Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)

September 2022

General News

Past Events

Upcoming Events

People 

Publications  

 

General News

New performance mandate signed

The University Directorate has signed the new performance mandate for the Oeschger Centre and for the period 2022 – 2025. It sets out in 21 goals what the OCCR intends to achieve in the next 3-4 years. The document can be viewed online.

Constancy and renewal in the scientific committee

There are personnel changes in the scientific committee of the OCCR. Claus Beisbart (Climate ethics and philosophy of climate science group) replaces Christian Rohr (Environmental History and Historical Climatology group) as representative of the Faculty of Humanities. Stefan Brönnimann (Climatology group) and Johanna Ziegel (Mathematical and Applied Statistics group) - both Faculty of Science - were elected for another 4 years. All the departments central to the OCCR are represented in the Scientific Committee.

Dendrosciences strengthens the OCCR

The OCCR is getting a new affiliated research group. Already in earlier years, dendrosciences, based at WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research) figured among the research areas of the OCCR. Now it returns with Georg Von Arx (see People) as the leader of the Dendrosciences group.

Support for young researchers

The University's Vice-Rectorate for Development has awarded the OCCR funding for the Summer School and the Young Researchers Meeting. For 2023, CHF 35,000 were approved, for 2024 it is CHF 42,000.

New conferences approved

The Scientific Committee of the OCCR has approved funding to support two events organised by its members. Andrew Friedmann (Climatology group) will be running a workshop entitled “Atlantic basin hydroclimate change: learning from long historical records” in March 2023. Stefan Wunderle (also Climatology group) will organise the conference “Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere: methods and applications from regional to global scale” in February 2023.

Financial support extended

The OCCR keeps investing in the research areas of Biological Impacts and Compound Energy Events. The scientific committee has decided to extend the OCCR-funded PostDoc positions in both projects.

PAGES funding secured

The PAGES project, with which the OCCR is closely associated, receives financial support. The Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) has allocated an amount of CHF 1.6 million for the period  2023 - 25. We recommend that all OCCR members working in the Paleo field join the PAGES network.

Past Events

Busy Base Camp at the Research Night

Busy Base Camp at the Research Night

Around 40 OCCR members were part of the “Oeschger Centre Base Camp” at the University of Bern's Research Night on 10 September 2022. The OCCR presented itself in a tent village in a prime location, in front of the University main building. Certainly an eye catcher was the demonstration of an ice core drilling in front of the camp.

Inside the tents, researchers welcomed guests for discussions in a small circle ("Meet a Scientist"), and various projects were presented in more detail - from climate impacts on cities and health to balcony greening as an adaptation measure in the microscale to the prerequisites for a climate-friendly development of society.

Successful research competition on environmental issues

Successful research competition on environmental issues

The environmental education organisation GLOBE Switzerland, with the support of the OCCR as a scientific partner, has organised the largest research competition for young people in Switzerland to date. GLOBE is an international educational programme for all school levels. GLOBE is supported by NASA, among others.

1,400 young people from all parts of Switzerland registered for the research competition on environmental issues, a format that has already been known in many other countries. The winners of the competition were awarded at a national youth conference. This conference took place at the University of Bern on 24 June 2022, and as a special guest, NASA science director and former physics student Thomas Zurbuchen spoke to the 200 invited (high school) students. The OCCR plans to be part of the GLOBE Contest again in the next edition in 2024 / 2025.

First "Beating the Heat" conference on urban heat

First "Beating the Heat" conference on urban heat

Around 60 participants attended the "Beating the Heat" conference organised by the OCCR on 16 September 2022 in Bern. Most of them came from Switzerland and are active in research related to urban climate. Moreover, the conference theme of heat in the cities attracted people from the private sector and from municipal and cantonal administrations.

The keynotes of the conference are available online. In addition to the presentations, there was time for discussions and networking. There is the prospect of repeating the workshop on a regular basis in the future.

Upcoming Events

Apéro Series for young OCCR researchers on 12 October

The next edition of the Apéro Series for young OCCR researchers is organised be the Climatology, Climate Impact and Remote Sensing groups. It will take place at GIUB, Room 002 (Ground Floor) Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Bern on Wednesday, 12 October 2022, 16h30. Please send an email to kaspar.meuli@unibe.ch to confirm your presence.

Ice Core Sciences Conference in Crans-Montana

From 2 to 7 October 2022, the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) Conference will take place in the Swiss resort Crans-Montana with various OCCR members involved in the organization. The theme of the 3rd IPICS Open Science Conference is Ice Core Science at the three Poles. With this title, the conference commemorates the great contribution of Hans Oeschger to ice core research. With his pioneering work on carbon dioxide in polar ice cores, a long tradition of ice core research in Switzerland began. Less known is that Hans Oeschger also initiated a high-alpine drilling project on Colle Gnifetti in Switzerland in the 1970s. The theme of the conference was chosen to acknowledge Hans Oeschger’s important contribution to these two ice core fields and to foster the link between the corresponding communities.

