In the Zoological Museum on "Expedition to the Deep Sea

25 September 2020

Photo: UHH/CeNak, RRZ-MCC, Mentz

CeNak scientist Anne-Nina Lörz at the entrance to the exhibition space. She worked closely with the executive team and helped implement the special exhibition.

We're going diving: the new special exhibition "Expedition to the Deep Sea" starts today at the Zoological Museum. Here, visitors discover first-hand how researchers go on expeditions and explore the depths of the ocean. The crew of the IceAGE3 expedition was accompanied photographically during their 35-day journey along the coast of Iceland, and we have the honor of presenting the resulting photographs within a special exhibition from September 25 to December 1. A film screening completes the vivid impression of the research trip.

Deep, dark and seemingly bottomless: We usually only see the surface, but oceans offer an unknown diversity of creatures and habitats. To explore this blind spot in more detail, two CeNak researchers, among others, ventured on an expedition to the coast of Iceland . Here they studied ocean depths between 300 and 5,000 meters on the IceAGE3 expedition aboard the FS Sonne.

For the fourth time, the project IceAGE (Icelandic marine Animals: Genetics and Ecology) of Senckenberg am Meer, the German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research (DZMB), went on an expedition. With the aim of taking animal and sediment samples, making underwater recordings with the help of a diving robot and examining living conditions, a total of 34 researchers set sail together in the summer of 2020.

The special exhibition "Expedition to the Deep Sea" in the Zoological Museum takes visitors on this research journey: On a total of 16 panels and a video, impressive images show what life looks like deep down in the icy North Atlantic around Iceland and how the crew goes about their exciting research work. Their motivation is to understand the consequences of climate change on the biodiversity of the ocean and how the changes affect us humans.

The exhibition features impressions of their discoveries, such as an impressive, previously unknown hydrothermal field on the ocean floor: the "IceAGE vent field." CeNak scientists Nancy Mercado Salas and Anne-Nina Lörz also provide a look over their shoulders and show first-hand what research interests they pursue in their work. The recordings were kindly made available to us by the DZMB, as was the film documentation shown within the exhibition.

For a short time only, from September 25 to December 1, "Expedition to the Deep Sea" will be on view. Admission is free for all visitors to the Zoological Museum. Furthermore, safety regulations apply during visits - up-to-date information can be found on site and on the CeNak homepage