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Javier Olivares

@javierolivares.bsky.social

59 followers 60 following 80 posts

Software Engineering I Senior IT Consultant I Nature Photography & Landscape Photographer I North by Northwest.

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Nov 20

@ESA_EO : As reported in the 2022 @ec.europa.eu
State of the Climate by @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social between 1993 and 2022, Earth experienced an average sea level increase of around:
+3.3±0.3 mm (globally)
+2–4 mm (in Europe)
This animation shows the mean sea-level trend for the same period.

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · 1d

The CLMS Global Land Cover
This data visualisation is based on the Global Land Cover product from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), released in June 2025 as part of the new Land Cover and Forest Monitoring (LCFM) suite. @copernicusland.bsky.social @ec.europa.eu

This data visualisation is based on the Global Land Cover product from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), released in June 2025 as part of the new Land Cover and Forest Monitoring (LCFM) suite.

Based on Copernicus Sentinel-2 data, the Global Land Cover product provides a detailed view of the Earth’s surface for the year 2020, with a spatial resolution of 10 metres. Each colour on the map represents a different land cover type, from dense forests and croplands to wetlands, grasslands, and built-up areas.

The LCFM suite is designed to deliver annual updates from 2020 to 2026, serving as a reference point for assessing land cover changes over time. Its accuracy and level of detail make it a key tool for monitoring land conversion, assessing biodiversity, and supporting EU and UN environmental policies. More information is available here. Credit: European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · 3d

One million people in Spain mobilised this weekend in favour of #Palestine and against the genocide of the Government of Israel

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · 14d

Dettifoss, Jökulsárgljúfur
National Park, Austurland
#landscapephotography #icelandicwaterfalls
#travelphotography
@visiticeland.bsky.social

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · 24d

Spitsbergen,
Svalbard, Nord Norge
@spitsbergen.bsky.social
#landscapephotography

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Sep 9

CONTRASTS expedition with the research icebreaker Polarstern, explored different types of sea ice in parallel
The international and interdisciplinary research team, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, focused on the summer melting of Arctic sea ice in three different regimes.
@awi.de @helmholtz.de

Credits: Evgenii Salganik
ROV Deployment:Der Unterwasserroboter (ROV) misst unter anderem, wie viel Licht durchd as Meereis dringt. Außerde
The Polarstern recently ended a two-month expedition in the Central Arctic in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The international and interdisciplinary research team, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, focused on the summer melting of Arctic sea ice in three different regimes. The comprehensive inventory revealed major differences between the various sea ice regimes and a low sea ice concentration in the study area. In addition, bacteria and zooplankton dominated the biological communities, while the expected ice algae could hardly be found.

Credits: Evgenii Salganik CONTRASTS XCTD
The CONTRASTS expedition was the first to focus on the parallel comparison of different Arctic sea ice regimes during the main melt season. The research team on board, led by Dr Marcel Nicolaus, sea ice physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), successfully detected three different sea ice regimes and set up measuring stations to investigate them further. Marcel Nicolaus explains: "We were able to visit one ice floe in each of the three ice regimes four times over the past two months. Between our station work, autonomous measuring stations and cameras continuously collected data. The observations thus covered six weeks of the most intensive summer melting period."Surprisingly, hardly any ice algae were found in or under the ice floes during the entire expedition, even in Regime 3, where little ice melt had taken place. A similar absence was observed two years earlier during the expedition ArcWatch 1, while previous expeditions consistently reported a dominance of ice algae. Whether this reflects a drastic decline of ice algae or their early melting before the CONTRASTS expedition is still unclear. However, analysis of the collected sediment samples from 4000 m depth could provide answers. With the help of microscopy and the new planktoscope system, Alexandra Kraberg (AWI) was only able to detect a few isolated ice algae cells among millions of phytoplankton. Instead, the observed high biomass was dominated by the microbial recycling of organic matter and abundant zooplankton, which transported carbon into the deep sea via fecal balls. During the study, the ecosystem dynamics depended little on light but were strongly characterized by microbial processes and trophic associations that allowed copepods and other zooplankton to feed on bacteria.

Credits: Marcel Nicolaus
Ongoing analyses are now investigating how the ice regime, atmosphere and marine conditions interact and influence ecology and the carbon cycle.
"This year, the ice concentration in the study region was unusually low in July and August, presumably due to the prevailing winds in spring, which dispersed the ice," reports Dr Marcel Nicolaus from the Arctic. "As a result, the Polarstern was often able to travel through the ice at up to 5 knots - significantly faster than the expected 2.5-3 knots. Despite its advanced age, the measured ice was relatively thin, averaging 1.5 meters, and only showed a few ridges." The sea ice extent, which will reach its annual minimum in the Arctic in September, is currently around the same level as last year and is therefore expected to be above the all-time minimum in 2012. By definition, an area is considered to be covered by sea ice if it has an ice concentration of at least 15 per cent. When calculating the extent of sea ice, it is irrelevant whether 100 % is ice-covered or up to 85 % of the water is open.

Credits: Evgenii Salganik
Parallel sea ice measurements, coordinated with the Polarstern expedition, were carried out as part of the IceBird campaign with the AWI research aircraft Polar 6, lead by Gerit Birnbaum (AWI). In addition to the ice thickness and distribution of melt ponds, their depth was also recorded from the air for the first time using a special laser. The distribution and depth of melt ponds have a decisive influence on the energy balance of the Arctic ice: the dark areas of water on light-colored ice reduce the albedo, i.e., the reflection of solar energy. This is why the development of melt ponds was also the focus of the work on the ice floes, with surprising results: even minimal temperature decreases of less than 0.5 °C could trigger short-term freezing processes on the surface. Dr Marcel Nicolaus describes what the research team was able to observe in July and August: “Initially, the surface melting was dominated by warm air temperatures. Then the ice increasingly melted on the underside due to oceanic heat. Rain additionally accelerated the melting and changed the surface properties, such as albedo, roughness, thermal conductivity, water content and, above all, the way the ice appears in satellite images, in a very short time. It was particularly impressive to see how melt ponds disappeared within a short period of time because they suddenly drained. This led to an increase in albedo, just like snowfall.”
On board, a total of 57 scientific participants from 13 different countries worked together along with 43 crew members. They will now continue to analyze the recorded data and collected samples at their home institutes. The Polarstern is now undertaking another Arctic expedition to the sea area north-east of Greenland under the leadership of physical oceanographer Prof. Dr Torsten Kanzow from the AWI. The ship is expected to return to its home port of Bremerhaven at the end of October.

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Sep 7

New MetOp Second Generation weather
satellite returns first data.
@esaearth.esa.int @eumetsat.int @esa.int
www.esa.int/Applications...

Less than three weeks since the first MetOp Second Generation weather satellite, MetOp-SG-A1, was launched, this remarkable new satellite has already started transmitting data from two of its cutting-edge instruments, offering a tantalising glimpse of what’s to come.

Despite this new satellite only being in orbit for three weeks and the commissioning is at a very early stage, its Microwave Sounder (MWS) and Radio Occultation (RO) sounder are already returning early ‘first glimpse’ data, marking a significant milestone in a new era of European weather and climate monitoring.

This striking image is a striking 24-hour capture from 24 August from the MWS Channel 17. Besides Earth’s surface properties, this channel is also sensitive to convective clouds, shown as various filaments and banding structures over the oceans. For instance, the red swirl visible in the North Atlantic reflects the deep convective cloud system of ex-hurricane Erin.

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Sep 5

@ryanairofficial.bsky.social

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Aug 15

Lake on the 79°N Glacier is splitting the ice – leaving permanent changes.
A new AWI study shows that an approximately 21 square kilometre meltwater lake has caused gigantic cracks in the ice and that the water flowing off is lifting the glacier
@awi.de @helmholtz.de

Eisdicken-Messflug über dem 79-Grad-Nord-Gletscher, Grönland (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut)
Since the mid-1990s, the Greenland ice sheet has been losing mass, leaving only three floating tongues remaining. One of these, Nioghalvfjerdsbræ or the 79°N Glacier, is already showing the first signs of instability. In addition to the warm ocean water, which is increasingly thinning the ice from below, the runoff of meltwater on the surface is also playing an increasingly significant role. In a new study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute investigated how - caused by global warming - a 21 km2 large meltwater lake formed and developed on the surface of the 79°N Glacier. They observed that over the years, this lake has caused gigantic cracks and the outflowing water is lifting the glacier. Their findings have been published in the journal The Cryosphere.

$Moulins auf dem 79°N Gletscher (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) The lake first appeared in the observation data of the year 1995. "There were no lakes in this area of the 79°N Glacier before the rise in atmospheric temperatures in the mid-1990s," as Prof. Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) stated. "From the time of its formation in 1995 until 2023, the lake's water repeatedly and abruptly drained through channels and cracks in the ice, causing massive amounts of fresh water to reach the edge of the glacier tongue towards the ocean." There were a total of seven such drainage events, four of which took place in the last five years. Moulins auf dem 79°N Gletscher (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) "During these drainages, extensive triangular fracture fields with cracks in the ice formed from 2019 onwards, which are shaped differently from all lake drainages I have seen so far," Angelika Humbert marvels. Some of these cracks form channels with openings several dozen metres wide (moulins). Water flows through these moulins also after the main drainage of the lake, meaning that within hours, a huge amount of water reaches the base of the ice sheet. "For the first time, we have now measured the channels that form in the ice during drainage and how they change over the years."$ $Tiefer See auf Gletscher (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Ole Zeising) After the lake had formed in 1995, its size decreased over time with the first cracks appearing. In recent years, the drainage has occurred at increasingly shorter intervals. "We suspect that this is due to the triangular moulins that have been reactivated repeatedly over the years since 2019," says Angelika Humbert. The material behaviour of the glacier plays a role here: on the one hand, the ice behaves like an extremely thick (viscous) fluid that flows slowly over the substrate. At the same time, however, it is also elastic, allowing it to deform and return to its original shape, similar to a rubber band. The elastic nature of the ice is what allows cracks and channels to form in the first place. On the other hand, the creeping nature of the ice helps channels inside the glacier to close again over time after the drainage has taken place. "The size of the triangular moulin fractures on the surface remains unchanged for several years. Radar images show that although they change over time inside the glacier, they are still detectable years after their formation." This data also reveals that there is a network of cracks and channels, meaning that there is more than one way for the water to escape.$ $See auf dem 79°N Gletscher (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Angelika Humbert) Original publication: Humbert, A., Helm, V., Zeising, O., Neckel, N., Braun, M. H., Khan, S. A., Rückamp, M., Steeb, H., Sohn, J., Bohnen, M., and Müller, R.: Insights into supraglacial lake drainage dynamics: triangular fracture formation, reactivation and long-lasting englacial features, The Cryosphere, 19, 3009–3032, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3009-2025, 2025.$

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Aug 15

Arctic expedition with the research vessel Kronprins Haakon.
What are the global impacts of an ice-free Arctic?
How will the Arctic develop with increasing climate warming? What does an ice-free Arctic mean for our environment and our society.
follow the i2B arcg.is/0favaf0
@awi.de #Polarstern

i2B Arctic Ocean Expedition 2025

Collecting new geological archives that will reveal past Arctic climate secrets

arcg.is

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Aug 13

Mars Express views Acheron Fossae’s western fringes
This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows the western of Acheron Fossae on Mars a region packed with diverse features: deep cracks, valleys and meandering channels sculpted and filled by slow moving flows of ice and rock.
@science.esa.int @esa.int

In its latest postcard from Mars, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express returns to Acheron Fossae: a dramatic network of chasms carved into the surface of the Red Planet.
Context map of Acheron Fossae on Mars
In April, we highlighted the eastern end of the Acheron Fossae region of Mars – an amazingly diverse mix of rugged and smooth terrain covered in ancient ditches, craters, and solidified lava – as seen by Mars Express's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). Today we head back to show the region’s western edge, where the features are equally diverse: deep cracks, valleys, and meandering channels sculpted and filled by slow-moving flows of ice and rock.
Demonstrating just how intriguing these features are, one of the earliest image releases from HRSC also explored Acheron Fossae, all the way back in April 2004 – just months after Mars Express began investigating the Red Planet.
Acheron Fossae is an extensive system of deep, fault-like cracks (known as fossae), with alternating chunks of raised and lowered ground (a ‘horst and graben’ pattern, with ‘horst’ referring to a raised block of ground formed in this way, and ‘graben’ a lowered one). This pattern can be seen most clearly in the prominent channels slicing vertically through the frame just right of centre.Likely dating back over 3.7 billion years to when Mars was most geologically active, such a pattern was created as hot material rose upwards beneath the martian crust. This upwelling of molten rock stretched and pulled the surface apart, creating kilometre-deep cracks and valleys – some of which are many hundreds of kilometres long.mage description: A high-resolution colour image of the western edge of Acheron Fossae on Mars, showing a rugged landscape of deep fissures, valleys, and meandering channels. The terrain features alternating raised and lowered blocks (horsts and grabens), with smooth valley floors filled by slow-moving ice-rich rock. Labels highlight key geological features.
ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Aug 5