Bruno Merz talks at the Mobiliar Lab Lecture on 14 November

This year's Mobiliar Lab Lecture (in German) will take place on Monday, 14 November 2022, 17:15 - 18:30. The speaker will be Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bruno Merz from the German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam and the University of Potsdam. The venue will be in the main building of the University of Bern, Kuppelraum (5th floor) at Hochschulstrasse 4. The lecture will be followed by an aperitif. In his presentation, Bruno Merz will explore the fascinating question of how an extreme flood may not turn into a catastrophe. In doing so, he will also focus on flood risk management, a central research topic of the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks. 

Call for papers for European Society for Environmental History Conference now open

The 12th Biennial European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) Conference, which is supported by the OCCR, will take place in Bern from 22 to 26 August 2023. Drawing from its closeness to mountainous regions, Bern invites for a conference on “Mountains and Plains”. This topic enables numerous approaches from various disciplines. The call for papers for "Mountains and Plains: Past, present and future environmental and climatic entanglements" is now open and will run until 31 October 2022.

Plenary meetings on 14 February and 11 September 2023

The next OCCR Plenary Meetings will take place on 14 February and 11 September 2023, 14.00 – 17.00. Save the dates! Program and registration will be made available in due time.

People

Georg von Arx joins the OCCR as a PI

Georg von Arx joins the OCCR as a PI

Georg von Arx is the PI of the new Dendrosciences group within the OCCR. He is the head of the Dendrosciences Research Group at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. Georg’s research interests are in the intra- and inter-annual growth of trees, shrubs and non-woody plants, and the intrinsic and extrinsic processes and factors influencing it.

He investigates anatomical properties of cells in the xylem and other tissues and combines them with physiological measurements. Georg earned a master’s degree in Systematics and Ecology at ETH Zurich where he also did his PhD in plant ecology (“Technical and ecological advancements in herb-chronology”). He then held a PostDoc position at the University of Arizona in Tucson, among other employments. Georg is a habilitated adjunct professor (Privatdozent).

New task for Annelie Holzkämper

As of 1 October, Annelie Holzkämper is team leader in the "Water Protection and Material Flows" group at Agroscope Zurich, while keeping her affiliation to the OCCR as the PI of the Climate and Agriculture group. Annelie's new team is concerned with the measurement and modelling of climate, soil and management influences on water and material flows in agroecosystems. The aim of this research is to minimise the negative impacts of agricultural production on Switzerland's water bodies. The Zurich-Reckenholz lysimeter facility, which has been providing detailed data on soil moisture and nutrient leaching as a function of climate and management since 2009, provides an essential basis for this task.

Doina Radulescu secures support from SFOE

Doina Radulescu (Climate Economics: Energy, Technological Change and International Cooperation group) receives funding from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE for her project “Distribution of energy-related living expenditures and likelihood of living in polluted areas: An analysis using European-wide household survey data”. Doina was thus successful in the SFOE's competitive funding programme "Energy - Economy - Society". The approved funds of around CHF 218,000 will finance a doctoral student for 3 years.

Researchers who have recently joined the OCCR:

Nicolás Duque Gardeazábal is a new PhD with the Climatology group. He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering focused on Water Resources as well as MSc in Water Resources Engineering which he both gained at National University of Colombia. His master thesis was entitled “Estimation of rainfall fields in data scarce Colombian watersheds, by blending remote sensed and rain gauge data, using kernel functions”. His research focus is on using satellite and reanalysis data in distributed hydrological modelling and quantitative analysis of hydroclimate variability.

Malve Maria Heinz is a new PhD with the Climate and Agriculture group. She holds a BSc in Geography and a MSc in Climate Sciences. The title of her master thesis was "Prospects of cultivating alternative crops in a changing climate in Switzerland". Her research focus is on agricultural adaptation to climate change. She will evaluate management measures to reduce dependence on supplemental irrigation, especially during droughts. The working title of of her PhD project is "Agricultural adaptations to increasing drought extremes and their feedbacks on catchment hydrology".

Jobin Joseph is a new PostDoc with the Environmental Isotopes and Gases group. He gained a MSc in Environmental Technology from the University of Aalborg (DK), the University of Demontfort (UK), and the University of Applied Sciences Emden Leer (DE). After that, he did a PhD on “Investigating the impact of extreme Drought stress on carbon and water dynamics across plant-soil-atmosphere continuum using stable isotopes” at the Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg im Breisgau (DE). Later he joined the Federal Research institute for Land, Snow and Landscape (WSL) in Zürich. As an early PostDoc with WSL, he researched the impact of long term drought stress on Carbon and Nitrogen dynamics in old forest ecosystems in Switzerland using stable isotopes.

Shaopeng Li is a new PhD with the Climatology group. He gained a MSc in Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at the Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University with a thesis entitled "Studies on Direct estimation of the all-sky daily net radiation over land surface at mid-low latitudes based on MODIS top-of-atmosphere observations".  His research focus is on investigating the coupling relationship between Albedo and vegetation dynamics of the Northern Hemisphere (1978 –2023). The working title of his PhD project is “Albedo coupling with vegetation dynamics of the Northern Hemisphere (1978 –2023)”.

Adrien Michel is a new PostDoc with the Earth System Modelling – Climate Dynamics group. Adrien holds a master degree in Theoretical Physics (U Geneva) and a MSc in Climate Sciences (U Bern). His PhD work addressed the impact of climate change on the river system in Switzerland. From 2013 to 2015 he worked as a Science Assistant for the IPCC Working Group I in AR5 in the Technical Support Unit at the University of Bern. In his current position Adrien will implement and investigate various mixing parameterizations in the Bern3D model and their effect on the stability of climate states, both in the past and the future.

Alexandrine N`nanga is a new assistant lecturer with the Quaternary Geology and Paleoclimatology group. She is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Geology at the University of Buea, Cameroon. Her work focuses on Holocene paleoclimate variations and paleoenvironmental reconstruction from lacustrine sediments. She completed her PhD at the University of Yaounde I, where she traced back paleoclimate variations of central Cameroon until 13,500 yrs BP. Alexandrine will spend one year at the Institute of Geological Sciences with a Swiss Government excellence scholarship and will be affiliated with the OCCR. Her postdoctoral research is aimed at estimating the speed of the Sahel desertification progress in Central Africa by studying lacustrine sedimentary sequences using geochemistry, mineralogy, and radiocarbon dating of a suite of sediment cores.

Raphaël Rousseau is a new PostDoc with the Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research.  He gained a MSc in Atmospheric Sciences at McGill University and did a PhD in meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Keywords for his research include "climate variability", "extreme weather", "numerical methods", "compound risk".

Yona Silvy is a new PostDoc with the Ocean Modelling group. She completed her PhD in Ocean and Climate Science at LOCEAN-IPSL in Paris, during which she investigated global temperature and salinity changes in the ocean interior in response to climate change. Yona explored the time of emergence of these changes as well as their mechanistic attribution using global climate models and ocean-only simulations. In her new position, she will be part of the European Project 4C (Climate-Carbon interactions in the Current Century) which will investigate new stabilising scenarios of global warming using an adaptive approach.

Nicolò Tartini a new PhD with the Terrestrial Ecology group. He did a master degree in Behaviour Ecology and Conservation (BEC) at the University of Lausanne with a thesis entitled "Effects of the mycorrhizal symbiosis on plant defense responses to herbivores". After his studies he held various positions in biodiversity-related projects, ranging from fundamental research to applied ones including communication with stakeholders. His research during his PhD ("Food Webs and Biodiversity Change in an Extreme World") will focus on how extreme events can affect plant-insect interactions aboveground and their implications for aboveground-belowground interactions.

A warm welcome to all of you!

Researchers who have recently left the OCCR:

Sebastian Lienert, who was a PostDoc with Earth System Moddeling – Biogeochemical Cycles group will take on a new position as a data scientist at leanBI in Bern.

Vasileios Mandrakis successfully completed his dissertation "Atmospheric measurements including Air Core measurements" as a PhD with Environmental Isotopes and Gases group.

Victor Onink, who was a PhD student with the Earth System Modelling – Biogeochemical Cycles group successfully defended his PhD in June 2022 and has now accepted a position as data scientist in the Netherlands.

Pauline Rivoire, who was a PhD student with the Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research group, has completed her PhD and works now as Première Assistante at the University of Lausanne.

Michael Schibig, who was a PostDoc with the Environmental Isotopes and Gases group and worked for the International Foundation High Alpine Research Station Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat: He will take over the position as the responsible person for the National Air Pollution Monitoring Network (NABEL) at the Federal Office for the Environment. In this position he will continue to be associated with the activities on the Jungfraujoch.

Thomas Tveit, who worked as a PostDoc, has left the Climate and Environmental Economics group.

Paul Zander, who was a PostDoc with the Paleolimnology group has started his SNF Postdoc Mobility at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. He joins the Groups of Alfredo Martinez and Gerald Haug (Climate Geochemistry).

All the best for your future career!

Recent journal publications by OCCR members

See all the publications by OCCR members.