Another major success for Oldenburg's marine and coastal researchers: they are coordinating several new research networks with millions in funding. The focus is on plastic waste, light penetration and nutrients in the sea - as well as small crustaceans with a central role in the marine food web.
Four of the six research networks approved across the state are led by the university. The Ministry of Science of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation will support them over the next four years with a total of around 5.1 million euros from the Niedersächsisches Vorab programme. A total of 21 research consortia applied for funding with their project ideas.
University President Prof Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper described the fact that four consortia will be based at the University's Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) as "impressive proof of the outstanding quality of our interdisciplinary research in this field". He emphasised that the topics of the selected projects are highly relevant both scientifically and for the future of the coastal regions and for society as a whole.
The Oldenburg scientists - together with co-operation partners from Germany and abroad as well as colleagues from the ICBM and the University's Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences (IBU) - want to investigate a wide range of questions: What does it mean for a marine ecosystem when one marine species gradually displaces another due to climate change? Who is causing the plastic waste on the coasts of north-west Germany, how is it distributed and how can it be avoided? Which nutrients enter the sea from the islands through the groundwater, and how does this change the nutrient composition of the coastal seas? And: Is less and less light actually reaching the coastal ocean, and what does lower light intensity mean for the ecosystem on the North Sea coast?
The latter question will be investigated by the "Darkening of the coastal sea" project led by Prof Dr Oliver Zielinski. He assumes that the amount of light penetrating the North Sea is also steadily decreasing in its coastal waters. This has not yet been researched - nor have the consequences. The researchers will analyse the period of the past 100 years and draw up a forecast for the next 100 years.
In addition to various methods such as hyperspectral measurements, biodiversity studies and modelling, observations by citizens will also be used: they can use the specially developed EyeOnWater app to determine the colour of the sea and thus contribute data to the project. Zielinski heads the ICBM working group "Marine Sensor Systems" at the university.
Groundwater and its underground transport of nutrients from land to sea are the focus of the research network "Nutrient inputs into the German Bight through groundwater seepage on barrier islands" led by Prof Dr Thorsten Dittmar and Dr Hannelore Waska. Using the East Frisian islands as an example, they are working in an interdisciplinary team to find out how groundwater influences coastal waters.
According to the researchers, despite extensive agriculture and functioning wastewater treatment, nutrients enter the sea from the islands via the groundwater and trigger algal blooms there. However, some of this may already be retained by algae and bacteria on the beach and on the seabed. The project aims to create the basis for sustainable groundwater management. Dittmar and Waska are members of the "Marine Geochemistry" working group, which acts as a "bridge group" between the ICBM and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen.
Long-lasting plastic waste in the sea and its consequences are the focus of the research network "Macroplastic Pollution in the Southern North Sea", which is coordinated by Prof Dr Jörg-Olaf Wolff. Macroplastics are visible plastic particles whose specific main sources and distribution pathways in the German Bight and the Wadden Sea the physical oceanographers, geoecologists and environmental planners want to analyse with the help of computer simulations, for example.
Citizens can also actively participate in this project by recording litter finds on their smartphones or online. The consortium is planning accompanying information events and workshops on site. The goals of the project also include developing strategies to avoid plastic waste on Lower Saxony's coasts and island beaches. Wolff heads the ICBM working group "Physical Oceanography".
The project "Population changes and ecosystem reactions - krill versus salps", led by Prof Dr Helmut Hillebrand and Prof Dr Bettina Meyer, is investigating what it means when a key organism becomes rarer in an ecosystem due to climate change and another species increasingly takes its place. Part of the Southern Ocean, which is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth, is serving as a kind of natural laboratory for their team.
As the sea ice has receded, the population of krill, a species of crustacean that plays a central role in the food web, has also declined. Salps, on the other hand - barrel-shaped tunicates that represent a dead end in the food chain, so to speak - are on the increase. The research network is investigating the consequences for the marine food chain, the associated material flows, biodiversity and the ecosystem as a whole. Hillebrand is head of the ICBM working group "Planktology", while Meyer holds a joint professorship at the University of Oldenburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven.