Marine and Climate Research
Marine and Climate Research concerns the media of water (in the form of the oceans) and air (the atmosphere) and their interactions. Observing these interactions and comparing to historical aspects is a way of reconstructing climate history. The ultimate goal is to achieve a better understanding of current climatic events and prognoses that predict any natural processes, such as volcanic activity and their interaction with human influences. For example, the entry of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere may affect the future climate. Marine research also covers a broad spectrum of scientific orientations which include the deposits and extraction of marine resources (ocean organisms, oil deposits at sea, metallic raw materials etc.). This area includes the broad field of marine microbiology.
Thus far, the work of the HWK in collaboration with its scientific partners in the region has concentrated primarily on the following topics:
- genetics and molecular biology of marine organisms
- marine microbiology
- the ocean as a source of raw materials
- the global marine and atmospheric carbon cycles
- climate history and the analysis of drilling cores from the sea ice and the ocean floor as well as from other indicators (proxies)
- mathematic modelling of climate processes
- integrated coastal zone management as a bridge to social sciences
The HWK sponsors guest residencies (“fellowships”) from three to ten months as well as workshops and conferences. In addition to the relevant university institutes the regional collaboration partners include the following distinguished institutions:
- the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (Institut für Chemie und Biologie des Meeres or ICBM, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg)
- the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, Bremerhaven)
- the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (Bremen)
- the DFG Research Center Ocean Margins (University of Bremen)
For more information, please contact the e-mail address: dmeyerdierks[ at ]h-w-k.de