Earth and Environmental Sciences at Jacobs University

30/08/2018

"Storms are eroding away ice-free coastlines, summer wildfires are becoming fiercer and certain species, such as polar bears, are increasingly struggling to find food. This is all providing a major challenge to communities in the Arctic."

Usually frozen waters open up twice this year in phenomenon scientists described as scary

12/03/2018

Did you know that Jacobs' EES program has a new website?! We are excited to have a place to share our program, and are continuously updating it to make sure you're up to date on all things EES! Check out the link below for our all new platform for everything you need to know about the program structure, excursions, current topics, and more!
http://earth.user.jacobs-university.de/

22/03/2017

Have you ever been to Luleå? If not, you just got a new entry on your travel list – it certainly is a beautiful place!
Meet Anna, an ESS graduate from 2016, who is lucky enough to be studying here since last summer. Following up on her geochemistry specialization at Jacobs, Anna chose the Master program “Exploration and Environmental Geosciences”, at the Luleå University of Technology with a focus on environmental geosciences. Including courses about geochemistry, geohydrology, GIS and mining geology, this versatile program permits her to dive into many of her different interests.
If she isn’t studying, Anna only has to step in front of her door to experience the dazzling Swedish nature this place has to offer – who wouldn´t want to be accompanied by polar lights on the way home from Uni, really? :D
While we are welcoming the first rays of spring this week, Anna can still ice-skate in the Swedish Archipelago – but Spring´s blue ribbons will surely be fluttering through Luleå´s air too. Dear Anna, enjoy everything this place has to offer – you are certainly being missed in Bremen!

06/03/2017

Andrea Koschinsky, Professor of Geosciences at Jacobs University, led the successful research cruise.(Source: Marie Heidenreich, PTJ)

19/02/2017

Meet Gaby, an alumni from the class of 2015! :)
Gaby graduated in 2015 with a BSc. in Integrated Environmental Studies. After that, she worked for a year (2015-2016) in Peru with an NGO called Fauna Forever. It is based in Puerto Maldonado, in the Madre de Dios region, which forms part of the Amazon basin. She says she was lucky to be involved in both administrative and field activities, allowing her to have the opportunity to gain great practical experience. During this year, she became certain in what ambit of my career she wanted to focus on, which ended up being forest conservation and development. At the moment, Gaby is pursuing a M.Sc. at ETH in the Environmental Sciences program, with a specialization in Forest and Landscape Management. She is also a graduate assistant at the university, allowing her to gain further experience in different projects and topics of her interest. Gaby hopes to finish her studies in 2018, giving way to new opportunities and adventures - we wish her the best of luck for all the exciting projects to come :D

06/02/2017

Meet our alumni - today with Steven!

Steven is an Earth and Space Sciences and Environmental Studies graduate from 2016. He is currently pursuing a master´s degree in Climate and Society at Columbia University in the US. The program takes a closer look at climatic mechanisms both on a regional and on a global scale. Students learn about impacts these climatic variations can or will have on human societies and possible ways to deal with them. Despite his exciting adventure in New York, Steven says "I really miss Jacobs and appreciate everything that the Earth and Environmental Science education here provided me with, which really helped me prepare for my graduate study now." We of course miss Steven too, and wish him the best of luck for the future :)

24/01/2017

Meet our alumni – today with Koko!

Korinna graduated from Jacobs University in June 2016 with a B.Sc. in Earth and Space Sciences. She really found her passion in the geosciences, and now pursues a PhD program at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton in the UK. Her topic belongs to the field of marine biogeochemistry, she is looking into zinc and iron bioavailability and acquisition in the subtropical ocean. As a true geoscientist, Korinna of course doesn´t spend all her days in the lab but collects data in the field too! She will in the summer be part of the JC150 cruise on the British research vessel “James Cook”, which will bring researchers to the subtropical Atlantic. This cruise is part of the ZIPLOc project, acronym for zinc, iron and phosphorous co-limitation in the ocean. It seems like Korinna is on her best way to become a true sea dog: in her last year at Jacobs, she was already part of the cruise M121 on the research vessel Meteor, in preparation of her bachelor thesis. The photo shows Korinna in the trace metal clean lab at the university of Plymouth. Here, she is learning about flow injection analysis with chemiluminiscence detection for iron, a technique she is going to use on the “James Cook” this summer. We wish Koko all the best for her next adventures and of course always a hand´s width of water under her keel! 🙂:)

