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The latest news and articles from marine research on the largest habitat on earth and its far-reaching significance for humanity.

Focus

Satellite image of the Arctic taken on 22 March 2025 — Picture: NASA

> Ocean Governance

Planetary boundaries

Anyone interested in marine and environmental issues will inevitably come across the buzzword “planetary boundaries”. But what does it actually mean?

Meere Online

Focus

A cod swims across the Baltic Sea floor — Picture: Dirk Schories

> Nutrients

Oxygen depletion in the Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is running out of oxygen. This is primarily due to fertilisers entering the Baltic Sea via rivers. There, these additional nutrients trigger a fatal chain reaction.

Meere Online

Focus

American razor clam shells lie on the beach on the west coast of Sylt. — Picture: DAM

> Ecosystem Change

Non-native species

Introduced and immigrant animals, plants and microorganisms have been changing life in the ocean for centuries. Such resettlement can increase or decrease local biodiversity. There are examples of both developments.

Meere Online

Focus

A manta ray swims in the sea, surrounded by plastic waste such as bags and bottles. — Picture: Vincent Kneefel, Ocean Image Bank

> Plastic Litter

Plastic Litter in the Oceans

No matter where people look in the world’s oceans: Plastic is already there. Plastic waste in the marine environment is a global problem of immense scale that urgently needs to be solved. At UN level, there is movement towards a global plastics agreement.

Meere Online

Focus

A leafy sea dragon, which looks like a yellow seahorse with fanned wings, swims above green sea grass stalks in South Australia. — Picture: Jayne Jenkins, Ocean Image Bank

> Ocean Conservation

Protected areas for coasts and oceans

Marine protected areas are an important instrument for strengthening biodiversity, ecological functions and services - provided that protective measures are implemented effectively.

Meere Online

Focus

A shoal of herrings moves through the ocean. — Pichture: Dirk Schories

> Biodiversity

Genetic Diversity

A loss of genetic diversity weakens the resilience and adaptability of organisms. If they are properly planned and implemented, renaturation and other measures can help.

Meere Online

Focus

Mussels and green algae lie on a sandy seabed. — Picture: Dirk Schories

> North Sea and Baltic Sea

Environmental status North Sea and Baltic Sea

Every six years, experts assess the environmental state of Germany’s marine areas. The comprehensive 2024 report reveals that the German North Sea and Baltic Sea are in poor condition.

Meere Online

Focus

> Mineral Resources

Impacts of deep-sea mining

Mineral resources such as nickel, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc and rare earth metals are stored on the deep sea floor. However, the potential consequences of deep-sea mining for marine life are barely understood.

Meere Online

Focus

Several wind turbines at the ocean, the wind farm Rampion — Picture: Nicholas Doherty, Unsplash

> Marine Energy

Offshore Windfarms

The expansion of offshore wind turbines is being driven forward in many countries. What impact does the large-scale expansion of wind power in the North Sea and Baltic Sea have on the marine environment?

Meere Online

Focus

> Ammunition

Munition in the Seas – Current Knowledge and Perspectives

Munitions in the seas and oceans threaten the marine environment and risk their sustainable use and management. For several years, research has been conducted to evaluate the scale of the impacts and to develop solutions for their future remediation.

DAM

Insight

[Translate to English:] Cumulonimbus Wolke über Meereshorizont vom Forschungsschiff Sonne aus fotografiert. — Picture: Ralf Prien, IOW

> The Ocean as a Climate Buffer

The Ocean as a Climate Buffer

The ocean stores large quantities of carbon dioxide and heat and thus, slowing down man-made climate change.

Meere Online

Insight

The research icebreaker Polarstern travels between ice floes of the Arctic sea ice on a smooth sea. — Picture: Sabine Arndt, Alfred-Wegener-Institute

> Marine and Climate Research

German marine research

Researchers from a wide range of disciplines work together to unravel the complexities of marine systems. They are focusing on the questions: How do the oceans fundamentally influence our climate? And how can we make use of the seas while protecting them

Meere Online

Insight

The illuminated Polarstern in the darkness of the Arctic ice during the MOSAiC expedition. — Picture: Esther Horvath, Alfred-Wegener-Institute

> Research Vessels

Research vessels

Research vessels are as diverse as marine science itself. Each has its own strengths and areas of operation. Scientifically, they are capable of everything: biology as much as geology, meteorology or geophysics. Yet there are not many such ships.

