News archive
April, 15, 2024
Experimental Ecology - Art and Science in Dialogue
Since April 5th, 2024, artist Riikka Tauriainen and scientists Meike Vogt present their work 'Plankton Imaginary' as part of the 'Experimental Ecology' exhibition sponsored by the KBH.G Foundation at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen. The exhibition is accompanied by workshops for schools on the topic of 'Plankton Diversity' and an open art laboratory for everyone on November 3rd, 2024, focusing on the theme of 'Plankton'.
March, 21, 2024
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans #TopDownloadedArticle
The paper by UP member Eike Köhn et al. about "external pageStrong Habitat Compression by Extreme Shoaling Events of Hypoxic Waters in the Eastern Pacific" was awarded as top 10% most-read articles published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
CONGRATULATIONS!
September 18, 2023
CAS ETH in Climate Innovation 2024
The registration period for the next CAS in Climate Innovation is now open! For more information and application please visit the CAS ETH website
September 18, 2023
Ocean acidification in coloured stripes
Our oceans are acidifying rapidly. Climate researchers from our group at ETH Zurich are now illustrating these chemical changes with colour-coded stripes. The web-based visualisation tool external pageOceanAcidificationStripes.info shows how ocean acidification has developed over the last forty years.
June 16, 2023
UP in the news !
The work of UP senior scientist Meike Vogt on ocean plankton recently earns a lot of public recognition: please read about this extraordinary interesting topic in external pageScience Stories, external pageSchweizer Familie (abo necessary), and in a external pagebooklet collection of kids' questions and scientists' answers about the ocean created by Meike and her colleagues Fabio Benedetti and Dominic Ericsson for the world ocean day.
June 1, 2023
Master Graduates !
Big CONGRATULATIONS also to our very successful master students Nielja Knecht, Jana Härri, Marcel Scheiwiller, and Jonas Wydler who were honored during the D-USYS master graduation ceremony on May 26, 2023.
May 15, 2023
Graduates !
Within a few weeks all three doctoral students from our SNF X-EBUS project successfully defended their theses!
CONGRATULATIONS to Flora Desmet, Eike Köhn, and Urs Hofmann Elizondo for their excellent work!!!!
March 3, 2023
Blue Cloud 2026 has started !
After a successful kick-off meeting in Pisa, Italy, the Horizon Europe Project Blue-Cloud-2026 has officially started! Within the next 4 years UP group members Meike Vogt and Matt Münnich will collaborate with many international project partners to enhance Open Science in support of ocean protection and restoration. Please find more information on the official project external pagewebsite.
January 23, 2023
New job advertisements online
2 free positions in our group are waiting for applications. For more information about the PhD and the postdoc position which are part of the Horizon-Europe funded European Eddy-Rich Earth System Models (EERIE) project please follow the description on our open position site.
January 23, 2023
Happy New Year !!!
UP group wishes all the best for a happy, healthy, and successful 2023!!!
November 4, 2022
Climate Data Collection on the Route du Rhum race
As one of the Swiss Polar Institute representatives UP group chair Niki Gruber was at St-Malo on the last weekend of October to encourage the offshore sailing team Oliver Heer Ocean Racing during the final preparations for the Route du Rhum solo race. Oliver Heer will cross the Atlantic to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe while collecting environmental data onboard his IMOCA.
The three professors involved Niki Gruber, Thomas Frölicher (Uni Bern), and Samuel Jaccard (UNIL) were also present to discuss the Swiss ocean science and the importance of these data to better understand climate change. Please watch the video on the external pageSPI website for more information!
November 1, 2022
Registration is now open for the CAS ETH in Climate Innovation!
Additional application round until 30.11.2022
Working with real-world case studies, the Climate Innovation programme empowers climate change leaders with the necessary skills and knowledge to support and lead the transition towards net zero emissions.
To read more and register please look at the following webpage: https://sce.ethz.ch/en/programmes-and-courses/search-current-courses/cas/cas-eth-climate-innovation.html
September 28, 2022
New UP PhD !
former UP PhD student Deniz Disa successfully defended her thesis! CONGRATULATIONS DENIZ and all the best for your future!!!
