News & Events
Welcoming Our New Student Researchers!
March 24th, 2025 - This semester, we’re thrilled to welcome eight students to our group—seven on-site and one joining remotely from Sorbonne University in Paris! As they embark on their bachelor’s theses, master’s theses or research projects, they will be sharpening their scientific skills and diving into some fascinating topics. Our group’s research spans a wide spectrum of ocean science, from physical oceanography to biogeochemistry and ecology. This is reflected in the various projects they are tackling: for example, Nikola is focusing on the modeling of air-sea interactions and its impact on eddy kinetic energy, Leo is exploring how gap wind events influence N₂O emissions in the Northeastern Tropical Pacific, and Marion is investigating the distribution of gelatinous zooplankton in the Southern Ocean.
A warm welcome to Benjamin Blaser, Jana Celidze-Eder, Elsa Dupuis, Leo Dürst, Nadine Gut, external page Marguerite Larrière, Nikola Mang, Marion Thémèze-Leroy! We are happy to have you on board and curious to see where your research takes you.
Exciting Work on Copepod Diversity Gets Published
March 12th, 2025 - A new study led by Dr Fabio Benedetti, in collaboration with other colleagues from the group, was published today in external page Global Change Biology. The research investigates how copepod diversity and functional traits influence key ocean processes, including plankton biomass production and its export to deeper waters. One key finding reveals that a small number of dominant copepod species play a disproportionate role in shaping these processes. The study also explores the effect of climate change and shows that copepod communities could become more uniform in terms of functional traits, resulting in reduced biomass and less efficient biomass sinking. This study highlights the importance to take into account the functional diversity to better grasp the consequences of the shifts in zooplankton on the marine ecosystems functioning.
Read the full study here.
Science & Collaboration at the BIOcean5D General Assembly
February 20th, 2025 - Earlier this month, two members of our group, AlexandreSchickele (postdoctoral researcher) and Dominic Eriksson (PhD student), participated in the 2nd General Assembly of BIOcean5D at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona. BIOcean5D is an ambitious multidisciplinary project uniting 31 partners from 11 countries to investigate marine life and its transformations across five key dimensions: 3D space, time, and human impact. The assembly featured a dynamic mix of presentations, workshops, roundtables, and informal discussions—providing an excellent opportunity for researchers to exchange insights, showcase findings, and shape the next steps of the project.
Learn more external page here.
Planktokids: a Game For Curious Minds
Feb. 6th, 2025 - Did you know that sea stars have two stomachs? Or that the immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) can reverse aging? Life in the ocean is full of fascinating secrets, and now, young students can uncover them through a new game developed by external page Meike Vogt, senior scientist in our group, and external page Marta Musso, marine biologist and illustrator, in collaboration with the external page Swiss Polar Institute. Designed as part of the external page "Cap Au Sud" project, this educational game introduces players to the incredible world of marine plankton. Aimed in the first place at primary school children (ages 6–13), it is also perfect for anyone eager to explore ocean life in a fun and interactive way. Through the game, one can discover the astonishing diversity of plankton while learning about their life cycles and roles in the ecosystem. It is also a great starting point for a deeper reflection about the role of plankton for the earth’s climate and for humankind.
Ready to play? You can find the game external page here (in German) or external page here (in French).
Successful Defence: Joel Wong's Deep Dive into Ocean Extremes
Jan. 27th, 2025 - Congratulations to Joel Wong for defending his PhD with flying colors today! His research takes a deep dive beneath the ocean’s surface, exploring compound extreme events in the water column - higher temperatures, higher acidity, and lower oxygen. By investigating their characteristics and drivers, Joel’s work enhances our understanding of these extreme events that drastically reduce habitable space and are likely to impact marine ecosystems. The whole group celebrates this important milestone and applauds Joel for his very insightful presentation and dissertation!
You can learn more about his research external page here and external page here.
Congratulations to Jin-Ming on His Award-Winning Presentation!
Jan. 21th, 2025 - Jin-Ming Tang, a visiting PhD student in our group, had the opportunity to present his research at the external page 2025 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences. His oral presentation on the marine nitrogen cycle and climate variability stood out among 179 student submissions, earning him the second-place award in the conference. The price was selected by an international panel of marine science experts. This recognition highlights Jin-Ming’s excellent work and underscores the fruitful collaboration within the UP Group. Bravo!
An Inclusive Science-Art Journey into the Imaginary World of Plankton
Dec. 20th, 2024 - Art and science both make us think and rethink the world. In a creative dialogue between science and art, Meike Vogt, senior scientist in our group, and external page Riikka Tauriainen, visual artist currently based in Zurich, decided to tell the story of plankton and its fundamental role for marine life and climate. For “external page Experimental Ecology”, a traveling exhibition displayed most recently at external page St Gallen’s Kunstmuseum, they created a visual installation named “Plankton Imaginary”. On Nov. 3rd, they also organized an all-day open arts lab and a two-hour arts-meets-science workshop in the exhibition space. The open arts lab offered a wide range of activities that invited participants to imagine, create, feel, and experiment with science. They could sculpt their own plankton specie with clay, craft a jelly fish with rice lamps and colored tissue, draw plankton inspired by live sample from local lakes and an artistic plankton movie using citizen science microscopes, and explore the effects of ocean acidification through hands-on experiments. 62 families, spanning all age groups, took part in the interactive open arts lab. Eleven more people participated in the Science-Art workshop which started with a presentation introducing the different art pieces of the installation. This was followed by drawing exercises and a round-table discussion about plankton, life, and the universe. Overall, a very successful day where science and art came together to ignite curiosity and inspire new perspectives on the world.
More on external page Riikka’s work.
More on external page Meike’s work.
An Immense Honor: Nicolas Gruber recieves the Roger Revelle Medal
Dec. 16th, 2024 - During the 2024 AGU Honors Ceremony, held in Washington D.C. last week, Nicolas Gruber recieved the external page Roger Revelle Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in our field. In his acceptance speech, he expressed gratitude to the many colleagues he collaborated and worked with throughout his career, with a particular mention of Charles David Keeling, Thomas F. Stocker, Jorge Sarmiento, and James McWilliams, who profoundly shaped the way he approaches science. If you wish to see the ceremony, follow external page this link - his speech starts at the 1:21:50 mark. The entire UP group extends heartfeld congratulations for this truly remarkable achievement!
Navigating Knowledge: Scientific Updates during the Vendée Globe 2024
Dec. 6th, 2024 - The external page Vendée Globe is an iconic sailing race that challenges skippers to navigate alone around the world. Among this year's contestants is external page Oliver Heer, a Swiss professional skipper. As a result of a collaboation between ETH Zürich, the University of Bern and the University of Lausanne, and under the coordination of the Swiss Polar Institute, his sailing yacht is equipped with a state-of-the-art marine sensor package called “OceanPack” to record key properties of the ocean, including temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, and dissolved CO₂ levels. We are now following his journey and publishing scientific insights on the regions he is sailing through. Check out our external page latest post about the Southern Ocean’s vital role as a carbon sink. Stay tuned for more updates and fascinating science—follow us on external page LinkedIn and external page BlueSky!
New paper in Science Advances documents the rapid progression of acidification in the ocean interior
Nov. 28th, 2024 - Ocean Acidification is reshaping life and biogeochemical cycles. In their latest study, Prof. Nicolas Gruber and Dr. Jens Müller reconstructed the progression of acidification in the global ocean interior over the industrial era, based on their previous estimates of anthropogenic carbon accumulation (see external page their previous study). A striking feature of ocean interior acidification is its deep reach and the rapid acceleration over the past two decades. Across all depths, the acidification has progressed by close to 50% between 1994-2014. As a consequence of this acidification, waters providing optimal conditions (Ω>4) for the growth of warm water corals almost disappeared over the industrial era. Likewise, the volume of supersatured waters (Ω>1) has declined by ~20% since preindustrial time. If you want to learn more, the study is openly accessible external page here and has been portrayed on external page Linkedin, external page Bluesky and external page New Scientist.
Collaboration in action: our contribution at the first Blue-Cloud federation workshop
Nov. 6th, 2024 – external page Blue-Cloud 2026 is a European initiative designed to advance open science in marine research. Its goal is to develop and sustain a web-based platform that offers “a simplified access to multidisciplinary datasets, analytical services, and computing facilities”. The first federation workshop of the project was held early November and gathered a wide array of expertise. Dr. Matthias Münnich, senior scientist in our group, was present and gave a detailed overview of our ecosystem workbench i.e. a modeling workflow that generates high-quality interpolated maps of the global distribution of plankton. If you want to learn more about this modeling pipeline, here is the external page link to the video of the presentation.
Bright minds, fresh ideas: new Master’s students are joining our team
Oct. 10th, 2024 - This fall, we are delighted to welcome four new Master’s students in our group: external page Victoria Froh, Hadrien Savioz, external page Johanna Berger and external page Fiona Pfäffli. For their Master’s thesis or internship, they will spend several months collaborating closely with various team members. Together, they will tackle a wide range of scientific questions, such as: How does the efficiency of alkalinity enhancement methods vary on interannual timescales? How will ocean acidification extreme events change by the end of the century? How do environmental parameters influence ecosystem services and the marine nitrogen cycle? For that work, they will have access to our newest numerical simulations and the best machine learning techniques developed in the group. We give them a warm welcome and can’t wait to see where their research will take us!
Join our team !
