Dr. Sebastian Ostberg

Sebastian received a "Diplom" degree (comparable to MSc) in Geoecology from Potsdam University. He did his doctoral studies at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and wrote his dissertation on the topic of "Joint impacts of climate and land use change on the terrestrial biosphere".

• Impacts of climate change and land use change on the global terrestrial biosphere
• Short-term effects of weather and long-term effects of climate change on agricultural production
• Representation of age structure and forest management in vegetation modeling

PhD Thesis

Ostberg, S. (2018): Joint impacts of climate and land use change on the terrestrial biosphere. Thesis at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, DOI:10.18452/19319

Peer-reviewed articles

2024

Wirth, S. B., Braun, J., Heinke, J., Ostberg, S., Rolinski, S., Schaphoff, S., Stenzel, F., von Bloh, W., Taube, F., and Müller, C. (2024): Biological nitrogen fixation of natural and agricultural vegetation simulated with LPJmL 5.7.9, Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7889–7914, doi:10.5194/gmd-17-7889-2024

Murken, L., Tomalka, J., Abigaba, D., Amoah, A.-B., Amougou, J. A., Anaba, M., Arumugam, P., Awori, E., Léa Baek, H.-R., Below, T., Cartsburg, M., Chemura, A., Cronauer, C., Didovets, I., Gizaw, A. W.,  Gleixner, S., Gloy, N., Grams, E., Habtemariam,  L., Hampf, A., Hauf, Y., Heckmann, T., Ibrahim, B., Jansen, L., Jarawura, F., Kagonbé, T.,  Kaufmann, J., Kephe, P., Klockemann, L., Lange, S., Laudien, R., Liersch, S., Lipka, N., Lüttringhaus, S., Neer, S., Neya, O., Noleppa, S., Ostberg, S., Pollig, J., Romanovska, P., Röhrig, F., Schauberger, B., Shukla, R., Staubach, L., Tchindjang, M., Undorf, S., Vetter, R., von Loeben, S., von Stechow, C., von Witzke, K., Weituschat, C. S., Wortmann, M., Yalew, A. W., Zouh, I., and Gornott, C. (2024): The need for evidence-based climate risk and adaptation assessments: lessons learned from the AGRICA project, Environ. Res. Lett., 19, 062001, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ad50eb

Stenzel, F., Braun, J., Breier, J., Erb, K., Gerten, D., Heinke, J., Matej, S., Ostberg, S., Schaphoff, S., and Lucht, W. (2024): biospheremetrics v1.0.2: an R package to calculate two complementary terrestrial biosphere integrity indicators – human colonization of the biosphere (BioCol) and risk of ecosystem destabilization (EcoRisk), Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 3235–3258, doi:10.5194/gmd-17-3235-2024

2023

Gnann, S., Reinecke, R., Stein, L., Wada, Y., Thiery, W., Müller Schmied, H., Satoh, Y., Pokhrel, Y., Ostberg, S., Koutroulis, A., Hanasaki, N., Grillakis, M., Gosling, S. N., Burek, P., Bierkens, M. F. P., and Wagener, T. (2023):  Functional relationships reveal differences in the water cycle representation of global water models, Nat Water, 1, 1079–1090, doi:10.1038/s44221-023-00160-y

Ostberg, S., Müller, C., Heinke, J., Schaphoff, S. (2023): LandInG 1.0: a toolbox to derive input datasets for terrestrial ecosystem modelling at variable resolutions from heterogeneous sources, Geoscientific Model Development, 16, 11, 3375-3406. doi:10.5194/gmd-16-3375-2023

2022

Kumar, A., Gosling, S. N., Johnson, M. F., Jones, M. D., Zaherpour, J., Kumar, R., Leng, G., Schmied, H. M., Kupzig, J., Breuer, L., Hanasaki, N., Tang, Q., Ostberg, S., Stacke, T., Pokhrel, Y., Wada, Y., Masaki, Y. (2022): Multi-model evaluation of catchment- and global-scale hydrological model simulations of drought characteristics across eight large river catchments, Advances in Water Resources, 165, 104212. doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2022.104212

Satoh, Y., Yoshimura, K., Pokhrel, Y., Kim, H., Shiogama, H., Yokohata, T., Hanasaki, N., Wada, Y., Burek, P., Byers, E., Müller Schmied, H., Gerten, D., Ostberg, S., Gosling, S., Boulange, J., Oki, T. (2022): The timing of unprecedented hydrological drought under climate change, Nature Communications, 13, 3287. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-30729-2

2021

Thiery, W., Lange, S., Rogelj, J., Schleussner, C.-F., Gudmundsson, L., Seneviratne, S. I., Andrijevic, M., Frieler, K., Emanuel, K., Geiger, T., Bresch, D. N., Zhao, F., Willner, S. N., Büchner, M., Volkholz, J., Bauer, N., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Dury, M., François, L., Grillakis, M., Gosling, S. N., Hanasaki, N., Hickler, T., Huber, V., Ito, A., Jägermeyr, J., Khabarov, N., Koutroulis, A., Liu, W., Lutz, W., Mengel, M., Müller, C., Ostberg, S., Reyer, C.P.O., Stacke, T., Wada, Y. (2021): Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes, Science, 374(6564), 158-160. doi:10.1126/science.abi7339

Shi, H., Tian, H., Pan, N., Reyer, C.P.O., Ciais, P., Chang, J., Forrest, M., Frieler, K., Fu, B., Gädeke, A., Hickler, T., Ito, A., Ostberg, S., Pan, S., Stevanovic, M., Yang, J. (2021): Saturation of global terrestrial carbon sink under a high warming scenario, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35, e2020GB006800. doi:10.1029/2020GB006800

2020

Lange, S., Volkholz, J., Geiger, T., Zhao, F., Vega, I., Veldkamp, T., Reyer, C.P.O., Warszawski, L., Huber, V., Jägermeyr, J., Schewe J., Bresch, D.N., Büchner, M., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Dury, M., Emanuel, K., Folberth, C., Gerten, D., Gosling, S.N., Grillakis, M., Hanasaki, N., Henrot, A.-J., Hickler, T., Honda, Y., Ito, A., Khabarov, N., Koutroulis, A., Liu, W., Müller, C., Nishina, K., Ostberg, S., Müller Schmied, H., Seneviratne, S.I., Stacke, T., Steinkamp, J., Thiery, W., Wada, Y., Willner, S., Yang, H., Yoshikawa, M., Yue, C., Frieler, K. (2020): Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales, Earth's Future, 8, e2020EF001616. doi:10.1029/2020EF001616

Xu, W., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Guenet, B., Viovy, N., Ito, A., Reyer, C.P.O., Tian, H., Shi, H., Frieler, K., Forrest, M., Ostberg, S., Schaphoff, S., Hickler, T. (2020): Reducing uncertainties of future global soil carbon responses to climate and land use change with emergent constraints, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 34, e2020GB006589, doi:10.1029/2020GB006589

Pan, S., Yang, J., Tian., H., Shi, H., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Francois, L., Frieler, K., Fu, B., Hickler, T., Ito, A., Nishina, K., Ostberg, S., Reyer, C.P.O., Schaphoff, S., Steinkamp, J., and Zhao, F. (2020): Climate Extreme Versus Carbon Extreme: Responses of Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes to Temperature and Precipitation, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125, e2019JG005252, doi: 10.1029/2019JG005252

Ito, A., Reyer, C.P.O., Gädeke, A., Ciais, P., Chang, J., Chen, M., Francois, L., Forrest, M., Hickler, T., Ostberg, S., Shi, H., Thiery, W., and Tian H. (2020): Pronounced and unavoidable impacts of low-end global warming on northern high-latitude land ecosystems, Environmental Research Letters, 15, 044006, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab702b

2019

Shiogama, H., Hasegawa, T., Fujimori, S., Murakami, D., Takahashi, K., Tanaka, K., Emori, S., Kubota, I., Abe, M., Imada, Y., Watanabe, M., Mitchell, D., Schaller, N., Sillmann, J., Fischer, E., Scinocca, J., Bethke, I., Lierhammer, L., Takakura, J., Trautmann, T., Döll, P., Ostberg, S., Müller Schmied, H., Saeed, F., Schleussner, C.-F. (2019): Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC will lower increases in inequalities of four hazard indicators of climate change, Environmental Research Letters, 14, 124022, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab5256