June 22, 2022
Paper Alert !
UP PhD student Eike Köhn's paper about "Strong Habitat Compression by Extreme Shoaling Events of Hypoxic Waters in the Eastern Pacific" was recently published in JGR Oceans. To access the publication please follow the external pagelink.
May 11, 2022
New UP publication !
The first paper of our PhD student Flora Desmet et al. about "Tracking the Space-Time Evolution of Ocean Acidification Extremes in the California Current System and Northeast Pacific" was recently published in JGR Oceans (external pagelink to publication)
Dec 16, 2021
Paper Alert !
A new article by Niki Gruber, Philip Boyd, Meike Vogt, and Thomas Frölicher about climate change intensifying ocean extremes was recently published in Nature Perspectives! Please find more information on external pageCarbon Brief, the article external pagelink and on the ETH news website.
Dec 16, 2021
UP group wishes Happy Holidays and All The Best for a successful and happy and healthy new year 2022 !!!!!!
Oct 22, 2021
MAPMAKER multi-media story released !
In collaboration with IUCN and the Geneva Science-Policy interface our group created MAPMAKER, a tool to visualize global plankton diversity patterns, which is now online. This recently published external pagemulti-media story gives a beautiful overview on marine plakton itself and on the tool's features.
Oct 22, 2021
UP in the news !
Please find more information about the new paper of Fabio Benedetti and other UP group members on major restructuring of marine plankton assemblages in the ETH news.
Sep 20, 2021
Paper alert !
A new paper by UP postdoc Fabio Benedetti and other group members about Major restructuring of marine plankton assemblages under global warming has recently been published in external pageNature Communications (Downloadpdf (PDF, 4 MB)) !
Aug 24, 2021
EXCLAIM project
UP group leader Niki Gruber is one of the initiators of this new project about high-resolution weather and climate modeling. To find out more about EXCLAIM please follow the ETH Zukunftsblog and this ETH news article.
Aug 20, 2021
Paper Alert!
A new paper of former UP postdoc Cara Nissen about Southern Ocean phytoplankton community structure was recently published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles! Please follow this external pagelink to the article. CONGRATULATIONS CARA !!!
Jul 9, 2021
MAPMAKER app online!
UP PhD student Dominic Ericsson and senior scientist Meike Vogt developed the app "MArine Plankton diversity bioindicator scenarios for policy MAKERs" in collaboration with IUCN and Geneva Science-Policy Interface. The app is now available online at www.mapmaker.ethz.ch
Jun 7, 2021
Paper alert!
UP PhD student Domitille Louchard recently published her external pagepaper about The Impact of the Amazon on the Biological Pump and the Air-Sea CO2 Balance of the Western Tropical Atlantic in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. CONGRATULATIONS DOMITILLE !!!!
Mar 31, 2021
Paper published!
A new article from UP scientists Urs Hofmann Elizondo, Damiano Righetti, Fabio Benedetti, and Meike Vogt about Biome partitioning of the global ocean was recently published in Progress in Oceanography. Please follow this external pagelink to the online version.
Mar 16, 2021
MAPMAKER project news
In collaboration with IUCN Geneva our group members Meike Vogt and Dominic Eriksson develop a web-based tool for visualizing current and future marine plankton diversity and changes, for policy-makers in the international climate and ocean sphere. For more information please visit the external pageproject website.
Jan 25, 2021
Paper published!
A new paper by UP PhD student Anne-Marie Wefing and Núria Casacuberta Arola about "Circulation timescales of Atlantic Water in the Arctic Ocean determined from anthropogenic radionuclides" was recently published in EGU Ocean Science (external pagelink to paper).
Jan 18, 2021
Paper published!
A new paper by Cara Nissen and Meike Vogt about competition between Pheaocystis and diatoms in the Southern Ocean was recently published in Biogeosciences (external pagelink to paper).
