked research database, Dimensions, will grow its knowledge base even further, thanks to a new partnership with the world’s largest university press, Oxford University Press (OUP).
Under the agreement, more than 27,000 books and 500 journal titles from OUP’s Oxford Academic digital publishing platform will be fully indexed and discoverable in Dimensions, adding another rich resource of academic material to the world’s largest research database, in fields such as the arts, humanities, economics, science, technology, history, and politics.
The move will enable users of Dimensions – a flagship Digital Science product – ...
A visual feast
2023-08-02
3D light sculptures. Tsunami waves on a beach. Previewing color tattoos. Contributions from the Bickel and Wojtan groups at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) to the 2023 SIGGRAPH conference tackle an impressive variety of classic and novel questions. While their focuses range from computer graphics to fabrication methods, the computer scientists are united in finding cost-effective, innovative solutions and empowering users.
SIGGRAPH is the top worldwide annual convention for computer graphics and interactive techniques, bringing ...
Important step toward next-generation probiotics
2023-08-02
One of the beneficial gut bacteria residing in the human gut, which normally cannot survive in an environment with oxygen, can now be made oxygen-tolerant. This is a key finding in the development of future probiotic treatment that is now being explored to improve glucose control in individuals with prediabetes.
Our intestines are home to trillions of bacteria, the gut microbiota, which are important for functions such as digesting food and educating and activating the immune system. During the past decade it has been clarified that changes in the bacterial composition can be linked to various diseases.
Significant expectations have been attributed to the next generation ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue
UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’
New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening
Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas
Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition
CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves
Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam
Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand
Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch
New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed
New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations
Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency
How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads
Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids
Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation
Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria
Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options
Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity
Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers
Antibiotic resistance among key bacterial species plateaus over time
‘Some insects are declining but what’s happening to the other 99%?’
Powerful new software platform could reshape biomedical research by making data analysis more accessible
Revealing capillaries and cells in living organs with ultrasound
American College of Physicians awards $260,000 in grants to address equity challenges in obesity care
Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential
Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, honored with the 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research
Solar cells made of moon dust could power future space exploration
Deporting immigrants may further shrink the health care workforce
Border region emergency medical services in migrant emergency care
Resident physician intentions regarding unionization
[Press-News.org] Eyewitnesses to Arctic ChangeAWI Director Antje Boetius leads Polarstern expedition to the Central Arctic