After a one year, Corona-induced break, our integrative time series to assess long-term changes in Baltic Sea pelagic ecosystems finally continues, now running in its 35th year. It feels great to be back at sea after a two-year break and long preparations, overshadowed by the question whether we could really embark this time. In March […]
Living and working on board the RV Alkor provides many opportunities to collect valuable data that helps us to understand what is happening in the Baltic Sea. Working as efficiently as possible during the limited time we have at sea means that we also have to work at night time – when all others are […]
After the fair amount of work on the board and sampling the exciting marine organisms, Alkor brought us safely to Kalmar in Sweden, where two of our scientific crew left and two new participants joined us. For me, as a first-time-on-board-attendee, the arrival at the harbor was a great experience. All our scientific crew went […]
One important goal of our long-term data series and of the present cruise is to increase the understanding of the feeding ecology, reproduction and population structure of key Baltic fish species. Why is Baltic cod getting thinner? How are herring and sprat competing for zooplankton? How are the two genotypes of cod in the Baltic, […]
Time flies out at sea. Benefiting from perfect, calm and sunny weather, we have now already completed hydrographic measurements and fish and plankton sampling in Kiel Bight, Mecklenburg Bight, Arkona Basin, Gdansk Deep and Gotland Basin. For a first summary of work completed till now, check out our first weekly report, now online (in German), […]
Ina and Silvia from Syddansk Universitet in Odense, Denmark joined the cruise for the EU 2020 Horizon project GoJelly. One key goal of GoJelly is to improve the understanding of the role of jellyfish in marine ecosystems. Today it’s Ina and Silvia’s turn to tell us a bit about their research routine and experiences on […]
It’s spring time, and like every year for us this means that it is time to head out to sea with research vessel ALKOR to extend the Baltic Sea integrative long-term data series, running now in its 33rd year. The mission: to enhance the understanding of the complex and profound changes that Baltic Sea ecosystems […]
Ganz nach dem Motto “work hard play hard” genießen wir auch unsere Freizeit an Bord und gestalten diese kunterbunt. Angefangen mit Fischtennis, über Filmabende mit trashigen Ninja Filmen, bis zum Kuscheln auf dem Peildeck mit Vorlesestunde op Plattdütsch. Das Leben auf See ist sehr wetterabhängig und die Nähe zum Meer lässt uns oftmals Augenblicke intensiver […]
Die Ostsee ist durch einen von Ost nach West abnehmenden Salzgradienten charakterisiert, welcher durch Einstrom von salzhaltigem Meerwasser aus der Nordsee und Frischwasser aus den Flüssen der Anrainer aufrechterhalten wird. Aus marinen Lebensräumen ist bekannt, dass der Salzgehalt des Wassers eine Rolle bei der Verbreitung von Organismengemeinschaften spielen kann. Da besondere Anpassungen in der Osmoregulation […]
While we are waiting on deck for the fishing net to be pulled out, bets open: 10 cod, 30 cod, 5 boxes of sprat… The winner gets the privilege to pick a task they would like to do from the workflow (very efficient reward for a motivated scientific crew). Although our net has a probe […]