GERMANY
National Contacts	Doug Wallace and Ulrich Platt
Email	dwallaceifm-geomar.de Ulrich.Plattiup.uni-heidelberg.de
Website	None
Full Reports (pdf)	Jun 02

 

 

 

SOPRAN

In Germany, a major SOLAS-related project proposal was recently submitted to the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, and is presently under review. The proposal, entitled SOPRAN (Surface Ocean PRocesses in the ANthropocene) involves 42 investigators from 12 partner institutions from all over Germany working in 23 sub-projects.
The sub-projects are allocated to 4 inter-related themes:
(1) the oceanic response to atmospheric dust;
(2) effect of high CO2 on marine ecosystems and sea-to-air gas fluxes;
(3) production and emission of radiatively and chemically active gases in the Tropical Oceans; and
(4) inter-phase transfer at the sea surface.
These Themes are further interlinked by “Over-Arching Activities”. Field work will be concentrated in the Baltic Sea and the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic, including use of the new Cape Verde Observatory.

 

NEWS

For more information about the SOPRAN project visit http://sopran.pangaea.de/

 

Current status of SOLAS planning.

Planning for a German national SOLAS program was initiated at the 1st national SOLAS workshop that was held in Hannover on February 27, 2001. The meeting was sponsored by the Institut fuer Meereskunde, Kiel, and representatives were invited from all research and educational institutions in Germany that were considered likely to have an interest in SOLAS.

At this meeting the overall research interests of the various institutions and groups were presented. A sub-set of SOLAS activities that can become areas of emphasis for future SOLAS research in Germany was developed.

- Dust deposition, iron chemistry in aerosols and the ocean, and biogeochemical effects. (IfM-Kiel, AWI-Bremerhaven, Uni-Leipzig, Uni-Bremen, MPI-Hamburg, MPI-Jena)

- Sulfur and halogen-chemistry: production, exchanges, transformations and effects on the atmosphere. (IfM-Kiel, Uni-Heidelberg, Uni-Bremen, MPI-Hamburg, MPI-Mainz, Uni-Hamburg, IOW-Warnemuende)

- Air-sea gas exchange including CO₂ and N₂O exchanges (IOW-Warnemuende, IfM-Kiel, Uni-Heidelberg, Uni-Bremen)

A pre-proposal has now been submitted to the BMBF for a Verbundprojekt (see right). You can download the proposal as a Word file by clicking here. The document was prepared by: Douglas Wallace, Hartmut Hermann, Bernd Jähne, Karin Lochte, Ulrich Platt, Detlef Schulz-Bull With additional contributions from: Jonathan Williams, Ulf Riebesell and Dieter Wolf-Gladrow.

German SOLAS is planning a cruise in March/April 2005 to study air-sea interactions off Mauritania (R/V Poseidon cruise P320/1). Click here for more information.

 

Past national activities

There are several past group of emerging projects that fit closely with SOLAS scientific goals. Examples include:

Meteor 55 Cruise. A 1-month cruise aboard FS Meteor in October-November 2002 to addressing an array of SOLAS-related questions in the Tropical Atlantic. The cruise track extended along 11 N from west to east. Major research themes included studies of trace gases (S, halogens, N₂O), nutrient limitation including iron, and studies of the nitrogen cycle in the surface ocean and the lower atmosphere.

EISENEX II: following on from the successful EISENEX I iron fertilization experiment conducted aboard FS Polarstern in the Southern Ocean during November 2000, a follow-on experiment has just been completed.

 

Opportunities for national participation in international SOLAS activities.

Germany has strong traditions in both the atmospheric and oceanic aspects of SOLAS science. Particularly noted is the active interest of a range of atmospheric chemists and physicists in SOLAS-related issues. The strong institutional and individual expertise in the areas of national emphasis listed above together with Germany’s excellent scientific infrastructure (e.g. research vessels and aircraft) makes Germany a potential key contributor to SOLAS.