Liu, X., Liu, W., Yang, H., Tang, Q., Flörke, M., Masaki, Y., Müller Schmied, H., Ostberg, S., Pokhrel, Y., Satoh, Y., and Wada, Y. (2019): Multimodel assessments of human and climate impacts on mean annual streamflow in China, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1245-1261, doi: 10.5194/hess-23-1245-2019

Schewe, J., Gosling, S. N., Reyer, C., Zhao, F., Ciais, P., Elliot, J., Francois, L., Huber, V., Lotze, H. K., Seneviratne, S. I., Van Vliet, M. T. H., Vautard, R., Wada, Y., Breuer, L., Büchner, M., Carozza, D. A., Chang, J., Coll, M., Deryng, D., De Wit, A., Eddy, T. D., Folberth, C., Frieler, K., Friend, A. D., Gerten, D., Gudmundsson, L., Hanasaki, N., Ito, A., Khabarov, N., Kim, H., Lawrence, P., Morfopoulos, C., Müller, C., Müller Schmied, H., Orth, R., Ostberg, S., Pokhrel, Y., Pugh, T. A. M., Sakurai, G., Satoh, Y., Schmid, E., Stacke, T., Steenbeek, J., Steinkamp, J., Tang, Q., Tian, H., Tittensor, D. P., Volkholz, J., Wang, X., Warszawski, L. (2019): State-of-the-art global models underestimate impacts from climate extremes, Nature Communications, 10, 1005, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08745-6

2018

García Cantú, A., Frieler, K., Reyer, C.P.O., Ciais, P., Chang, J., Ito, A., Nishina, K., François, L., Henrot, A.-J., Hickler, T., Steinkamp, J., Rafique, R., Zhao, F., Ostberg, S., Schaphoff, S., Tian, H., Pan, S., Yang, J., Morfopoulos, C., Betts, R. (2018): Evaluating changes of biomass in global vegetation models: the role of turnover fluctuations and ENSO events, Environmental Research Letters, 13, 075002, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aac63c

Ostberg, S., Schewe, J., Childers, K., and Frieler, K. (2018): Changes in crop yields and their variability at different levels of global warming, Earth System Dynamics, 9, 479-496, doi: 10.5194/esd-9-479-2018

Döll, P., Trautmann, T., Gerten, D., Müller Schmied, H., Ostberg, S., Saeed, F., and Schleussner, C.-F. (2018): Risks for the global freshwater system at 1.5 °C and 2 °C global warming, Environmental Research Letters, 13, 044038, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aab792

Ostberg, S., Boysen, L.R., Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W., Gerten, D. (2018): The Biosphere Under Potential Paris Outcomes, Earth’s Future, 6, 23-39, doi:10.1002/2017EF000628

2017

Frieler, K., Lange, S., Piontek, F., Reyer, C.P.o:, Schewe, J., Warszawaski, L., Zhao, F., Chini, L., Denvil, S., Emanuel, K., Geiger, T., Halladay, K., Hurtt, G., Mengel, M., Murakami, D., Ostberg, S., Popp, A., Riva, R., Stevanovic, M., Suzuki, T., Volkholz, J., Burke, E., Ciais, P., Ebi, K., Eddy, T.D., Elliott, J., Galbraith, E., Gosling, S.N., Hattermann, F., Hickler, T., Hinkel, J., Hof, C., Huber, V., Jägermeyr, J., Krysanova, V., Marcé, R., Müller Schmied, H., Mouratiadou, I., Pierson, D., Tittensor, D.P., Vautard, R., van Vliet, M., Biber, M.F., Betts, R.A., Bodirsky, B.L., Deryng, D., Frolking, S., Jones, C.D., Lotze, H.K., Lotze-Campen, H., Sahajpal, R., Thonicke, K., Tian, H., and Yamagata, Y. (2017): Assessing the impacts of 1.5 °C global warming – simulation protocol of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP2b), Geoscientific Model Development, 10, 4321-4345, doi:10.5194/gmd-10-4321-2017