Meere Online

Multimedia

> For Pupils

Interactive world ocean

Touchscreen-based ocean map for schools, educational institutions and exhibitions - navigate simply and intuitively by touch and immerse yourself in the underwater world.

DAM

Press Releases from Marine Research by Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw)

idw (Informationsdienst Wissenschaft)

2025-12-16 03:42 PM

What calling and singing reveal about bowhead whales

Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung

Bowhead whales likely reproduce beneath the sea ice northwest of Spitsbergen, while using the open water in the eastern Fram Strait as a migration corridor. This conclusion comes from researchers in the Ocean Acoustics Group at the Alfred Wegener Institute, who recorded the calls of bowhead whales using underwater recorders and analysed the records with artificial intelligence. Their study on bowhead whale habitat use in relation to sea-ice cover has now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

2025-12-15 04:24 PM

How can the Environmental Health of the Baltic Sea be improved? Interreg Project develops Digital Management system

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

How can the Baltic Sea be effectively protected and its ecological status improved? This question lies at the heart of the new German-Danish Interreg project, RECOVER, which is developing a digital twin of the south-western Baltic Sea. Using microalgae as sensitive bioindicators, the projects’ aim is a system that will provide near-real time assessments of the environmental health of the Baltic Sea under increasing anthropogenic pressures and of effective restoration measures. Funded by the Interreg programme, the project runs until 2028 and involves businesses, policymakers, farmers, fishermen, local authorities and the public throughout German-Danish border region.

2025-12-15 02:42 PM

How do corals feed? Energy supply from directly ingested food previously underestimated

Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung (ZMT)

Corals obtain energy in two ways: firstly, through photosynthesis by their symbiotic algae, and secondly by taking up small food particles such as plankton directly from the water. In scientific terms, this process is known as “heterotrophy.” In a study published in Communications Biology, an international research team including Bremen-based scientist Marleen Stuhr (ZMT) reports that the contribution of heterotrophic food intake to energy production in corals has so far often been significantly underestimated. The underlying reason is rooted in the measurement methods themselves.

2025-12-15 01:22 PM

Unseen Allies: Symbiotic Bacteria help clean Wastewater, but there is a Catch

Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie

An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology has uncovered a hidden world of tiny partnerships thriving in wastewater treatment plants worldwide. The microscopic allies—specialized bacteria living inside single-celled hosts—play a surprising role in both cleaning water and potentially contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

2025-12-12 09:20 AM

Young Researchers Honoured: Petersen Foundation presents awards for outstanding doctoral theses and knowledge transfer

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

Kiel. At GEOMAR, the Prof. Dr Werner Petersen Foundation presented this year’s early-career awards. Three prizes for outstanding doctoral theses, two knowledge transfer awards and one exchange fellowship were granted, each endowed with €2,500. The foundation thus recognises both excellent scientific work and exceptional commitment to sharing knowledge with society.

2025-12-11 01:20 PM

Urea: The Hidden Fuel for Ocean Microbes

Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology find that urea is a major energy source for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the open ocean, while coastal AOA prefer ammonium. The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that organic nitrogen plays a far greater role in ocean productivity than previously recognized.

2025-12-10 11:53 AM

Tropical Cyclones and the Carbon Cycle: New Insights from A Model Simulation

Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie

For the first time, scientists have resolved extremely intense tropical cyclones and their effect on the ocean carbon cycle in a global Earth system model. Using two category-4 hurricanes in the North Atlantic as examples, the study reveals a cascade of physical-biogeochemical effects including uptake of carbon dioxide and regional-scale phytoplankton bloom.

