From tooth fish to food webs, from molecular genetic tools to underwater acoustics: dive into our current research
Topics
Explore the Cellular Origins of Photosymbiosis
We are excited to announce several new job opportunities in the Photosymbiosis Research Group at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB).
Did you know?
Unicellular plankton covers a size range that is comparable to the size difference between a small fish and a city like Oldenburg.
Shade Sails for Coral Reef Recovery
Tropical coral reefs are changing. Some researchers suggest that modern tropical reefs could take the shape of habitat mosaics. Each patch of the mosaic are small patch-habitats of different regime types (e.g. coral-, sponge-, or algae-dominated) that coexist next to each other.
The Wadden Sea and Its Stakeholders
The Wadden Sea creates the largest unbroken tidal flat system in the world. This allows marine organisms of all shapes and sizes to flourish and draws in other migratory species like birds and seals from great distances. However, climate change and other anthropogenic forces have disrupted the balance of the Wadden Sea.
Grant for New Project on Ocean Infrastructure
Oceans are vital for the transport of goods and data – but they are not in good shape. How can we reconcile the benefits for people and the protection of the oceans? How can the sea be sustainably used and protected?
A Shot to Beat the Heat?
Could a probiotic ‘vaccination’ protect tropical corals from environmental stress? Researchers have been observing large-scale coral bleaching since the 1980s, caused in particular by climate change and the resulting continuous rise in water temperatures in our oceans.
Southern Summer in a Retort
First successful sexual reproduction of South Sea corals in Germany – At the lab aquarium facility of the ICBM research group Environmental Biochemistry, headed by Prof. Dr. Peter Schupp, Dr. Samuel Nietzer and Matthew Jackson recently were the first in raising sexually reproduced offspring of stony corals in Germany. This marks a crucial step in their efforts for research on the conservation of reef corals.
Importance of Shape and Form
It depends to a major degree on size and shape whether an organism manages to prevail in a given environment. A novel study took advantage from the exceptional diversity of shapes in phytoplankton to elucidate the relationship between evolutionary conditions, morphology, and taxonomic diversity.