Glossary

The Beaufort Gyre is an anti-cyclonal, clockwise-spinning ice drift in the Beaufort Sea which transports sea ice from the northern coasts of Greenland, Canada and Alaska to the Central Arctic.

The community of organisms living on and in the bottom of a body of water (benthic zone).

The biotic community of all plants and animals in a given habitat.

Biological diversity or biodiversity refers to the variety of species, to genetic peculiarities within species, and to the variety of biotic communities.

Bioluminescence refers to lifeforms that naturally produce light.

Biomass is the entirety of organic material produced by plants or animals.

A biome is a large but discrete biogeographical unit, together with its characteristic flora and fauna.

The entirety of the Earth that is home to lifeforms.

Biota can be understood as the collective term for all lifeforms in a given ecosystem, including bacteria, plants, fungi and animals.

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

Models that reflect the reality by aggregating the characteristics of certain activities and processes.

Collection of small ice fragments with a max. width of 2 m (small floes); the debris of other forms of ice.

A general term for the formation of cracks in the ice and the subsequent drifting apart of the fragments.

Highly concentrated saltwater. Learn more about sea ice desalination here.

Small pockets or channels in the sea ice in which highly concentrated brine accumulates.

The part of a hummock that extends underwater.

Autonomous measuring systems.