Welcome to APRI

– the Austrian Polar Research Institute

News at APRI
About

APRI is a research consortium that promotes and coordinates research and education in the area of polar sciences →

Research

APRI focuses on three research areas: Cryosphere & Climate, Polar Ecology, and Social & Cultural Systems →

Faculty

APRI involves 17 research groups, including about 50 scientists, specialized in one of the three research areas →

Video: Freya Glacier, Northeast Greenland. © Bernhard Hynek (ZAMG), Daniel Binder (GEUS)

About

APRI – the Austrian Polar Research Institute

The Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI) is a research consortium that promotes and coordinates research and education in the area of polar sciences at the participating organisations. The APRI involves about 50 scientists in 18 research groups.

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News at APRI

Cryosphere

Polar Talk #8: Insights into the adventurous world of scientific polar expeditions

The photographer and limnologist Klemens Weisleitner currently works at the Department of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck. His research has led him to remote regions in the Arctic and Antarctic. In a fascinating multimedia lecture, he provided insights into…
Cryosphere

Glacier shapes unique Antarctic lake ecosystem

APRI members Klemens Weisleitner and Birgit Sattler (University of Innsbruck) joined a scientific expedition team to study the impact of a glacier on a unique Antarctic lake ecosystem.  A glimpse behind the scenes of the Antarctic expedition that led to…
Climate Change

How much infrastructure do the people of the Arctic need?

For social scientists working in the Arctic, it is not given to focus on infrastructure, and for a long time the focus has primarily been on the relations of Arctic inhabitants with their "natural" environments (see Schweitzer et al. 2017).…
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Research Focus

Polar Ecology

The Austrian Polar Research Institute aims at providing fundamental understanding of the (a) the evolutionary, genetic, and ecological adaptations of organisms and communities in polar (marine, terrestrial, and ice/snow) environments and (b) of the role polar ecosystems play in global biogeochemical cycles and potential feedbacks to climate changes.

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Research Focus

Cryosphere & Climate

The reaction of the polar cryosphere to climate change is a key focus in climate research. Major research topics of APRI on polar ice and climate are the response of grounded ice to the disintegration of northern Larsen Ice Shelf at the Antarctic Peninsula, paleo-temperature interpretation from ice cores in Antarctica with respect to meteorological influences on the relationship between stable water isotopes and air temperature.

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Research Focus

Social & Cultural Systems

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the arctic and subarctic regions for millennia. In recent centuries, the colonial reach of southern states and empires has changed the political and demographic situation of these regions significantly. Even more recently, economic migrants from the Global South have started to move north, contributing to the colorful ethnic and cultural mosaic that characterizes the “New North”.

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