Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)

Emerging climate risks

Compound weather and climate events constitute some of the largest climate risks. This is because if processes that cause flooding, wildfires, heatwaves and droughts interact with each other, impacts might amplify. What types of risks are posed by compound events and how they impact society and economy is being studied intensively – also at the Oeschger Centre. In a recent publication in the scientific journal “Nature Reviews Earth & Environment” OCCR researchers discuss how a warmer climate may lead to new, so far unexperienced, extreme weather events.

Seminar Series

Oeschger Seminar Series

Swiss Climate Summer School: “Vegetation, Land Surface and Climate Interactions”,
August 2021

29 August

Workshop on Compound Weather and Climate Events, 13 – 15 January 2021, University of Bern

13 January

International Partnership in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) Open Science Conference postponed

18 October

Swiss hail measurement network

5 October 2020

Because of its complex topography and an exceptional hail data base, Switzerland is a perfect laboratory for hail research. It is regularly affected by severe thunderstorms which cause substantial damage and represent high costs for insurance companies. The Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks explains in a new video (in German) why Swiss hail research is unique.

Postdoc "Compound hydrometeorological events"

10 September 2020

The OCCR invites applications for a Postdoc position "Compound hydrometeorological events" opening December 01, 2020. The successful candidate holds a PhD in Stochastic hydrology, in Climate or Atmospheric Science, Meteorology or Statistics and has a strong interest in hydro-climatic applications and in interdisciplinary research.

Marine heatwaves are human made

24 September 2020

Heatwaves in the world’s oceans have become over 20 times more frequent due to human influence. This is what researchers from the OCCR are now able to prove. Marine heatwaves destroy ecosystems and damage fisheries.

Anthropogenic CO₂ increase is unprecedented

21 August 2020

Even in earlier warm periods there were pulse-like releases of CO₂ to the atmosphere. Today's anthropogenic CO₂ rise, however, is more than six times larger and almost ten times faster than previous jumps in the CO₂ concentration. This is the conclusion reached by a European research team led by the OCCR.

Flood Damage Simulator launched

25 June 2020

The OCCR’s Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks has launched a novel online tool that shows the possible extent of damage from floods throughout Switzerland. The Flood Damage Simulator is based on innovative models developed by the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks, derived from data on round 15,000 flood insurance claims across all of Switzerland.

Eruption of volcano in Alaska linked to extreme cold in ancient Rome

22 June 2020

An international team of scientists and historians including OCCR members has found evidence connecting an unexplained period of extreme cold in ancient Rome with an unlikely source: a massive eruption of Alaska’s Okmok volcano, located on the opposite side of the Earth.

Flood-Risk Affects All of Us

6 June 2020

Floods not only cause great distress to the affected communities, but also result in high costs. For this reason, the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks at the University of Bern launched a research initiative entitled “Flood-Risk Research Initiative – From Theory to Practice”. The goal is to offer a sound basis and innovative tools for the sustainable management of flood risks. The Research Initiative’s new website is now online.

Arctic Ocean acidification worse than previously expected

17 June 2020

The Arctic Ocean will take up more CO2 over the 21st century than predicted by most climate models. This additional CO2 causes a distinctly stronger ocean acidification. These results were published in a study by climate scientists from the OCCR and École normale supérieure in Paris. Ocean acidification can have serious consequences for the entire food chain.

Love of mountains sparks scientific career

19 May 2020

Maria Leunda, recently named a postdoctoral fellow at the OCCR, has received the prestigious Harper Prize for young researchers in the field of ecology. She won the award for a paper on Pyrenean vegetation dynamics based on data from an ice cave.

The plant whisperer

28 April 2020

As a biologist, Eric Allan who is a new member of the OCCR is searching for answers to the big questions surrounding biodiversity. How does biodiversity arise, how is it changing in the face of global and climate change and what consequences do these changes have for ecosystems?