2025-12-10 11:22 AM

Hereon Press Release: How are humans changing the Arctic Ocean?

Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon

As part of the EU project ECOTIP, an international team of researchers, including the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, has analyzed the sea off Greenland more comprehensively than ever before. The key question: How is the area developing in the face of climate change and environmental pollution? Most of the samples were examined in the Hereon laboratories. The results are alarming. For example, the sea still contains lead from additives in gasoline, even though these have been forbidden for around 30 years. The study, in which the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN) also participated, has now been published in the journal Biogeosciences.

2025-12-02 10:26 AM

Team investigates significance of newly discovered hydrothermal fields off the island of Milos

MARUM - Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften an der Universität Bremen

A new study published in Scientific Reports reports the discovery of a remarkably extensive hydrothermal vent field on the shelf of Milos Island, Greece. The vents were identified during the METEOR expedition M192, where the research team used a combination of different methods, including underwater technologies such as an autonomous and a remotely operated vehicles, to survey the seafloor. These approaches revealed previously undocumented venting between 100 and 230 meters depth. This makes Milos home to one of the largest known shallow-to-intermediate hydrothermal systems in the Mediterranean and substantially expands current knowledge of vent distribution in the region.

2025-12-01 11:00 AM

Expansion of Antarctic Bottom Water contributed to the End of the Last Ice Age

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

01 December 2025 / Kiel. A study by an international team involving the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel shows that the expansion of Antarctic Bottom Water during a major warming phase around 12,000 years ago displaced a carbon-rich mass of deep-water in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. This process released carbon dioxide that had been stored in the deep ocean, thereby contributing to the end of the last Ice Age. The study provides important insights into how the ocean may respond as Antarctica continues to warm today. The findings are published today in Nature Geoscience.

2025-11-27 12:20 PM

A taste of the sea: a comparison of five edible seaweeds

Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung (ZMT)

Researchers at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the University of Bremen have studied the nutritional value of five edible seaweed species, including some lesser-known algae, and examined their potential for sustainable nutrition. The study, published in the journal Discover Food, shows that the analysed species are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and have strong antioxidant properties as well as high protein and mineral contents.

2025-11-21 04:48 PM

Exploring the Links Between Climate and Volcanism: SONNE Expedition Along the Central American Volcanic Arc Sets Sail

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

21 November 2025 / Kiel / Balboa. Today, the German research vessel SONNE departs from Balboa (Panama) on a five-week expedition along the Central American Volcanic Arc. Under the leadership of PD Dr Steffen Kutterolf from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, researchers will investigate how climate change and volcanic activity are interconnected, and how chemical changes in volcanic products in sediments affect the global carbon cycle and the biosphere. The cruise also serves as a pre-site survey for a planned drilling proposal within the framework of the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP3).

2025-11-21 11:32 AM

Sea level rise threatens the North Sea coast more than expected

Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon

New Hereon study shows: Too little sand deposition in the German Wadden Sea

The Wadden Sea in the North Sea consists of shallow coastal bays, known as tidal basins. These basins have an important function: they protect the coasts from flooding, for example from storm surges and rising sea levels. A new study by the Helmholtz -Zentrum Hereon shows that most tidal basins in the German Bight no longer have sufficient sediment to compensate for sea level rise. The results were published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. They are based on an analysis of data from 25 years.

2025-11-20 12:34 PM

Southern Ocean’s Heat Storage – a Possible Cause of Future ‘Heat Burps’

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

So far, the ocean has helped to buffer global warming by absorbing more than 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped in the Earth system by the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. A new modelling study by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has now examined how the ocean might respond if atmospheric carbon dioxide was drastically reduced in the future. The results show that, after centuries of cooling, the Southern Ocean could trigger renewed warming by releasing the stored heat back into the atmosphere. Whether this would occur as a single major “heat burp”, in many smaller pulses, or continuously over centuries remains unclear. The study has now been published in AGU Advances.

