wire - news in brief

Avalanche bulletin and snow situation To enhance biodiversity across aquatic and terrestrial systems, natural areas of high ecological value need to be interconnected. However, the necessary collaboration between different stakeholders is often lacking, particularly in urban areas. This is shown by a new study as part of the Blue-Green Biodiversity research initiative.

An international team, including researchers from UNIGE, has revealed that the Arabian Peninsula's desert was once home to a vast lake and rivers that shaped its landscape. The Empty Quarter (Rub' al-Khali), the vast desert of the Arabian Peninsula, was not always an arid landscape.

In addition to being the basis of life, water contains a wealth of valuable information about and for humankind.

40th anniversary of the Vienna Convention for the protection of the ozone layer The Earth's protective ozone layer is recovering - a success story that started 40 years ago with the Vienna Convention. Global atmospheric measurements are crucial for the regulation and monitoring of ozone-depleting substances.

Deep geothermal energy is climate-friendly and base-load capable - but how can this heat be tapped safely? researchers are working on minimizing the earthquake risk and developing completely new systems, for example with closed CO2 cycles.

Data collected by satellites, drones, radars and microscopes provide a goldmine of information to better understand our environment. And when these data are coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), they can unlock the secrets of phenomena taking place at all levels. In a rapidly changing world where environmental threats abound, obtaining a better understanding of natural and anthropogenic processes can help corroborate points of view, guide conservation and renewal efforts, and orient new research.

Despite a wet and grey June, summers in Switzerland are getting hotter than expected. The increased summer temperatures harbour risks that we are not well prepared for, says Dominik Schumacher.

The landslide in Brienz (GR) in 2023 kept Switzerland on tenterhooks for weeks. Researchers from ETH Zurich, WSL and SLF used a model to provide a highly accurate blind prediction of where the sliding mass would come to rest. ETH Professor Johan Gaume explains how the model works and where its limitations lie.

Number, size, surroundings and water level: for the first time, there are quantitative scientific recommendations when it comes to the development of new ecological infrastructures for amphibian conservation.

Number, size, surroundings and water level: for the first time, there are quantitative scientific recommendations when it comes to the development of new ecological infrastructures for amphibian conservation.

Lake trout migrate between different habitats many times over their lives. This helps them grow larger and have more offspring than sedentary trout.

A team of researchers from Germany and Switzerland involving Empa is setting a milestone in weather and climate research: At the beginning of February, the renowned climate and weather model ICON has become available to all interested parties under an open source license. This is intended to make science and the scientific services behind it more transparent.

As part of the Ice Memory initiative, PSI researchers, with colleagues from the University of Fribourg and Ca- Foscari University of Venice as well as the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), analysed ice cores drilled in 2018 and 2020 from the Corbassière glacier at Grand Combin in the canton of Valais.

Exploring the climate crisis with Jérôme Chappellaz, environmental scientist and academic director of ALPOLE at EPFL.

Craig Walton is the first NOMIS Fellow at the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich.

EPFL's Habitat Research Center has created the first atlas of Paris landscapes, after winning a request for proposals by the French government and the City of Paris.

If we want to achieve our climate goals and prevent irreversible changes to the Earth's climate system, we not only need to curb our greenhouse gas emissions, but also remove excess man-made CO2 from the atmosphere.

Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it either in recycled concrete aggregate or in geological reservoirs in Iceland is not only technically feasible, but also has a positive carbon footprint.

SLF biologist Christian Rixen writes about his expedition to Greenland in the footsteps of historical botanists - and climate change.

SLF biologist Christian Rixen writes about his expedition to Greenland in the footsteps of historical botanists - and climate change.

GreenFjord is a four-year research program intended to investigate how climate change is affecting ecosystems in southern Greenland.

GreenFjord is a four-year research program intended to investigate how climate change is affecting ecosystems in southern Greenland.

To prevent irreversible and damaging changes to the Earth's climate system, we need to remove excess (man-made) CO2 from the atmosphere.

Along the coast of East Greenland lie some of the most untouched fjords and glacier landscapes in the world.

Using applied mathematics, Yunan Yang finds solutions to the inverse problems that arise in seismology, weather forecasts, and machine learning.

Heavier rain, longer droughts, melting glaciers: climate change has a dramatic impact on the global water cycle.

Yesterday, Swiss President Alain Berset toured the Carbfix plant in Iceland and visited the facilities where the pilot project "DemoUpCARMA" is implemented.

ETH Zurich researcher Luca Dal Zilio offers an insightful summary of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, shedding light on the complex nature of this event.

Manuela Brunner leads the new Hydrology & Climate Impacts in Mountain Regions research group at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF.