Diving into the depths of nature

Are there still undiscovered sea creatures? Scientists and researchers from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum believe so. They are part of an expedition aboard the research ship “Meteor”, which is exploring the Atlantic ocean between North Africa and South America until December 2024. The team will conduct research to a depth of 6,000 metres in the hope of finding new creatures. This is a current project being implemented by the Society that has existed since 1817 and as a member of the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft is considered to be one of the world’s leading research institutes dealing with biological diversity. 

The Senckenberg Society was formerly founded by citizens in the city of Frankfurt am Main. There it currently maintains one of Europe’s largest natural history museums, in addition to which are other publicly funded museums in Görlitz and Dresden. Whereas the three museums answer visitors’ questions on nature, the eight Senckenberg research institutes obtain new findings relating to biodiversity. Scientists and researchers were thus able for the first time two years ago to show how the biodiversity in meadows is of key importance to different local interest groups. “We determined that all the groups surveyed were able to benefit from prolific biodiversity – including local residents through to tourism”, emphasised research associate Sophie Peter. 

Such projects are fully in line with the Society’s statutes. They stipulate that the role of biodiversity, including mankind’s role in development of the Earth’s systems, should be investigated – from the past to the future. This includes analysing the risks facing mankind and nature. A team of researchers from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F) and from partner organisations in the joint EU project “FirEUrisk” discovered, for example, that the wildfire risk throughout Europe will increase significantly over the coming decades. “Even in the scenarios we calculated using the lowest CO2 increase, the mean summer wildfire risk due to weather in Europe up to 2050 rises by 24 per cent compared with the historical average”, says Jessica Hetzer – the lead author of the study.