Marie Curie Fellow chooses OCCR

27 April 2020

Andrew Ronald Friedman will join the OCCR as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow later this year. This prestigious fellowship is funded by the European Comission to offer researchers the opportunity to advance their career by spending two years researching at a university in another European country. Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkley and is currently a Postdoc in climate analysis at the University of Edinburgh. He will be part of the OCCR’s Climatology group with a project which combines analysis of early instrumental historical climate data with state-of-the-art reanalysis and model output to understand mechanisms of hydroclimate variability in and around the Atlantic.

Successful visiting scientist program

21 April 2020

The OCCR regularly hosts visiting scientists. This program often triggers fruitful scientific collaborations. A telling example is the visit in 2019 by William Cheung from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He worked with OCCR member Thomas Frölicher on marine heatwaves and impacts on fisheries. Cheung combined output from large ensemble simulations of an Earth system model, which was conducted in Frölicher’s group, with a fish impact model. The collaboration lead to a publication in Scientific Reports entitled “Marine heatwaves exacerbate climate change impacts for fisheries in the northeast Pacific”. This collaboration was supported by the Hans Sigrist Foundation.

Further research on natural risks and climate impacts

13 March 2020

The University of Bern and the Mobiliar insurance company will continue their partnership researching natural hazards. The contracts for the endowment chair for climate impact research in the Alpine region as well as for the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks have been extended until 2024. The support amounts to one million Swiss francs per year. Hail research, among other things, is one highlight of the collaboration. The lab, which is part of the OCCR, has launched a unique hail monitoring network together with MeteoSwiss. The last of 80 fully automatic hail sensors are currently being installed.

Excellent master students

10 February 2020

Markus Grimmer and Louis Frey who were the top climate master’s students last year have been awarded the 2019 Oeschger Young Scientist’s Prize. In an interview, they talked about their reasons for doing a master’s degree in climate sciences. “It was only when I started attending lectures in climate and environmental history that I realized that my interests inb physics and history could be combined in a climate master's degree”, Markus Grimmer said. Louis Frey chose the Graduate School of Climate Sciences in Bern "because of the huge selection of courses" and because he could start studying immediately.

Read more: Markus Grimmer Read more: Louis Frey

International Universities Climate Alliance

6 April 2020

The University of Bern is a founding partner of a new initiative called International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA) that was launched by the University of New South Wales, Sydney. IUCA intends to form a group of around 50 leading universities, representing all regions of the world, to provide a strong and respected international voice on matters related to climate change science, impacts, mitigation and adaptation. The future role of IUCA should be to engage with policymakers on international climate agreements.

New show on weather, climate and science

6 January 2020

The OCCR is the scientific partner of a new planetarium show at Museum of Transport in Lucerne. The 45-minute video projection is called “Mission Earth” and makes weather, climate and science a tangible experience. The possibilities of the large-dome Planetarium provide an unique opportunity for explaining climate phenomena to the visitors of one of the most popular Swiss museums. In 2018,

“Fires like the ones in Australia threaten Europe, too”

20 January 2020

Willy Tinner is a specialist when it comes to the history of European fires. In this interview, the paleoecologist and OCCR member talks about the link between the bushfires in Australia and climate change, how the symbolic power of fire helps the climate movement and why Mediterranean countries shouldn’t plant any more pine trees.

Climate change at school

7 January 2020

Climate change is more and more discussed in classrooms. The OCCR is partner of the project CCESO (Climate Change Education and Science Outreach) which has developed a dossier on the causes and consequences of climate change for different school levels. The compilation (in German) was just published on the online portal “éducation 21”.

“This special climate report is highly topical and necessary”

23 September 2019

Physicist and OCCR member Thomas Frölicher played a central role in the IPCC's report on the ocean and cryosphere (ice, permafrost), which will be published on Wednesday, September 25. In an interview, he explains his role as lead author and talks about how he came to explore heat waves in the sea as an inhabitant of a landlocked country.

Birch tar reveals age of Bronze Age find

18 November 2019

The LARA radiocarbon dating laboratory at OCCR is a leading tool when it comes to analysing small material samples. This know-how was also in demand for dating the bronze hand of Prêles, a find that has made international headlines.

To the news archive.

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