They provide us with food and raw materials, influence air quality and the global climate, break down pollutants and serve as places for recreation and tourism - marine ecosystems. A new Helmholtz Institute in Oldenburg will be investigating how their biodiversity and thus their function is changing due to climate change and human influences.
President Prof Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper sees it as "one of the greatest successes for the university": the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity will be established in Oldenburg from next year, as the University Senate of the Helmholtz Association has now decided. This will enable the University of Oldenburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven to pool and expand their research excellence in this field.
The state of Lower Saxony plans to fund the new Institute with 23 million euros in the start-up phase from 2017 to 2020; the funds will be used for a new building in Oldenburg, among other things. From 2021, the Institute will be funded primarily by the Helmholtz Association. Other partners from within and outside the Association will then be involved in the joint research work at the Oldenburg site.
"We are very pleased that the new Helmholtz Institute will enable us to take research into the effects of global change on marine life to a new level," says AWI Director Prof Dr Dr Karin Lochte. "By pooling the outstanding expertise of our scientists, we are achieving a unique focus in marine biodiversity research with national and international appeal," explains Oldenburg University President Piper.
The aim is to gain an even better understanding of what climate change and anthropogenic - i.e. man-made - influences mean for biodiversity in the marine environment. The scientists from the University of Oldenburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute want to work together to find out what consequences this has for the function and performance of marine ecosystems. Another task is to develop appropriate nature conservation and management strategies. The future Helmholtz Institute will bring together existing working groups from the Oldenburg Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) and the AWI, but will also appoint new professors and set up junior research groups.
Lord Mayor Jürgen Krogmann explains: "I am very pleased about this good news, as we as a city have supported and closely monitored the process for a long time. This is an important milestone for Oldenburg as a centre of science and a success for decades of work by marine researchers."
"The decision in favour of Oldenburg as a location is a great success for the scientists involved. It strengthens Lower Saxony as a centre of science and underlines the outstanding quality of marine research in Lower Saxony," emphasised Lower Saxony's Science Minister Gabriele Heinen-Kljajić. "Oldenburg is thus developing into an internationally important centre for marine and climate sciences. The partnership with the AWI gives this field of research even more weight. The collaboration is an example of how excellent research can contribute to solving major societal challenges."
"Helmholtz Institutes have proven to be a very effective instrument for developing future-oriented topics in partnership with a university. The Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity in Oldenburg will be another impressive example of this in a fascinating field of marine research," says the President of the Helmholtz Association, Prof Dr Otmar D. Wiestler.
Scientists from the university and AWI have been cooperating successfully in numerous projects for a long time. The new Institute will now enable them to jointly research key aspects of biodiversity - from the genetics of individual marine animals, algae and bacteria to analysing the functioning of an entire ecosystem.
"How can we effectively protect our marine environment, even though many of the species living there are mobile and most of the areas do not belong to any nation anyway? This is just one of the challenges of marine nature conservation, where we are still at the beginning and for which we want to develop concepts," explains Oldenburg biodiversity expert and future institute director Prof Dr Helmut Hillebrand. The research at the new Helmholtz Institute is decidedly interdisciplinary and therefore also includes social science aspects.
AWI biologist Prof Dr Thomas Brey, who together with Hillebrand was in charge of the application process, adds: "As we have already worked out our research strategy in concrete terms, we will be able to get straight into scientific work in 2017. At the same time, four new professorships will be established, the recruitment of additional staff is being prepared and we are looking forward to the new institute building in Oldenburg."