Chen, M., Rafique, R., Asrar, G.R., Bond-Lamberty, B., Ciais, P., Zhao, F., Reyer, C.P.O., Ostberg, S., Chang, J., Ito, A., Yang, J., Zeng, N., Kalnay, E., West, T., Leng, G., Francois, L., Munhoven, G., Henrot, A., Tian, H., Pan, S., Nishina, K., Viovy, N., Morfopoulos, C., Betts, R., Schaphoff, S., Steinkamp, J., Hickler, T. (2017): Regional contribution to variability and trends of global gross primary productivity, Environmental Research Letters, 12, 105005, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa8978

Ito, A., Nishina, K., Reyer, C.P.O., François, L., Henrot, A.-J., Munhoven, G., Jacquemin, I., Tian, H., Yang, J., Pan, S., Morfopoulos, C., Betts, R., Hickler, T., Steinkamp, J., Ostberg, S., Schaphoff, S., Ciais, P., Chang, J., Rafique, R., Zeng N., Zhao, F. (2017): Photosynthetic productivity and its efficiencies in ISIMIP2a biome models: benchmarking for impact assessment studies, Environmental Reseach Letters, 12, 085001, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa7a19

Zhao, F., Veldkamp, T.I.E., Frieler, K., Schewe, J., Ostberg, S., Willner, S., Schauberger, B., Gosling, S.N., Müller Schmied, H., Portmann, F.T., Leng, G., Huang, M., Liu, X., Tang, Q., Hanasaki, N., Biemans, H., Gerten, D., Satoh, Y., Pokhrel, Y., Stacke, T., Ciais, P., Chang, J., Ducharne, A., Guimberteau, M., Wada, Y., Kim, H. Yamazaki, D. (2017):  The critical role of the routing scheme in simulating peak river discharge in global hydrological models, Environmental Research Letters, 12, 075003, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa7250

Veldkamp, T.I.E., Wada, Y., Aerts, J.C.J.H., Doell, P., Gosling, S.N., Liu, J., Masaki, Y., Oki, T., Ostberg, S., Pokhrel, Y., Satoh, Y., Kim, H., Ward, P.J. (2017): Water scarcity hotspots travel downstream due to human interventions in the 20th and 21st century, Nature Communications, 8, 15697, doi:10.1038/ncomms15697

Chang, J., Ciais, P., Wang, X., Piao, S., Asrar, G., Betts, R., Chevallier, F., Dury, M., François, L., Frieler, K., García Cantú Ros, A., Henrot, A.-J., Hickler, T., Ito, A., Morfopoulos, C., Munhoven, G., Nishina, K., Ostberg, S., Pan, S., Peng, S., Rafique, R., Reyer, C., Rödenbeck, C., Schaphoff, S., Steinkamp, J., Tian, H., Viovy, N., Yang, J., Zeng, N. and Zhao, F. (2017): Benchmarking carbon fluxes of the ISIMIP2a biome models, Environmental Research Letters, 12, 045002, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa63fa

2015

Ostberg, S., Schaphoff, S., Lucht, W. and Gerten, D. (2015): Three centuries of dual pressure from land use and climate change on the biosphere, Environmental Research Letters, 10, 0440141, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044011

Bonsch, M., Popp, A., Biewald, A., Rolinski, S., Schmitz, C., Weindl, I., Stevanovic, M., Högner, K., Heinke, J., Ostberg, S., Dietrich, J.p:, Bodirski, B., Lotze-Campen, H., Humpenöder, F. (2015): Environmental low provision: Implications for agricultural water and land-use at the global scale, Global Environmental Change, 30, 113-132, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.10.015

