News & Events

Bright minds, fresh ideas: new Master’s students are joining our team

New master's students

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

Niki Gruber

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

Turren

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!  

Enlarged view: group retreat 2024
A few impressions from our group retreat

New research sheds light on carbon fixation biogeography in phytoplankton

cnrs

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

Air-sea CO2 fluxes

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

Niki Gruber

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

Bern, June 20th, 2024

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

Nate Beech


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

CAS_climateinnovation

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

OAstripes_Pacific

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 !

Meike Vogt

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 !

UP masters

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 !

2023 UP 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 !

logo_blue-cloud

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 !!!

UP group 2023

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

St. Malo

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!