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Press Release of the Month

New study confirms that even the simplest marine organisms tend to be individualistic

No two worms are alike: Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. A team led by AWI experts Sören Häfker and Kristin Tessmar-Raible report on a surprising discovery: even simple marine polychaete worms shape their day-to-day lives on the basis of highly individual rhythms.

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Delegation visits AWIPEV

Brilliant sunshine, mild temperatures around minus 10 degrees Celsius, and virtually no wind: the weather couldn’t have been better for the visit of German Federal Minister of Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger and her French counterpart Sylvie Retailleau. In mid-April, they, together with the Norwegian Secretary of State Sindre Lyso from the Ministry of Education, the President of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Antoine Petit, and other research-focused politicians, visited the Franco-German research base AWIPEV in Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen and got to know the research on site.

During their visit, they had the chance to see for themselves the research conducted there, and to join in, e.g. by helping launch a weather balloon from the observatory. For more than 3 decades, a weather balloon has been launched at the same time every day, carrying with it a radiosonde that measures the temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed throughout its flight. The data is transmitted back to the ground station, which passes it on to an international monitoring network. Combined with other data gathered from around the globe, this provides the basis for weather forecasts. Further, since the data has been collected for so many years, it can also be used to identify climate trends.

The fact that these trends are thoroughly troubling is something the delegation had the chance to see first-hand. Over the past few decades, the glaciers of Kongsfjorden have steadily lost mass. The Arctic - and Svalbard in particular - is warming much more than the rest of our planet. Models currently predict that temperatures there could climb by as much as 20 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

The work done at the German and French research station chiefly involves basic research in the climate, biodiversity and environmental sciences. In addition to physical, biological and chemical research, this includes astronomy and Earth system observations. During the trip, AWI Director Antje Boetius had the chance to speak with both politicians and the station’s researchers about the challenges of today’s polar research. “We’re standing in a region that, over the last 40 years, has warmed six times faster than the global average,” she said. “The unique biodiversity to be found here is also being investigated with regard to increasing pollution from plastic and non-degradable chemicals. On site, I am always impressed by the productive international cooperation, the willingness to expose oneself to extreme conditions in order to contribute to important environmental research. And also the hope of many here that their findings will be heard.”

3 Questions for:

AWI expert Melanie Bergmann

Plastic is all around us – in packaging, high-tech products, cars and clothing. But more and more often, we’re finding plastic in places where it doesn’t belong. To combat this crisis, the member countries of the United Nations recently gathered in Ottawa, Canada, to deliberate on a comprehensive global plastic treaty. AWI biologist Melanie Bergmann attended the event.

2. What do you expect to come out of the next round of negotiations, which will be in Busan (South Korea) this November?

Perhaps the next meeting in Busan will be extended by the Chair not officially ending it. I hope that at some point there will also be majority decisions so that the more ambitious states can better agree on compromises and the measures are not watered down too much. However, some oil and gas-producing countries (including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, India and China) are calling for consensus decisions. This is tantamount to a veto right and makes decisions even more difficult. There are some multilateral environmental agreements where a vote is held if no agreement can be reached after lengthy negotiations.

3. Why is an international plastic treaty so important for us all?

We are already exceeding the planetary boundaries when it comes to the pollution of our planet with chemicals, including plastic. We find plastic even in the remotest corners of our planet: in the water, in the air and in the soil. Nevertheless, plastic production is set to continue growing: 1000 new factories are to be built in the next five years. This means that more and more plastic waste is being produced. Even in industrialized countries, waste management can no longer keep pace. We export or incinerate, which shifts the problems to other countries or increases our CO2 emissions or the production of toxic substances. To stop this vicious circle, we urgently need a binding international agreement on plastics.

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