Jan 8, 2021
#vEGU21 - call for abstracts on ocean carbon dynamics
Together with Lydia Keppler and Lester Kwiatkowski, UP group member Jens Daniel Müller will convene the EGU session: From the surface into the deep: advances in marine carbon dynamics with models and observations (OS3.1)
The abstract submission deadline is on January 13th and we kindly invite you to submit your abstract external pagehere.
The conference will be held in a fully virtual format (#vEGU21) from April 19–30, 2021. We hope the virtual format keeps the hurdle low for contributions from around the globe.
Dec 11, 2020
Record decline in global CO2 emissions – "thanks" to Corona
UP group members Nicolas Gruber and Luke Gregor are part of the Global Carbon Project (GCP) which recently presented it's newest report. Please find more information on the D-USYS website and in the GCP report (doi: external page10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020).
Dec 11, 2020
UP papers published!
Two new papers co-authored by Meike Vogt about "Functional trait‐based approaches as a common framework for aquatic ecologists" (external pageASLO Limnology and Oceanography) and by Anne-Marie Wefing et al. about "Circulation timescales of Atlantic Waters in the Arctic Ocean determined from anthropogenic radionuclides" (external pageEGU Ocean Science journal) were recently published. CONGRATULATIONS Meike and Anne-Marie!
Nov 20, 2020
Nicolas Gruber is "Highly Cited Researcher 2020"
3rd year in a row UP chair Nicolas Gruber is one of the highly cited researchers identified by Clarivate Analytics! For more information please visit the Department's news website. CONGRATULATIONS NIKI !!!!
Nov 10, 2020
New UP people arrived
Joel Wong from National University of Singapore and Mark Hague from University of Cape Town recently arrived in our group this fall. Joel works as PhD student on our H2020 COMFORT project and Mark started a postdoc position within the H2020 SO-CHIC project. Welcome Joel and Mark!
Oct 22, 2020
AtlantECO project launched
UP group is one of 36 research partners within the EU funded AtlantECO projekt which was recently launched. The ambitious project will study Atlantic ecosystems assessment, forecasting and sustainability. Find more information Downloadhere (PDF, 170 KB).
Sep 19, 2020
Ocean salinity: Climate change is also changing the water cycle
A new study by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science, ETH Zurich, the American National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of St. Thomas and the Pennsylvania State University about ocean salinity finds substantial amplification of the global water cycle. Find the whole article on the D-USYS website.
Sep 19, 2020
New UP Postdoc!
A very warm welcome to our new postdoc Jens Müller. Jens joined our group coming from Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde and will work on Climate-Carbon Interactions in the Current Century within our H2020 project 4C.
Jul 1st, 2020
ETH and IUCN embark on GSPI-ICP Project 'MAPMAKER"
ETH and IUCN have received an Impact Collaboration Programme grant from the Geneva Science-Policy Interface for science to policy transfer (GSPI-ICP 'MAPMAKER'). The aim of the project is to communicate global patterns and future trends in global plankton diversity to stakeholders and policy makers. The project will create a web-based biodiversity visualisation tool for use in policy making applications, and aims to increase awareness on the vulnerability of marine plankton ecosystems to climate change. Meike Vogt (ETH) and Aurelie Spadone (IUCN) welcome Dominic Eriksson as a team member on this project.
Jun 30, 2020
UP Chair Nicolas Gruber acknowledged as AGU outstanding reviewer 2019
Professor Nicolas Gruber was acknowledged by the American Geophysical Union for his outstanding peer reviewing activities during the year 2019. He
was nominated and elected by the editorial board of Global Biogeochemical Cycles. With this honorary mention, AGU thanks also all other reviewers for their work.
Overall, 18,173 reviewers completed 39,368 reviews in 2019 for AGU journals. This is the 6th time Prof. Gruber is recognized as an outstanding reviewer
(4 times by Global Biogeochemical Cycles, and twice by Geophysical Research Letters).
external pagehttps://eos.org/agu-news/in-appreciation-of-agus-outstanding-reviewers-of-2019
May 7, 2020
UP paper against the trend
A new paper by Alex Haumann, Niki Gruber and Matt Münnich about the influence of sea ice on the southern ocean temperature was recently published (external pagelink AGU Advances). For more information please read the official ETH news article.