Greenland subglacial lake outburst.
Using data from several Earth-observing satellites, including ESA’s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, scientists have discovered that a huge flood beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet @esaearth.esa.int @esa.int

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jul 13

Yes, it is a very beautiful place.
Thank you very much for your kind comment. @sts63.bsky.social

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jul 10

Húsavíkurkirkja, Húsavík,
Norðurland Eystra Region, Ísland
#Iceland #landscapephotography
#PicofTheDay #HúsavikChurch
@adobe.com
www.visiticeland.com

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jul 9

The Skeiðarárjökull glacier in southern Iceland plays a key role in the region’s hydrological cycle
As an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull it is closely monitored due to its repeated history of glacial outburst floods which have shaped the surrounding landscape
@ec.europa.eu
perlan.is/articles/ske...

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jul 3

Húsavík Harbour,
Norðurland Eystra Region, Ísland
#Iceland #landscapephotography
#PicofTheDay #WhalesWatching
#Travelphotography
www.visiticeland.com @adobe.com

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jul 3

Journey through space and time.
The latest Polarstern expedition is off to explore ice floe types from the past, present and future.
On Wednesday, 2 July 2025, the Polarstern will set sail from Tromsø, Norway, embarking on an expedition to the Arctic Ocean. @awi.de @meereisportal.bsky.social

Buoy Installation (Photo: Folke Mehrtens)
On Wednesday, 2 July 2025, the Polarstern will set sail from Tromsø, Norway, embarking on an expedition to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next two months, an international research team will analyse the feedback effects between global warming and sea ice retreat in the Arctic Ocean.
The investigations will focus on the differences in the melting of various sea ice types – representing the Arctic of the past decades, the present and the future.
A parallel airborne campaign will complement the measurements and, at the outset of the expedition, the Polarstern will support the first ice testing of the new French Tara Polar Station research platform.There are still three different regimes of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, while global warming is causing older and therefore thicker ice floes to melt increasingly. The current Polarstern expedition is focussing on three different ice regimes: one-year-old sea ice, which formed last winter – often drifting in the sea ice marginal zone and expected to dominate the Arctic in the future. Two-year-old sea ice drifts over the polar ice cap along with the Transpolar Drift before melting in the Fram Strait and is characteristic of the present status quo. Multi-year sea ice has been drifting north of Greenland and Canada for years, originating from the so-called "last ice zone" north of Greenland and was still widespread decades ago.

Ice anchor (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Esther Horvath)The Polarstern team is setting up observation networks and collecting data on three ice floes representing these regimes. The disciplines and measuring instruments involved are similar to the MOSAiC expedition, during which the Polarstern drifted through the Arctic Ocean for over a year from 2019 to 2020, investigating an ice floe consisting mainly of one- and two-year-old ice. On the current expedition, dubbed CONTRASTS, the researchers will investigate in far greater detail the contrasts, transitions and gradients between the three sea ice regimes, including the associated ocean and atmospheric conditions, as well as the biology and biogeochemical processes taking place.

"We are especially focused on gaining a better understanding of which sea ice survives the melt in summer and which type does not. This is due to the fact that the Arctic is warming particularly quickly compared to the rest of the world, and warm air and water temperatures are impacting on the ice both from above and below," says Dr Marcel Nicolaus, explaining the motivation behind the Polarstern expedition. The sea ice physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is leading the expedition named CONTRASTS, and coordinating a 51-member strong team of international scientists. He goes on to add: "With the CONTRASTS expedition, we will deepen our understanding of the interactions between the ocean, the atmosphere and sea ice. This will allow us to quantify current, ongoing changes and better assess possible future developments. We aim to better understand the role of the disappearing and remaining sea ice in the Arctic summer, thereby also enabling us to better predict future developments in the Arctic."

ArcWatch 1 Photo EstherHorvathThe sea-ice stations situated in the three ice regimes represent the central elements of the CONTRASTS expedition. A representative floe will be selected in each region and fitted out with an ice camp. Each floe will be visited three times for two to three days each, and will be intensively surveyed. During the first visit, measuring devices will be installed on, in and under the sea ice, which then monitor the melting season autonomously. Around three weeks later, the second visit will allow the systems to be maintained, while on the third visit (after about six weeks) most of the devices will be dismantled again, leaving only a few instruments remaining behind as so-called drift buoys. Among other things, these remaining sensors transmit precise position data so that either the Polarstern on a subsequent expedition or other research institutes can recover them later. In this way, it is possible to follow the drift and development of the floes into the freezing phase following the expedition. The CONTRASTS team will be carrying out standardised, process-based bio-physical investigations in all regimes in order to achieve comparable results.

This observation approach CONTRASTS is pursuing – dividing the sea ice into the three regimes – is entirely new, and entails the particularly close integration of intensive, repetitive, manual measurements and autonomous time series. The methodology and team structure are based on the experience gained from the MOSAiC expedition. "In this way, our MOSAiC datasets can now be expanded to include the dimensions of the different ice regimes as additional information. Moreover, we can specifically take our readings during the highest melting phase, something that couldn’t be completely achieved during MOSAiC for logistical reasons," explains Marcel Nicolaus.
Running parallel to the Polarstern expedition, the IceBird summer flight measurement campaign will also be underway in July and August 2025.

MOSAiCLeg1 Poto by EstherHorvath
Launching from the Danish military base Station Nord in Greenland, the AWI Polar 6 reseach aircraft will fly over the CONTRASTS regions and stations to record the sea ice over a large area and map regional gradients in the ice thickness. "In the summer of 2025, we will conduct two coordinated sea-ice expeditions by ship and by aircraft, which are designed to map local to regional scales," as Dr Gerit Birnbaum, AWI sea-ice physicist, outlines. As the head of the flight campaign explains: "We expect the age and origin of the sea ice to have a significant influence on the physical properties of the sea ice and the associated organisms. Old ice, for example, is more deformed, more structured and less translucent. We were able to identify the zones of different ice ages in the run-up to the expedition by way of various satellite and modelling data, and the Polarstern will now be heading specifically to these zones."
The Polarstern will also be supporting the French Tara Polar Station research platform at the outset of the expedition. In the future, the new vessel will drift through the Arctic on one-year campaigns and will complete its first ice trials in the summer of 2025. To this end, the Polarstern will accompany the Tara Polar Station from Longyearbyen (Svalbard) on its way north. The CONTRASTS expedition is also scheduled to wind down in Longyearbyen on 1 September 2025.
Further information:
Departure is planned for early evening today, and the Polarstern's current position can be tracked via live camera: awi.panomax.com
In addition to the Polarstern app (https://follow-polarstern.awi.de/), there is also an interactive CONTRASTS website featuring live footage from the Polarstern and the three ice camps: https://data.meereisportal.de/relaunch/contrasts.
The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and oceans of the high and mid-latitudes.

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jun 23

Phytoplankton bloom in the English Channel.
Phytoplankton blooms occur almost every spring in the English Channel, driven by a combination of environmental factors which converge during the seasonal transition.
@copernicusecmwf.bsky.social @copernicusmarine.bsky.social
@ec.europa.eu #Sentinel-2

Phytoplankton blooms occur almost every spring in the English Channel, driven by a combination of environmental factors which converge during the seasonal transition. As daylight hours increase and surface waters warm, nutrient inputs from terrestrial runoff and wind-driven vertical mixing create optimal conditions for microalgal growth in the sunlit upper layers of the water column. These blooms play a key role in marine ecosystems, forming the base of the food chain and influencing biogeochemical cycles. This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 11 June 2025, shows a large phytoplankton bloom near the island of Guernsey, where strong tidal currents and vertical mixing promote nutrient upwellings.

The Copernicus Sentinel satellites and services provide essential data for monitoring the Earth’s oceans and the impacts of climate change on their ecosystems. In particular, the Copernicus Marine Service delivers a range of products useful for better understanding the biogeochemical status of the ocean.

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jun 21

Skógafoss,
Suðurland, Ísland
#Iceland #skógafoss #waterfall #suðurland
#landscapephotography #PicofTheDay
www.visiticeland.com

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jun 17

May was the second warmest May on record globally.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has published its latest monthly Climate Bulletin, focused on key climate trends in May 2025.
@copernicusecmwf.bsky.social @ec.europa.eu
climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-...

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has published its latest monthly Climate Bulletin, focused on key climate trends in May 2025.

The bulletin reports that May 2025 was the second warmest May on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 15.79°C, 0.53°C above the 1991-2020 average for the month. In Europe, the average temperature for May was 12.98°C, 0.29°C below the 1991-2020 average.