2025-11-17 05:54 PM

European Marine Board working group recommends harmonised standards for marine CDR approaches

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

17 November 2025 / Brussels/Kiel. Today, an international group of leading marine scientists, including Prof. Dr Andreas Oschlies from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, launched a new European Marine Board (EMB) Future Science Brief on marine Carbon Dioxide Removal. The authors emphasise that reducing greenhouse gas emissions must remain the absolute priority – CDR approaches can only complement these efforts, not replace them.

2025-11-12 04:34 PM

A significant amount of dissolved organic carbon in the Arctic Ocean comes from land

Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung

New study shows that 16 percent of the Arctic Ocean’s organic carbon comes from terrestrial sources, such as thawing permafrost and eroding coastlines – and presents a new approach to assess its capacity as a carbon sink

2025-11-11 12:24 PM

Going digital with U16

Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum - Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte

A fragile, oversized tube was hoisted out of the North Sea off Cuxhaven in the summer. The find turned out to be the U16 submarine from the imperial era. The German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History in Bremerhaven was immediately interested and is now bringing a piece of the submarine to Bremerhaven – thanks to the museum's digitization department.

2025-11-11 10:35 AM

How to Make Model Experiments on the Atlantic Overturning Circulation More Realistic

Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie

Melting ice in the Arctic is causing an increasing amount of freshwater to enter the North Atlantic, which is expected to result in a weakening of the Atlantic overturning circulation. However, many modeling studies make unrealistic assumptions about how this water enters the ocean. A new study shows that the timing, location, and source of freshwater input can have a considerable impact on its eventual fate and should therefore be taken into account in future model experiments.

2025-11-10 04:19 PM

The Ocean’s Role at the UN Climate Conference - GEOMAR contributes to the Ocean Pavilion and signs Ocean Declaration

GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

Between today and 21 November 2025, representatives from the international community will meet in Belém, northern Brazil, for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) – at the place where the Amazon rainforest meets the ocean. Alongside international partner institutions, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel will be present at the Ocean Pavilion once again. Prior to the conference, GEOMAR signed the Belém Ocean Declaration, which urges all nations to recognise the ocean's central role in climate policy and ensure its protection.

2025-11-06 01:42 PM

More eelgrass in the Baltic Sea thanks to AI – Kick-off meeting for SEAGUARD research project at the IOW

Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde

How can eelgrass beds in the Baltic Sea be efficiently restored with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) in the most climate-resilient way possible? This is the core question of the new SEAGUARD research project, which is coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW). The project combines marine research, data science and environmental management and is funded with about 1.8 million euros until November 2027 as part of the German federal environment ministry's AI flagship initiative. Now, for the first time, researchers from all participating partner institutions are coming together for two days at the IOW to develop strategies for the joint work ahead.

2025-11-04 09:36 AM

The greenhouse gas trapped in the Black Sea

Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie

Microorganisms in the Black Sea can produce large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, this gas never reaches the atmosphere because it is swiftly consumed by other microorganisms, which convert it to harmless dinitrogen gas (N2). Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have now investigated this process and identified the key players involved.

2025-10-30 12:20 PM

Fats provide clues to life at its limits in the deep sea

MARUM - Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften an der Universität Bremen

Researchers use lipid biomarkers to reveal survival strategies in extreme ecosystems

2025-10-20 12:15 PM

Researcher at the German Maritime Museum elected to the Hamburg Academy of Sciences

Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum - Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte

On October 16, Dr. Katrin Kleemann from the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven (DSM) was named a Young Academy Fellow by the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg. The environmental historian successfully applied for the prestigious funding program and will now be part of the interdisciplinary network for three years. During this time, she will receive conceptual, professional, and financial support from the Academy.

2025-10-20 12:08 PM

Iron’s Irony

MARUM - Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften an der Universität Bremen

Hydrothermal plumes as invisible transport pathways for iron

A new review led by the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen – highlights how hydrothermal vents on the seafloor shape iron availability and influence the global oceanic element cycles. The review study, titled “Iron’s Irony,” has been published in Communications Earth & Environment.

2025-10-20 11:18 AM