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Oeschger Seminar Series

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.

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.

Diving and Sawing in the Bay of Bones

24 September 2019

Europe’s first farmers lived in pile dwellings in the Balkans. How did they adapt to new climate conditions and how did they influence their environment? A major EU project, initiated by Bernese researchers, is looking for the answers. We followed the research team for two days.

Europe's oldest lake traces 1.36 million years of climate

3 September 2019

An international team of scientists lead by the OCCR reveals that Lake Ohrid in the South Balkans is indeed Europe's oldest lake. A study published in Nature shows that the lake came into being 1.36 million years ago.

Climate Change and Health

27 August 2019

Spaniard Ana Vicedo-Cabrera studied pharmacology, environmental toxicology and epidemiology. Today she leads the research group on Climate Change and Health, which the OCCR and the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern have jointly established.

The climate is warming faster than it has in the last 2,000 years

25 July 2019

In contrast to pre-industrial climate fluctuations, current, anthropogenic climate change is occurring across the whole world at the same time. In addition, the speed of global warming is higher than it has been in at least 2,000 years. That’s according to two studies from the OOCR.

Volcanoes shaped the climate before humankind 

25 July 2019 

Five large volcanic eruptions occurred in the early 19th century. They caused cooling and – as a study led by the OCCR shows – to drying in the monsoon regions and glaciers growing in the Alps. The study shows that the pre-industrial climate was not constant: if one takes this cold period as the starting point for current global warming, the climate has already warmed up more than assumed in the current discussions. 

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