From tooth fish to food webs, from molecular genetic tools to underwater acoustics: dive into our current research
Topics
Hiking the Ancient Ocean Crust – Reflections on a Geological Excursion to the Tauern Window
The international seabed is the ‘common heritage of mankind’ (or humankind). In principle then, it your heritage, and mine. It is a place, as global citizens, we have rights to. But is it somewhere we can actually access? How can we enact our rights to the seabed?
Did you know?
Reef-building corals enhance the light available for their algal symbionts by 3 to 8 times relative to ambient light conditions.
Mud and the Matter of Seabed Access – Reflections on Sampling in Shallow Seas
For many of us, unless it is part of our everyday work, the seabed is probably a space we think little about. But the seabed, as the recent decision by Norway to undertake mining within its national waters revealed, is a space where accessibility and usage rights are contentious and political. This becomes even more profound when we start to ask about the seabed beyond national jurisdiction where there is a lack of clear ‘ownership’. To whom does the seabed belong?
Reviving PALAOA or the Acoustic Homecoming
Slowly the impressive lance sinks into the ice. It reminds of a Jules Verne-like scientific instrument in the way its copper plates are bolted so craftfully. It is attached to an enormous installation with howling diesel-powered engines that breathes a slow primitive power. Maybe exactly the type of primitive power and patience that is needed to melt through 100m thick shelf ice. We are in the Antarctic standing on the Eckstroem Iceshelf and we are melting holes to finally revive our passive acoustic observatory after a 2-year data gap due to an ice shelf break off in February 2022.
A Kind of Magic – the Diversity of the North Sea Fauna Revealed by Genetic Traces in Seawater
Do we have sufficient reference data and the appropriate methods and techniques to identify the biodiversity of marine fauna in the dynamic waters of the North Sea using genetic traces from seawater? The aim of a study by the HIFMB Focus Group Marine Molecular Ecology was to evaluate these uncertainties and to bring the method of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding into application for monitoring and questions on marine conservation in the North Sea.
Insights into Marine Biodiversity Research – Lectures for Pupils
Two detailed presentations (held in German), developed by two young scientists, enable teachers to find an exciting introduction to the topic of marine biodiversity with their pupils. Specifically, they deal with whale research, the food web in the Antarctic and the special ability of whales to hear and utilise sound waves.
The Ocean – an Empty Space?
The ocean is most often seen as an empty space, for example in maps, where it is most often depicted as a blue shaded area next to colorful lands, mountains and valleys, forests and deserts, towns and roads. This is due to the traditional approach to creating maps and thinking about landscape (the clue is already in the term), people going as far as they can and writing about the things they find. The ocean in contrast is an inhospitable place to wander for humans, only with the aid of devices such as boats it becomes possible to leave the shore, creating the image of a vast desert in our minds.
Mirrors – Following the Acoustic Journey of the Minke Whale
Mirrors is a sound installation that follows the acoustic journey of the Minke Whale as it travels from Antarctica to Namibia. A collaboration between artist-researcher Geraint Rhys and Marine Acoustic scientist Dr Ilse van Opzeeland it charts how the vocalizations of the Minke changes with a change in location as it migrates across the oceans.