This data visualisation, produced using C3S data, illustrates the surface air temperature anomalies for May 2025 across part of the Northern Hemisphere. Shades of red indicate areas with above-average temperatures, while blue tones show below-average values. There was a notable contrast in surface air temperatures across Europe: temperatures in Eastern Europe were predominantly below average, with pockets of cold anomalies also observed in Spain and France. On the other hand, Western Europe was mostly affected by warmer-than-average temperatures.

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jun 17

Krill fishing in the Antarctic: overlaps with consequences.
Acoustic data reveal when and where fishing vessels compete with whales and penguins for krill in the Southern Ocean – and what this entails for the ecosystem.
@awi.de
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

"In conducting our study, together with our colleagues from Norway, we analyzed more than 30,000 hours of echo sounder recordings collected by three krill fishing vessels in the Southern Ocean over a period of six years," as Dominik Bahlburg from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), stated. Using a segmentation model and artificial intelligence, the researchers were able to filter out signals that whales, penguins and seals emit when they dive under fishing vessels. "During such encounters, ships and krill predators pursue the same krill swarms. This allowed us to systematically analyse the spatial and temporal dynamics of this competition in order to identify locations and time periods where the interaction between the two groups is particularly intensive."

This showed up distinct seasonal patterns that were specific to the various krill predators. For example, the fishery encountered penguins and fur seals in summer and winter, particularly in the South Orkney Islands and South Georgia, while only rarely encountering whales. "The South Orkney Islands seem to be a real hotspot for encounters with penguins," says Dominik Bahlburg. "Compared to the Antarctic Peninsula, they have received far less attention in the debate on the impact of krill fishing and many of the colonies affected there are currently not regularly monitored." This, however, would be ecologically significant, as fishing vessels encounter penguins here in summer during their main breeding season, in the immediate vicinity of their breeding colonies. This furthermore suggests that restriction zones on the Antarctic Peninsula, that have been established voluntarily by the fishery, do not really minimize the encounters of penguins and vessels and thus the direct competition for krill during the breeding season, but rather shifted them to the South Orkney Islands.

Zügelpinguin auf den den Südlichen Orkneyinseln (Photo: Sebastian Menze)
Reliable data for better protection of the Antarctic Ocean ecosystem

"Remarkably, these patterns were quite stable for seals, penguins and whales over a six-year period," as Sebastian Menze from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research related. "Consequently, our results show that acoustic data from fishing vessels and machine learning can act as a reliable foundation for rapid and convenient assessments of fisheries' interaction with the ecosystem." They offer tremendous temporal and spatial coverage, as the vessels are travelling in different locations in the Southern Ocean almost all year round. What’s more, recording the data is particularly cost-effective, as it can be collected as a kind of "by-product" of fishing. The data used in this study by the largest krill fishing company (Aker Biomarine) is even accessible via a public data platform (HUBOcean).

To date, echo sounder data from krill fishery has only been used sporadically for scientific purposes, for example to estimate the biomass of krill. "Thanks to our approach, we are expanding the potential uses for ecological questions and demonstrating new, cost-effective ways in which fishing vessels can actively contribute to krill fishery management," emphasises Bettina Meyer, scientist at the AWI and German scientific representative in the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). "Acoustic data make it possible to quickly draw an initial picture of how changes in fishery management or fleet behaviour impact on the Antarctic ecosystem. This is particularly significant for periods of time or areas that are not well covered by existing research programmes."

Another aspect took the authors by surprise: "We were able to show that fisheries and penguins as well as fur seals encounter each other just as frequently in the winter as in the summer season." As the animals are not tied to their colonies at this time and are often widely dispersed, the fact that krill fishing has increasingly focussed on the wintertime was previously seen as a positive development. "However, the fact that the animals are now also encountering ships so frequently at this time may require a reassessment of this development." Compared to the South Orkney Islands, seals and penguins were rarely encountered in the echo sounder data from the Antarctic Peninsula. Especially in the autumn, fishing here competes intensively with whales for krill. At this time, whales build up their fat reserves for their subsequent migrations to their breeding grounds towards the equator.