Nov 21, 2019
UP chair Nicolas Gruber is "Highly Cited Researcher 2019"
Again UP Group Leader Professor Nicolas Gruber made it on the highly cited researchers list 2019 identified by external pageClarivate Analytics! For more information please visit the Department's news website. CONGRATULATIONS NIKI !!!!
Nov 13, 2019
4 Open Positions available !
The Environmental Physics group offers 4 new positions. For more information and application please visit our open positions website.
Sep 27, 2019
Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate published
The external pageSROCC containing contributions of UP chair Nicolas Gruber and former group member Thomas Frölicher (Uni Bern) was recently published by the IPCC with a world wide media response (USYS news, german).
Jul 4, 2019
New UP postdoc !!!
UP PhD student Damiano Righetti successfully defended his thesis about "Global biodiversity patterns of marine phytoplankton" on June 28, 2019!
CONGRATULATIONS DAMIANO !!!
Jul 4, 2019
New arrival in the UP group !!!
Luke Gregor arrived in April in our group as a new postdoc. He did his PhD on "Improved estimates and understanding of interannual trends of CO2 fluxes in the Southern Ocean" at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and will work on our ESA OceanSODA Project.
WELCOME LUKE !!!
May 16, 2019
New UP paper online !!!
UP members Damiano Righetti and Meike Vogt recently published their work on the global pattern of phytoplankton diversity on Science Advances (external pagepaper link). Please find attidional information on ETH News.
March 15, 2019
Paper Alert !!!
The new Science paper of Niki Gruber et al about anthropogenic CO2 was published today (external pagepaper link). For more information please visit the ETH news site.
February 28, 2019
And the SGCD 2019 poster award goes to .... UP !
We are very proud to announce that our Phd student Eike Köhn won this year's Swiss Global Change Day poster award in the category "Atmosphere/Hydrosphere". CONGRATULATIONS Eike !!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 28, 2019
Next paper published !
The GEOTRACES paper of UP PhD student Anne-Marie Wefing et al. about the use of 129I and 236U to trace Atlantic waters circulation in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans was recently published (Downloadpdf, (PDF, 1.4 MB) external pagelink). CONGRATULATIONS !!!!
January 19, 2019
Paper published !
A new Downloadpaper (PDF, 6.7 MB) by Nicolas Gruber, Peter Landschützer and Nicole Lovenduski about the Variable Southern Ocean Carbon Sink was recently published on Annual Reviews!
November 28, 2018
Highly Cited Researcher !
UP Group Leader Professor Nicolas Gruber is among the top 1% highly cited researchers world wide! CONGRATULATIONS NIKI !!!! More information on the Department's news article and Clarivate Analytics external pagewebsite
November 28, 2018
Paper Alert !
UP PhD student Cara Nissen's paper about external pageFactors controlling coccolithophore biogeography in the Southern Ocean was recently published in Biogeosciences.
November 15, 2018
Paper published !!!
Martin Frischknecht's paper about origin, transformation, and fate of the Three‐Dimensional Biological Pump in the California Current System was published in the Journal of Geophysicas Research: Oceans (external pagelink, Downloadpdf (PDF, 5.5 MB))
November 15, 2018
UP outreach activities
Our PhD student Domitille Louchard wrote an interesting article about the important role of the amazone river within the global carbon cycle for the online magazine "the conversation" (only available in french): external pageLe fleuve Amazone, maillon essentiel du cycle mondial du carbone
October 25, 2018
New UP PhD students arrived!
We warmly welcome our three new PhD students which joined our Environmental Physics group in mid September 2018. Urs Hoffmann Elizondo, Flora Desmet and Eike Köhn will all work within the X-EBUS project funded by the SNF.
September 24, 2018
Cover paper!
Sebastian Schemm's paper about "external pageRegional Trends in Weather Systems Help Explain Antarctic Sea Ice Trends" landed on the cover of GRL. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
September 24, 2018
Paper published!
Ivy Frenger published her paper on “external pageImprint of Southern Ocean mesoscale eddies on chlorophyll” in Biogeosciences.
August 21, 2018
UP in the news!
The recently published Nature paper by Thomas Frölicher, Erich Fischer and Niki Gruber about "external pageMarine heatwaves under global warming" got feedback in the internal and in the international press (external pageNY Times article, DownloadTages-Anzeiger (PDF, 1 MB))
May 26, 2018
New UP postdoc!
Ana Franco successfully defended her PhD thesis! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
May 14, 2018
Paper published!
Factors controlling coccolithophore biogeography in the Southern Ocean by Cara Nissen, Meike Vogt, Matthias Münnich, Nicolas Gruber, and F. Alexander Haumann is now published in Biogeosciences Discussions: external pagepaper link
Apr 24, 2018
SGCD 2018 poster award winner!
UP postdoc Elisa Lovecchio's Downloadposter (JPEG, 614 KB) won the external pageSwiss Global Change Day 2018 poster contest in category Atmosphere/Hydrosphere. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Apr 4, 2018
Two new UP postdocs!
Martin Frischknecht and Elisa Lovecchio both successfully defended their thesis in March.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Paper published!
Former UP PhD student and postdoc Alex Haumann is co author of a recently published article about external pageAtmospheric influences on the anomalous 2016 Antarctic sea ice decay in The Cryosphere.
Mar 2, 2018
UP Paper in Research Spotlight
Rebecca Ritter's publication in Geophysical Research Letters about external pageObservation-Based Trends of the Southern Ocean Carbon Sink was chosen for being put into the new EOS Ocean Sciences external pageResearch Spotlight
Jan 31, 2018
Human footprint on world's oceans
New UP paper is now published:
Landschützer, Peter, Nicolas Gruber, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Irene Stemmler, and Katharina D. Six. 2018. “Strengthening Seasonal Marine CO2 Variations due to Increasing Atmospheric CO2.” Nature Climate Change 8 (2): 146–50. doi:10.1038/s41558-017-0057-x
Find out more about the new publication of Peter Landschützer et al. on the D-USYS news website
Jan 10, 2018
First UP paper of year 2018 published:
Benedetti F, Vogt M, Righetti D, Guilhaumon F, Ayata S-D: Do functional groups of planktonic copepods differ in their ecological niches? J Biogeogr., 2018; 00: 1-13. external pagefull article
Jan 10, 2017
2 new postdocs in our group
Alex Haumann and Simon Yang successfully defended their theses in December 2016 / January 2017.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!
Nov 10, 2016
UP on Cover Page
The new article of Peter Landschützer et al. made it to the front cover of the October issue of the AGU journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles:
Peter Landschützer, Nicolas Gruber, and Dorothee C.E. Bakker (2016): Decadal variations and trand of the global ocean carbon sink. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. external pagefull article.
Sept 1, 2016
Why is the Southern Ocean freshening?
Our new study that was just published in Nature suggests that northward transport of freshwater by sea ice from Antarctica can explain most of the observed freshening in to open ocean surface and intermediate waters of the Southern Ocean over the past few decades. These results have important consequences for global climate by affecting the deep-to-surface ocean exchange of heat, carbon and nutrients.
Haumann, F. A., Gruber, N., Münnich, M., Frenger, I., Kern S. (2016): Sea-ice transport driving Southern Ocean salinity and its recent trends. Nature. external pagefull article.
ETH news article
May 4, 2016
UP in the news!
Interview with Thomas Frölicher in Die Zeit.
See full article (german): external pageonline or Downloaddownload (PDF, 440 KB)
Sept 11, 2015
New paper published!
Landschützer et al. on "The reinvigoration of the Southern Ocean carbon sink", Science
link to external pageScience and ETH news
Our new website is now life!