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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
9 July 2026/Kiel. The first GEOMAR expedition aboard the research sailing vessel Malizia Explorer set sail today. Scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel are conducting research into seagrass beds and microalgae – also known as phytoplankton – over the course of three short expeditions. The Malizia Explorer is a sailing boat that has been converted for research purposes. Operated by professional sailor Boris Herrmann and his Team Malizia, it has been sailing the world’s oceans since April 2025.
Like all marine ecosystems, the Baltic Sea fulfils key functions within the climate system and for coastal life: it sequesters carbon dioxide (CO2), provides food and oxygen, and shapes people’s quality of life. At the same time, it is under severe pressure. Eutrophication, warming, algal blooms and large areas with little or no oxygen threaten this sensitive inland sea. In some regions of the Baltic Sea, the water temperature is rising rapidly and has increased by 0.6 °C per decade in recent years. This makes the Baltic Sea one of the world’s most human-altered marine basins.
Focus on the Marine Ecosystem of the Western Baltic Sea
Today, the first research team, led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, set sail from Kiel aboard the research sailing vessel Malizia Explorer to investigate the threatened marine ecosystem of the Baltic Sea. The expedition will take the ship to the coast of Denmark and is the first of three legs taking place in the Baltic Sea between 9 and 24 July. The first and third legs aim to investigate seagrass beds off the coast of southern Denmark and in the Bay of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The research team is assessing the condition and extent of the underwater plants and taking sediment cores to determine their potential as natural carbon sinks. The seagrass expeditions are taking place as part of the major ZOBLUC and SeaStore II projects.
The Versatile Seagrass
Seagrass beds are a biodiversity hotspot. They provide a habitat for numerous animal and plant species, offering both shelter and food. They absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store the carbon it contains as biomass in the sediment, in their roots and in their rootstock. They also protect the coast by breaking the waves and anchoring the sandy seabed with their roots.
“In Schleswig-Holstein, we have already sampled many seagrass meadows using our research vessel, the Littorina. Now, with the Malizia Explorer, we have the opportunity to travel to more distant meadows in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Denmark in an environmentally friendly way,” says Jana Silva Willim, a Doctoral Researcher in the “Marine Evolutionary Ecology” research group and responsible for the leg of the voyage dedicated to seagrass research.
The research sailing vessel Malizia Explorer has been converted for research purposes and is equipped with scientific equipment similar to that found on other smaller research vessels. This includes, for example, facilities for storing samples, a dinghy and a deck-mounted crane for deploying research equipment. The vessel’s shallow draught allows work to be carried out very close to the coast.
“To determine how much carbon is contained in the sediment beneath the seagrass meadow, we take sediment cores. This involves driving metal tubes about six centimetres wide into the seabed, extracting the sediment and then analysing how much carbon it contains,” says Jana Silva Willim. “We also want to assess the overall condition of the seagrass beds. For example, we’re investigating exactly how many individual plants make up a seagrass bed; to do this, we take genetic samples.”
Researching Phytoplankton
The second leg of the expedition focuses on microalgae, known as phytoplankton. It follows the coast of Schleswig-Holstein to the Little Belt off Denmark. Phytoplankton form the basis of marine food webs and play an important role in the carbon cycle. The researchers aim to investigate how the species composition and activity of microalgae can be used as indicators of the state of the Baltic Sea, and what contribution they make to the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2). The work will provide data for the RECOVER and KIMMCO projects.
“Our expedition aboard the Malizia Explorer focuses on the study of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton sequesters a great deal of CO2. It is responsible for 40 per cent of global CO2 sequestration through photosynthesis. At the same time, phytoplankton is highly sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature, light and nutrients. We can therefore also gauge the state of the Baltic Sea from phytoplankton. That is why it is so important to better understand and categorise the various species of phytoplankton. As we require a large dataset, the use of AI helps us in this regard,” says Prof. Dr Anja Engel, Head of the Marine Biogeochemistry Research Division at GEOMAR and responsible for leg two of the expedition.
The expeditions aboard the Malizia Explorer help to improve our assessment of the ecological state of the Baltic Sea. The data collected is vital for understanding changes and developing effective protection and restoration measures.
Background:
Malizia Explorer
GEOMAR and Team Malizia have been working together for many years. Sensors on board the team’s racing yacht have been collecting important data on the state of the ocean during international offshore sailing races. Since the Malizia Explorer was launched in 2025, GEOMAR has also been a scientific partner of the research vessel.
Following several months in the Southern Ocean, the Malizia Explorer is now undertaking its first scientific expeditions in the Baltic Sea. The vessel can accommodate up to 14 people, including a three-person sailing crew and up to eight scientists, as well a media teams and educators.
The RECOVER project
The RECOVER project (“Resilience of coastal vital ecosystems through innovative management solutions in the Danish-German border region”) focuses on the environmental state of the Baltic Sea in the German-Danish border region. Among other things, the project is investigating the extent to which phytoplankton can be used as an indicator of the Baltic Sea’s health.
The aim is to create the conditions for a digital model of the south-western Baltic Sea, which can be used to simulate climate scenarios and test various conservation measures. RECOVER is funded by the European Union as part of the Interreg 6a Germany-Denmark programme.
KIMMCO project
The KIMMCO project (“A flagship project for AI-driven monitoring of marine microalgae as aCO2 sink”) is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) as part of the “AI Flagships for Environment, Climate, Nature and Resources” programme, with funding from the Natural Climate Protection Action Programme (ANK).
The aim of KIMMCO is to develop and test new AI-based methods for the automatic monitoring of phytoplankton and to determine more precisely its role as a natural CO2 sink.
ZOBLUC project
The ZOBLUC project (“Zostera marina as a blue carbon sink in the Baltic Sea”) is led by GEOMAR and investigates the potential of seagrass beds as carbon sinks. The project is funded as part of the Natural Climate Protection Action Programme (ANK) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUKN) and by the Ministry for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature (MEKUN) of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, and will run until September 2030.
SeaStore II project
The SeaStore project is a multidisciplinary collaborative project in which researchers from various scientific fields are working together towards the goal of producing comprehensive guidelines for the protection and restoration of seagrass beds in the southern Baltic Sea.
GEOMAR is one of nine project partners. SeaStore II is funded until July 2027 by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).
Blue Carbon
Blue carbon is the term used to describe the carbon dioxide stored by ocean and coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests, salt marshes and seagrass beds. Seagrass beds sequester carbon in dead biomass and organic sediment particles, which are preserved for centuries in the oxygen-poor seabed – much like in terrestrial peatlands.
https://www.geomar.de/n10354 Image material for download
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