Krill fishing vessel in the Southern Ocean (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut)
Antarctic krill is a key species in the Antarctic marine ecosystem: it is an important food source for many species, such as whales, seals and penguins. However, the small crustaceans are increasingly becoming the focus of fishing, which can incur significant consequences for the entire Southern Ocean ecosystem. Therefore, concepts that minimize the negative effects of fishing on the krill themselves and on the animals that feed on krill are required urgently. A research team from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research in Bergen has now been able to use acoustic recordings, that fishing vessels routinely record, to identify areas and periods in which there is an increased overlap between fishing and krill predators. The results can contribute to developing effective management strategies to protect the Antarctic ecosystem. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jun 4

Húsavík Harbour,
Norðurland Eystra Region, Ísland
#Seascapephotography #Whales #Iceland
#Travelphotography #PicoftheDay
@adobe.com

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · Jun 3

Plastic Credits May Worsen Plastic Problem.
Plastic credits are being promoted as an innovative way of addressing plastic pollution, but the credits could have exactly the opposite effect and exacerbate the crisis, warns an international consortium of scientists. @awi.de
www.awi.de/en/focus/mar...

Turn Off The Plastic Tap (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Melanie Bergmann)
The world produces more than 460 million tons of plastic every year. Plastics are made from a wide variety of chemicals and polymers that are almost exclusively derived from fossil fuels. When they end up in the environment, they can cause lasting damage to us humans, the climate and our ecosystems. Plastics can now be found in even the remotest parts of our planet and throughout the human body. One approach currently being advocated as a way out of the crisis is plastic credits. An international consortium of experts, led by Sangcheol Moon of the University of California Berkeley and including Melanie Bergmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute, shows in the journal One Earth that offsetting schemes such as plastic credits are far from being a solution. They could even exacerbate the crisis.
The essentials in brief:
Plastic credits risk reproducing familiar pitfalls, such as falling short on additionality, permanence and the 'no-harm' principle.
A 'ton-for-ton' logic oversimplifies the material, toxicological and contextual complexity of plastic pollution.
Integrating plastic credits into Extended Producer Responsibility removes regulatory price signals for sustainable product design and introduces scope mismatches that weaken policy effectiveness.

Plastic Credits können Plastikproblem verschlimmern Plastic Credits May Worsen Plastic Problem (Graphic: Sangcheol Moon)
As countries worldwide seek to tackle the social, political and economic impacts of plastic pollution, plastic credits have gained traction as a potential tool. “Plastic credits are typically allocated for every ton of plastic that is retrieved from the environment or waste stream”, explains Dr. Melanie Bergmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and co-author. The AWI biologist and other authors are part of the „Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty“. The international network of independent experts supports the United Nations' negotiations for a binding treaty that limits plastic pollution. „During the negotiations, plastic credits are promoted as a new type of financing and control measure,“ says Melanie Bergmann. „However, our peer-reviewed article highlights that plastic credits are not an appropriate approach to reducing plastic pollution or to financing reduction efforts.” Worse, they can create loopholes and even undermine efforts to reduce plastics by facilitating business-as-usual production growth, which is on track to triple by 2060. Greenhouse gas emissions could rise from the current level of 5.3 percent of the annual CO2 emissions to use up 30 percent of the remaining budget by 2030.

Fünfte Runde der Verhandlungen der Vereinten Nationen über ein verbindliches Abkommen zur Begrenzung der Plastikverschmutzung in Busan. Fifth meeting of the United Nations' negotiations for a binding treaty that limits plastic pollution in Busan. (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Melanie Bergmann)
A ton does not equal a ton
The idea is not new; plastic credits are modeled on carbon credits. „They also share many of the same failings as carbon offset credits“, says Sangcheol Moon, an environmental researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of the study. „Projects often credit activities that would have occurred without the credit, and allow disposal pathways with varying degrees of reversal risks. In some cases, plastic credit systems have led to health harms in nearby communities and co-opted informal waste work without meaningful safeguards.
The calculation of plastic credits is based on the premise that one ton of plastic waste that is removed or recycled equals one ton in the “plastic footprint” – a concept that is not universally agreed upon and can vary significantly across contexts. However, this “one ton equals one ton”- fails to capture the complexity of plastics: „This approach overlooks the enormous diversity in the composition of plastics and the resulting environmental and health impacts“, says Sangcheol Moon. “Unlike greenhouse gas emissions – where a standardized metric like global warming potential, expressed in CO₂-equivalent is scientifically accepted because most greenhouse gases are well-mixed in the atmosphere and their climate impact does not vary significantly by source or location – there is no universal metric for plastic pollution.” Plastics differ widely in toxicity, recyclability, and socioeconomic impacts, thus a ton of clear, highly recyclable PET bottles cannot be equated with a ton of non-recyclable packaging made from multilayer materials and different sets of chemical additives.

Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · May 31

Hayedo de Otzarreta,
Gorbeia Natural Park, Euskadi
#Landscapephotography #Naturephotography #Beechforest
#picoftheday #Euskadi @adobe.com
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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · May 30

How climate change is altering the Arctic Ocean
Polarstern expedition is off to the AWI-Hausgarten long-term observatory.
On 29 May 2025, the Polarstern research vessel set sail from Bremerhaven for the Arctic. @awi.de
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At Sea (Photo: Klara Köhler)
On 29 May 2025, the Polarstern research vessel set sail from Bremerhaven for the Arctic. The destination of the 95 expedition participants, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, is the AWI Hausgarten, a long-term observatory situated between Svalbard and Greenland. There they will investigate how the ecosystems of the Arctic deep sea are reacting to changing environmental conditions as a result of rapid climate change. The month-long expedition, which is scheduled to finish in Tromsø, Norway, at the end of June, will focus on benthic and plankton communities in the open water and physical changes in the ocean.

The AWI-Hausgarten deep-sea observatory has been in existence since 1999 and is the only one of its kind, allowing scientists to continuously collect vital physical, chemical, oceanographic and biological data for over 25 years. There are moorings at 21 stations between 250 and 5,500 metres water depth and from the open ocean to the sea ice edge, which record water temperature, the current speed and direction and particles sinking through the water column all year round. So-called crawlers (autonomous tracked vehicles) are making their way along the seabed, while even measuring oxygen consumption by microbes in the seabed and photographing the surroundings. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) travel to their so-called Hausgarten observatory every summer to maintain these systems and equip them with new batteries.

“This year, we're placing a special emphasis on investigating the biological systems on the seafloor more closely,” as Dr Jennifer Dannheim reports. The AWI biologist is leading the expedition and explains: “Meanwhile, both our OFOBS ocean floor observation system and our autonomous underwater robot, the AUV, have sonars on board that allow us to map the sea floor far more precisely than previously. This allows us to record large spatial Hausgarten areas using imaging techniques in order to recognise spatial patterns in the structure of the biotic communities in the entire region surveyed. OFOBS also takes high-resolution photos and videos of the seabed. We then supplement these imaging methods with point sampling devices such as the box-grab, multicorer, and further devices, which provide us with soil samples and the species they contain, i.e. microorganisms from the deep sea. We are investigating the occurrence of species and their numbers in relation to various environmental conditions as temperature, salinity and organic material in the sediment as a food source.” By this, the team cannot only recognise larger bottom-dwelling species such as sponges, crabs or starfish and determine their occurrence and frequency, but also investigate the biodiversity and the contribution of microorganisms to ecological processes under the influence of changing environmental conditions in the Hausgarten area over time.
In the water column, the team is investigating how climate change impacts on phytoplankton. It is generally assumed that microalgae will become more productive in the Arctic, for example because less sea ice cover makes more light available for photosynthesis. Whether this will lead to an increased export of particulate organic carbon compared to the conditions 20 years ago, however, or whether the organic carbon will remain on the surface and be metabolised by bacteria will be investigated during the expedition.

OFOBS (Photo: Tim Kalvelage)
Such analyses will improve our knowledge of biogeochemical cycles, which, for example, determine the conditions under which nutrients are available for algal bloom or sink to the sea floor, where deep-sea organisms feed on them.

The expedition team comprises 52 scientific participants and 43 crew members, who are scheduled to arrive in Tromsø in northern Norway on 29 June. After a short stay at the harbour there, a two-month expedition to the Central Arctic region will commence with a new team, and, after another stopover on Svalbard, the almost two-month expedition to northern Greenland will be underway. The Polarstern is expected to return to its home port of Bremerhaven at the end of October.

OFOBS (Photo: Tim Kalvelage)
The expedition team comprises 52 scientific participants and 43 crew members, who are scheduled to arrive in Tromsø in northern Norway on 29 June. After a short stay at the harbour there, a two-month expedition to the Central Arctic region will commence with a new team, and, after another stopover on Svalbard, the almost two-month expedition to northern Greenland will be underway. The Polarstern is expected to return to its home port of Bremerhaven at the end of October.

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Javier Olivares @javierolivares.bsky.social · May 29

thank you for your kind comment