Marine Station Helgoland

Research on Germany’s only island located in the open sea: scientists at the Marine Station Helgoland alos known as Biologische Anstalt Helgoland (BAH) of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research study biotic communities in the North Sea. Helgoland is the only German island located in the open sea, approximately 70 kilometers from the mainland. The rocky mudflat and the 35 square kilometer large submarine cliff landscape are home to the richest flora and fauna of the German coast – an oasis. Since 1892 scientists investigate this unique environment and since 1998 the Biological Institute Helgoland belongs to the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Research topics

Coastal waters are highly variable ecosystems: changes occur at all time scales (from seconds to decades) and spatial scales (from millimetres to kilometres). Organisms living in such zones should be adapted to this large variation, but potentially not to the changes that are currently taking place in our coastal seas. Thus, coastal organisms represent the ideal case to contrast the effects of natural and non-natural variation in a multiple-stressor approach. The research in the section Shelf Sea System Ecology puts the responses of individual organisms and species to these stressors, both in terms of physiology, ecology and evolution, into a population and community context.

On Helgoland we offer:

• Individual Guest Research
• University Courses
• Long-term observation - Helgoland Roads
• Bluehouse
• School laboratory OPENSEA

Additional facilities on Helgoland:

• Center for Scientific Diving
• Research Vessel Uthörn
• Research Cutter Aade
• Shipping of Biota

History

The Biologische Anstalt Helgoland was founded in 1892. Since 1998 it has been part of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. Researchers at the BAH investigate the ecology of our coastal and shelf-sea systems.

With the time series "Helgoland Roads", researchers at the AWI´s Helgoland facilities are working to gather the world´s most detailed collection of data on plankton. At the BAH they offer courses for pupils and university students alike, and work closely together with guest researchers who frequently visit the island. At the Centre for Scientific Diving scientists can learn to be research divers and practice working unterwater.

The Biologische Anstalt Helgoland is an integral part of the AWI, with a long history of its own. As early as 1835, the natural scientist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg proved that the sea glow around Helgoland is caused by the microscopic single-celled organism Noctiluca scintillans. The scientist Johannes Müller also recognised the island's potential: he founded plankton research on it in 1845.

Helgoland was designated a "Royal Biological Institute" by the Prussian Ministry of Culture in 1892. In the years that followed, it developed into an internationally acknowledged centre of marine biological research. Completely destroyed during the Second World War, the Biologische Anstalt Helgoland was reopened in 1959.