Research Focus Climate and Ocean Dynamics

Planet Earth is a fascinating system: Continents and oceans, sea ice and glaciers, atmosphere and biosphere are all mutually interlaced by complex interactions. Past climates were coupled to changes of atmospheric gases and ocean circulation, causing expansion and retreat of continental ice sheets and sea ice with dramatic consequences for landforms and vegetation. Astronomical, geological, biological and increasingly man-made factors are responsible for climate and oceans dynamics. What are their impacts on sea level, polar zones and tropics? How can the often rapid climate change of the past be reconstructed and explained from sediment records? And how did and does climate affect the evolution of the living world and, in particular, of mankind? At the University of Bremen, such questions were at the center of interest from the origin of our faculty and are being investigated at the highest scientific level with a wide range of methods.

Research Programs and Structures

Research Groups and their Core Areas