Hello from Bornholm Basin in the central Baltic Sea! With a team of 12 scientists and 11 permanent crew, we are currently operating in Baltic waters (see Figure 1) with research vessel Alkor to improve understanding of this beautiful but also heavily impacted and rapidly changing system. For this purpose, we measure physical parameters (temperature, […]
Stowaways!
Flap! Flap! Coo…. These pigeon noises, perfectly normal in any congested city, are entirely unexpected here. We are sailing through the eastern tropical North Atlantic on the German icebreaker POLARSTERN that is our home for two weeks. Water to the horizon in all directions and then… a pigeon! A quick look to portside solves the […]
The long-awaited encounter
Things got serious for us on the morning of 1 April. It was slowly getting light on the Cabo Verdean island of Sao Vicente, the local trade wind from the north-east was pushing waves into the bay of Mindelo as a research vessel turned around the corner after many months of its expedition in the […]
From Darkness to Light and Back Again: Wrapping Up GAME in Åland 2024
Editor’s note: This is an addendum to the GAME Project 2024. Unfortunately, Team Finland’s blog was not edited in time last autumn, which is why we are delivering it now. Enjoy! Hei from Åland! We are Kristin (Åbo Akademi University) and Stephany (Kiel University), Team Finland at the northernmost study site of GAME 2024. We […]
FYORD Travel Grant Reports: April 2025
The 17th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Hong Kong I am Véronique Merten, a postdoc in the Deep-Sea Biology Group at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. In my research, I focus on deep-sea organisms, with a particular interest in squids (cephalopods) and whales (cetaceans). By combining environmental DNA analysis with techniques like biologging, net […]
Navigating the Uncharted Waters of Marine CDR (Part 2): The Socio-Oceanography Workshop
As I mentioned in my previous post, every scientist has a different opinion on what success looks like for marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). Some believe that the risks are worth the benefit because the risks of unmitigated climate change are far higher than the risks associated with mCDR. At the other end of the […]
FYORD Travel Grant Reports: Conferences in Asia
17th DSBS HKUST, Hong Kong I am Julian Stauffer, a third-year PhD student in the Deep-Sea Biology working group at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany. I work on benthic habitat mapping with hydroacoustic and imaging methods. My main study regions are oceanic island groups in the North-East Atlantic. I am mainly […]
Navigating the Uncharted Waters of Marine CDR (Part 1): Urgent Problems, Uncertain Solutions
I never thought I would find myself constantly making the point that the topic of my research is the ‘second most important thing’. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is now necessary on top of strong emissions reductions in order to reach net zero emissions and keep warming at 1.5℃ above preindustrial levels – and it is […]
FYORD Travel Grant Reports: Master’s students travelling to international conferences
The American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (AGU24) I am Carlos Arenas, a doctoral researcher from the Marine Geodynamics department at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. I investigate the thermal structure of the Pegasus Basin, located at the southern end of the Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand. By analyzing seismic records and modelling subsurface […]
Not A Doctor: Lessons I’ve learned from quitting my PhD
I never considered myself a quitter. Usually, I finish what I have started: a 30 minutes high intensity workout after the Christmas holidays for example or the extended version of the third Lord of the Rings movie, also a bachelor program in environmental science and a master in marine science in Kiel. It’s not like […]