2014

Friend, A.D., Lucht, W., Rademacher, T.T., Keribin, R., Betts, R., Cadule, P., Ciais, P., Clark, D.B., Dankers, R., Falloon, P.D., Ito, A., Kahana, R., Kleidon, A., Lomas, M.R., Nishina, K., Ostberg, S., Pavlick, R., Peylin, P., Schaphoff, S., Vuichard, N., Warszawski, L., Wiltshire, A. and Woodward, F.I. (2014): Carbon residence time dominates uncertainty in terrestrial vegetation responses to future climate and atmospheric CO₂, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119, 3280-3285, doi:10.1073/pnas.1222477110

Piontek, F., Müller, C., Pugh, T.A.M., Clark, D.B., Deryng, D., Elliott, J., Colón González, F.J., Flörke, M., Folberth, C., Franssen, W., Frieler, K., Friend, A.D., Gosling, S.N., Hemming, D., Khabarov, N., Kim, H., Lomas, M.R., Masaki, Y., Mengel, M., Morse, A., Neumann, K., Nishina, K., Ostberg, S., Pavlick, R., Ruane, A.C., Schewe, J., Schmid, E., Stacke, T., Tang, Q., Tessler, Z.D., Tompkins, A.M., Warszawski, L., Wisser, D. and Schellnhuber, H.J. (2014): Multisectoral climate impact hotspots in a warming world,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119, 3233-3238, doi:10.1073/pnas.1222471110

2013

Warszawski, L., Friend, A., Ostberg, S., Frieler, K., Lucht, W., Schaphoff, S., Beerling, D., Cadule, P., Ciais, P., Clark, D.B., Kahana, R., Ito, A., Keribin, R., Kleidon, A., Lomas, M.R. , Nishina, K., Pavlick, R., Rademacher, T. T., Piontek, F., Schewe, J., Serdeczny, O., Buechner, M., and Schellnhuber, H.J. (2013): A multi-model analysis of risk of ecosystem shift under climate change, Environmental Research Letters, 8, 044018, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/044018

Heinke, J., Ostberg, S., Schaphoff, S., Frieler, K., Müller, C., Gerten, D., Meinshausen, M. and Lucht, W. (2013): A new climate dataset for systematic assessments of climate change impacts as a function of global warming, Geoscientific Model Development, 6, 1689-1703, doi:10.5194/gmd-6-1689-2013

Ostberg, S., Lucht, W., Schaphoff, S. and Gerten, D. (2013): Critical impacts of global warming on land ecosystems, Earth System Dynamics, 4, 347-357, doi:10.5194/esd-4-347-2013

Gerten, D., Lucht, W., Ostberg, S., Heinke, J., Kowarsch, M., Kreft, H., Kundzewicz, Z.W., Rastgooy, J., Warren, R. and Schellnhuber, H.J. (2013): Asynchronous exposure to global warming: freshwater resources and terrestrial ecosystems, Environmental Research Letters, 8, 034032, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034032

Schaphoff, S., Heyder, U., Ostberg, S., Gerten, D., Heinke, J. and Lucht, W. (2013): Contribution of permafrost soils to the global carbon budget, Environmental Research Letters, 8, 014026, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014026

2010

Rammig, A., Jupp, T., Thonicke, K., Tietjen, B., Heinke, J., Ostberg, S., Lucht, W., Cramer, W. and Cox, P. (2010): Estimating the risk of Amazonian forest dieback, New Phytologist, 187, 694-706, doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03318.x

Current projects

• Improve the ability of LPJmL to simulate natural climate solutions (NCS) and provide global scenarios of the potential carbon sequestration by large-scale NCS implementation as part of the NCS-SIM project funded by the Conservation International Foundation
  

Previous projects

• Seasonal crop yield forecasting and options to increase yields for improved decision support systems for food security-related questions as part of the C2P2 project with Columbia University
• Climate risk analysis in Bolivia as part of the GIZ-funded Bolivia project
• Climate risk analysis on livestock production in West Africa as part of the GIZ-funded AGRICA 2020 project
• Climate risk analysis on agricultural sector in East Africa as part of the EU-funded H2020 Insurance project
• Climate impact modelling to support SIDS and LDCs with science-based adaptation and mitigation planning as part of the BMU-funded International Climate Initiative (IKI) IMPACT project

Other work

• Contribution to the Intersectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP)