Prof. Dr. Anja Engel
Speaker Topic 6
aengel(at)geomar.de
Dr. Frauke Pescheck
Coordinator Topic 6
fpescheck(at)geomar.de
Dr. Beate Slaby
Coordinator Topic 6
bslaby(at)geomar.de
Topic 6: Marine and polar Life
Sustaining Biodiversity, Biotic Interactions and Biogeochemical Functions
How will the oceans and polar regions respond to climate change, how can they adapt, and what are the options for protecting, restoring and sustainably using them? Warming, acidification, oxygen depletion and pollution: all these processes are changing the oceans, the largest habitat on our planet. This is compounded by over-exploitation by fisheries and plans to exploit resources from the seafloor down to the deep sea in the future. These changes affect marine life and the biogeochemical cycles in the ocean: organisms migrate to new habitats, some adapt, others are displaced, species composition changes and biodiversity decreases, with as yet largely unexplored consequences for the complex marine ecosystem and its natural functions.
The Indonesian Komodo National Park still hosts marine communities of high diversity. Photo: Anna Roik / GEOMAR
Seagrass meadows make an important contribution to CO2 fixation. Photo: Tadhg O Corcora / GEOMAR
Intensive fishing affects species composition in the ocean. Photo: Maike Nicolai / GEOMAR
The KOSMOS (Kiel Offshore Mesocosms for Future Ocean Simulations) mesocosms provide a glimpse into the ocean of the future: future conditions can be simulated in the enclosed worlds and the reactions of marine communities can be studied as in giant test tubes. Photo: Ulf Riebesell / GEOMAR
Plastic waste is dangerous for some species in the ocean. However, the effects on the overall ocean system have hardly been researched yet. Photo: Mark Lenz/GEOMAR
Global change and other human impacts are putting pressure on ocean biodiversity, which is trying to adapt to changing environmental conditions in response. How will the increased uptake of carbon dioxide affect marine ecosystems? Topic 6, with its four subtopics, addresses these issues and their interactions. Graphic: Christoph Kersten / GEOMAR
Many interactions and processes in the complex ecosystem under water or under sea ice are still not understood. Many regions are still completely unexplored. In addition, organisms have to adapt to changing environmental conditions through evolution or open up new habitats through migration. There are winners and losers here - and the changes are also taking place very rapidly compared with other episodes in the (climate) history of our planet.
Within the framework of the program "Changing Earth - Sustaining our Future" in the fourth phase of the program-oriented funding of the Helmholtz Association, the GEOMAR-led Topic 6 "Marine and Polar Life: Sustaining Biodiversity, Biotic Interactions and Biogeochemical Functions", these complex interactions in the marine ecosystem are being studied in detail. This is achieved through field research, laboratory experiments, mesocosm experiments and numerical modelling. In Topic 6 the Research Divisions "Marine Biogeochemistry" (RD2) and "Marine Ecology" (RD3) work at GEOMAR. Main partner in Topic 6 is the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).
Topic 6 provides the scientific foundation for a sustainable management of the ocean by determining the functions and dynamics of marine ecosystems and assessing options to remedy and mitigate human impacts. Topic 6 is divided into four Subtopics:
- "Future ecosystem functionality" studies the relationship between the diversity, structure and functioning of the marine biosphere in the context of climate change, with the aim of developing sustainable conservation and management strategies
- "Adaptation of marine life: from genes to ecosystems" investigates the dynamic responses of marine organisms and ecosystems to human impacts the effects of climate change.
- "Future biological carbon pump" analyses how uptake, turnover and sequestration of CO2 by the marine biosphere and the biogeochemical cycles in the ocean are affected by current and future climate change.
- "Use and misuse of the ocean: Consequences for marine ecosystems" explores how plastic debris, anthropogenic noise and harmful substances released during deep-sea mining and ordnance disposal spread in the ocean and affect the habitat of marine organisms.
More about the Program "Changing Earth - Sustaining our Future"
