Recent Scientific Highlights:
Tipping elements in the Earth's Climate System
Anthropogenic forcing could push the Earth’s climate system past critical thresholds, so that important components may “tip” into qualitatively different modes of operation. In the renowned magazine “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS) an international team of researchers describes, where small changes can have large long-term consequences on human and ecological systems.
Please see press-release
Peer-reviewed publications
The Essential Science Indicators (ESI) has counted more than 2,450 citations of the 145 geoscientific articles that have been published by authors of PIK since 1997 (please check PIK-Press-Release dated 31 Aug 2007).
Some recent Publication Highlights of our Research Domain:
- Gerten, D., Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W. 2007. Potential future changes in water limitations of the terrestrial biosphere. Climatic Change 80, 277–299.
- Levermann, A., Mignot, J., Nawrath S. & Rahmstorf, S, 2007. The role of Northern sea ice cover for the weakening of the thermohaline circulation under global warming. J. Climate doi: 10.1175/JCLI4232.1.
- Rahmstorf, S., 2007: A semi-empirical approach to projecting future sea-level rise. Science, 315, 368-370.
- Rahmstorf, S.,
et al. 2007: Recent Climate Observations Compared to Projections.
Science, 316, 709.
-Powerpoint slides with key graphs from this paper - - Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W., Gerten, D., Sitch, S., Cramer, W., Prentice, I.C., 2006. Terrestrial biosphere carbon storage under alternative climate projections. Climatic Change, 74, 97–122.
- Schneider von Deimling, T., Held, H., Ganopolski, A., Rahmstorf, S., 2006. Climate sensitivity estimated from ensemble simulations of glacial
climate. Climate Dynamics, doi:10.1007/s00382-006-0126-8.
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The entire PIK publication list is available at the Publications website
Memberships in Scientific Advisory Bodies and Steering Committees:
The scientists of Research Domain I are committed to a wide range of international activities such as memberships in scientific advisory boards, committees, as well as editorial activities for journals and contributions to the IPCC report. For example:
Wolfgang Lucht is a Member of the Science Advisory Board for Austrian's Sustainability Research Programme, ProVision. He was a member of the European Science Foundation's European Space Science Committee. He was a spokesperson of the German Climate Research Programme DEKLIM.
Stefan Rahmstorf is a member of the Academia Europaea and of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). He is also one of the lead authors of the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC. In 2007 he became an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales.
Awards:
Many of the Research Domain I scientists have contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: as lead authors, expert reviewers, contributing authors and member of the core writing team for the Synthesis Report. - In the end, the hard work paid off: IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize 2007!
Another highlight of 2007 was the Media Award given to Stefan Rahmstorf by the German Environment Aid Deutsche Umwelthilfe for his efforts in increasing public understanding of Climate Change. More in the Press-Release section (only in German)
University teaching:
20 % of the senior researchers at RD I give lectures at a University, usually in Potsdam:
Some example of student lectures:
Wolfgang Lucht gives lectures and seminars at the Institute of Geoecology, University of Potsdam, on Earth system analysis, global change and global biosphere dynamics.
Dieter Gerten gives seminars at the Institute of Geoecology, University of Potsdam on global hydrology, modeling and management of the global water cycle.
Siegfried Franck gives students lectures at the Institute of Physics, University of Potsdam on Extrasolar Planets and Astrobiology
Stefan Rahmstorf teaches at the Institute of Physics at the University of Potsdam, Physics of the Oceans with main foci on the History of the Global Climate, Ocean Current Modeling and Climate System and the Role of the Oceans
Anders Levermann gives student lectures at the Institute of Physics, University of Potsdam on the Dynamics of the Climate System
Recent PHD Theses of our students:
In January 2008 Christine Bounama successfully defended her thesis on: "Thermische Evolution und Habitabilität erdähnlicher Exoplaneten"
Media activities and public lecturing
Apart from scientific teachings our researchers also respond to the ever growing need for public education, thus, giving numerous talks in schools, seminars, congresses and conferences and interviews for press, radio and tv... Here are some examples of public talks:
Wolfgang Lucht spoke at the German EU Presidency/G8 Presidency event on the Future of GMES in Munich in April, 2007; participated in a briefing of the Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party, Kurt Beck, in September 2007, spoke to the Annual General Assembly of Bank Directors (DEKA banks) in September 2007, met with the Irish Minister of the Environment in February 2008
In March 2007 Stefan Rahmstorf was invited to the German Embassy and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Washington for a briefing on climate change and the state of the oceans. He also followed an invitation by the Vatican where he gave a talk at the Climate Change and Development Conference April 2007. He also participated in an expert hearing of the Deutsche Bundestag in May 2007 to present our findings on climate change.
Examples of last year's scientific lectures:
Bauer E.: Direct and indirect sulphate aerosol effects in CLIMBER-2. Lecture at annual ENIGMA meeting of the Max Planck Society, Ringberg, 29.-31.05.2007
Bounama, C., von Bloh, W., Franck, S.: The life span of a photosynthetic-active biosphere on super-Earth planets. 7th European Workshop on Astrobiology EANA07, Turku, Finland, 22.10.2007.
Brovkin, V.: Geoengineering climate by stratospheric sulfur injections: Earth system vulnerability to technological failure. Second International Conference on Earth Science Modelling, Hamburg, 31.08.07
Erbrecht, T., Lucht, W., Lotze-Campen, H.: Is a substantial global bioenergy system feasible? A spatial analysis using a dynamic global vegetation model. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2007, San Francisco, CA, USA, 13.12.2007
Ganopolski, A., Calov, R.: Abrupt glacial climate changes simulated with a climate-ice sheet model of intermediate complexity. 9th International Conference on Paleoceanography, Shanghai, China, 3.-7.09.2007
Gerten, D.: Kopplung von Prozessen in Atmosphäre, Hydrosphäre und terrestrischer/aquatischer Biosphäre (Keynote-Vortrag). Workshop: Großskalige Hydrologische Modellierung, Kelkheim-Eppenhain, 31.10.–2.11.2007
Levermann, A.: Bistability of the subpolar gyre in a coarse resolution climate model. Institutsseminar, Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, 28.02.2007
Lotze-Campen, H: Nahrung – Energie – Wasser: ein globaler Modellansatz zur Abschätzung von Nutzungskonkurrenzen. Invited lecture, Agrarökonomisches Kolloquium, Leibniz-Institut für Agrarentwicklung in Mittel- und Osteuropa (IAMO), 30.01.07
Rahmstorf, S.: Modelling global climate from millennial to glacial scale. Plenary lecture at the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), Cairns, Australia, 29.07.2007
Schneider von Deimling, T.: Climate sensitivity estimated from LGM ensemble simulations. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2007, Vienna, Austria, 16.04.2007
Cooperations
National and international cooperation with partner institutions in the area of trans-disciplinary research and development are very fruitful as knowledge transfer is realized through joint projects as well as by hiring students and post-docs from abroad.
We also intensified cooperation with universities in Berlin and Brandenburg. One example being the recently completed subproject headed by Stefan Rahmstorf and Prof. Kurths, at the University of Potsdam, on stochastic resonances in the global climate system. Furthermore, joint appointments of professors and lecturers exist with several universities within Berlin and Brandenburg.