Oct 9th, 2024 - We are seeking a highly motivated student to join our dynamic team. The successful candidate will contribute to advancing our understanding of the global organic carbon budget in marine sediments and the effects of anthropogenic and climatic perturbations. More information.
Nicolas Gruber is awarded the prestigious Roger Revelle Medal
Sept 18th, 2024 – Our group leader is the 2024 recipient of the Roger Revelle Medal granted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This medal is a remarkable achievement, awarded in recognition of Nicolas Gruber’s “unrivaled contributions to marine carbon cycle research and the quantification of the uptake and storage of man-made carbon in the ocean.”
Read more!
Science & Fun at our Annual Group Retreat
Sept 13th, 2024 - Each year, our group heads to the mountains for three days of science, collaboration, and fun. This year, we gathered in the stunning setting of external page Turren in Obwalden, taking the chance to share our latest research, brainstorm fresh ideas, and reflect on topics ranging from the use of ChatGPT to the role of social media in science. We also took part in an immersive external page Planet C game workshop, exploring the complexities of collective action and ecological transition. But most importantly, we strengthened our team spirit and truly enjoyed each other's company!
New research sheds light on carbon fixation biogeography in phytoplankton
Sept 10th, 2024 - Dr. Alexandre Schickele, a postdoctoral researcher in our group, has co-authored a new study with colleagues from CNRS that investigates the biogeography of genomic functions associated with carbon fixation in phytoplankton. Using advanced machine learning techniques and metagenomic data, their research reveals that carbon fixing enzymes exhibits functional redundancy, particularly in oligotrophic waters, while being taxonomically structured on a global scale, with distinct dominance of specific taxa in mid- and high-latitude regions. You can read the publication external page here and a summary of it external page here (in French).
Fresh From The Press: The High-Resolution Variability of the Ocean Carbon Sink
Sept 2nd, 2024 - A new study lead by Dr Luke Gregor, former postdoc in our group, got published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles! This work reveals the significance of small-scale variations in the ocean carbon sink and offers new insights into its functioning. You can learn more about the implications of this study in our LinkedIn post external page here. You can read the publication itself external page here. And make sure to check out external page our video to actually see what is happening at the surface of the ocean.
New leadership: Prof. Gruber appointed head of department
August, 1, 2024 - Starting today, Prof. Nicolas Gruber, leader of our UP group, is officially taking over the position of Head of the Department of Environmental Systems Science (D-USYS). He will be working together with new Deputy Head Prof. Heini Wernli. Wishing him the very best as he takes on this new challenge!
The UP Group Engages At The First Swiss Ocean Day
June, 20th, 2024 - In Bern today, the first Swiss Ocean Day brought together the Swiss ocean science community. A great opportunity to share our research, exchange, discuss and get inspired. More on this exciting day external page here.
Our Research Featured in The Guardian: Oceans Under Triple Threat
June, 4, 2024 - We're thrilled to see our research making waves beyond the academic sphere and capturing public interest. Today The Guardian has spotlighted a study lead by Joel Wong, a PhD candidate from our group. This research revealed how marine heatwaves, ocean acidity extremes, and low oxygen levels combine in the water column, creating an escalating threat to marine life in the context of climate change. The article can be found external page here.
Our Team Grows: Welcoming a New Postdoc
June, 1, 2024 - we are delighted to welcome a new member in our team: Nathan Beech. Nathan is joining the EXCLAIM project and will be working on high resolution climate simulations using the coupled ocean-atmosphere external page ICON model. Welcome Nate!
Publication News!
May, 24, 2024 - a new paper of Joel Wong et al. about Column-Compound Extremes in the Global Ocean recentry got published in AGU Advances. Read more external page here
Experimental Ecology - Art and Science in Dialogue
April, 15, 2024 - 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'.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans #TopDownloadedArticle
March, 21, 2024 - The paper by UP member Eike Köhn et al. about "external page Strong 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!
CAS ETH in Climate Innovation 2024
September 18, 2023 - The registration period for the next CAS in Climate Innovation is now open! For more information and application please visit the CAS ETH website
Ocean acidification in coloured stripes
September 18, 2023 - 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 page OceanAcidificationStripes.info shows how ocean acidification has developed over the last forty years.
UP in the news !
June 16, 2023 - 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 page Science Stories, external page Schweizer Familie (abo necessary), and in a external page booklet 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.
Master Graduates !
June 1, 2023 - 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.
Graduates !
May 15, 2023 - 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!!!!
Blue Cloud 2026 has started !
March 3, 2023 - 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 page website.
New job advertisements online
January 23, 2023 - 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.
Happy New Year !!!
January 23, 2023 - UP group wishes all the best for a happy, healthy, and successful 2023!!!
Climate Data Collection on the Route du Rhum race
November 4, 2022 - 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 page SPI website for more information!