12/01/2017

Part of our Faculty is currently on the German Research Vessel Sonne on a research cruise from New Caledonia to New Zealand to investigate the influence of 'hydrothermal springs on the chemistry, geology and biology of the ocean.'

The cruise is led by our Professor Dr. Andrea Koschinsky, who is accompanied by our PostDoc Charlotte Kleint and Lab Technician Annika Moje. The 3rd year ESS and IES student Nico Fröhberg is also on board to conduct experiments for his ESS Bachelor Thesis!

If you want to learn more about the cruise, visit the following pages and take a look at the Expedition Blog!

English version:
http://geschichten.ptj.de/so253-en #79945

German version:
http://geschichten.ptj.de/so253

31/10/2016

News from our marine geochemistry group!
Chief scientist Prof. Andrea Koschinsky, Postdoc Charlotte Kleint, our lab technician Annika Moje and the two students Jan Hartmann (PhD student at University of Heidelberg and guest scientist at Jacobs) and Nico Fröhberg (Bachelor ESS Jacobs University) will be cruising in the South Pacific while we celebrate the Christmas season this year! The research vessel Sonne will bring them as part of a scientific team of 40 people to the Kermadec arc near New Zealand, where they will investigate the geochemical and ecological impacts of hydrothermal processes at intra-oceanic volcanic arcs. In hydrothermal systems, seawater enters the upper oceanic crust through fault and fracture zones, gets heated and reacts with the crustal rocks. A hot, aggressive hydrothermal fluid formsthat mobilises metals such as iron, copper or zinc from the crustal rocks. When the fluid rises to the surface again, it mixes with ordinary seawater and can create economically interesting deposits and special geological structures - the black smoker systems are probably the most fascinating ones.
Hydrothermal systems along volcanic arcs are however different to those at mid-ocean ridges, given that they occur mostly in relatively shallow water depth and have strong magmatic inputs into their fluids and plumes. The plumes created by those systems often reach up into the photic zone of the ocean - so the uppermost 100 m of the water column, where small phytoplankton spend their days photosynthesis-ing and producing oxygen. Prof. Koschinsky and her colleagues now want to study what impacts metals and gases discharged at these hydrothermal system have on local and global biological and chemical processes.
We wish them safe travels, exciting data and samples, and of course a calm sea on the 24.12. for their small Christmas party onboard!

14/06/2016

Windy and rainy greetings from the Di**le Peninsula in Ireland!

During the third year excursion to the 'Emerald Isle' the Students study the Geology of the Island and are currently undertaking their mapping project of the area.

03/06/2016

Congratulations to our graduating class of 2016!
Look at these proud smiles!

(Here together with faculty members and some alumni who came 'home' for the graduation weekend)

31/05/2016

As our excursion is slowly coming to an end, despite the abundance of things to see and sites to visit, we made use of this hill, which is so beautifully colonized by blossoming Nootka-Lupines or Alaska-Lupines. They are actually considered an invasive species, as they are not indigenous to Iceland. Native from Alaska to British-Columbia it is resistant to cold and wet climate. First introduced on Iceland in the beginning of the 20th century as a pioneer plant to quickly colonize the vast, unvegetated areas to combat erosion and prepare the soil for the native flora, it soon exceeded the expectations by far. By now, the most parts of the island are covered by the lupines, creating great panoramas of the purple blossoming fields and group picture opportunities.
However, some believe it is doing too well in the rocky plains of Iceland, hindering the native flora to grow in this sparse environment. At some point, when the soil is becoming sufficiently developed, the lupine will be gradually superseded by other native plants, who outcompete it in this more favorable condition.