Land-Climate Dynamics
The purpose of this course is to provide an overview on the role of land processes (vegetation and soil moisture dynamics, land-atmosphere exchanges) for the climate system.
During lectures, the students will be introduced to:
- processes affecting land-atmosphere interactions
- coupling between water and energy fluxes at the surface
- land controls on climate extremes (temperature, drought)
- regional and global effects of land cover changes on climate
During exercices, the students will have the opportunity to:
- work with real-world observational datasets used for research applications
- run simple land surface models forced with historical atmospheric conditions
- discuss general issues related to uncertainty, model complexity and parameterization
Distributed in small groups, students will select a proposed topic and look at recent scientific advances and challenges in relation to this subject. Group supervisors will guide the students through their literature readings, answer questions and initiate discussions. Groups will present a summary of their findings in the form of an oral presentation.
Group project
We offer six topics related to currently debated issues in science (and society). A short summary of each topic is provided in the slides of the first lecture.
- Can we calculate climate indicesfrom satellite data? (Anke Duguay-Tetzlaff, MeteoSwiss)
- How do climate extremes affect the agricultural sector? (Bianca Biess)
- What is the influence of anthropogenic climate change on recent extreme weather events? (Dominik Schumacher)
- Can we detect soil drying/droughts using satellite measurements and reanalysis data? (Martin Hirschi)
- Forests’ contribution to climate change mitigation? (Michael Windisch)
- How do we represent irrigation in Earth System Models? (Yi Yao)
Registration
The registration is open 11-19 October 2025. Register here.
After the end of the registration period, you will be assigned to a group based on your preferences. A supervisor will contact your group with detailed instructions.
Reading assignment
- protected page Seneviratne et al, Earth-Science Reviews, 2010: Investigating soil moisture–climate interactions in a changing climate: A review.
Selected readings
- protected page Bonan, Science, 2008: Forests and climate change: Forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests.
- external page IPCC SRCCL Chapter 2: Land-Climate Interactions
- external page IPCC AR6 WG1 SPM: Summary for Policy Makers
- external page IPCC AR6 WG1 Chapter 11: Weather and Climate Extreme Events in a Changing Climate
Further readings
- protected page Arneth et al, Nature Geoscience, 2010: Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system.
- external page Koster et al, Science, 2004: Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation.
- protected page Ciais et al, Nature, 2005: Europe-wide reduction in primary productivity caused by the heat and drought in 2003.
- protected page Davin et al, PNAS, 2014: Preferential cooling of hot extremes from cropland albedo management
- protected page Dirmeyer et al, BAMS, 2006: GSWP-2 multimodel analysis and implications for our perception of the land surface.
- protected page Findell and Eltahir, J. Hydrometeorology, 2003: Atmospheric Controls on Soil Moisture–Boundary Layer Interactions. Part I: Framework Development.
- protected page Friedlingstein et al, J. Climate, 2006: Climate–carbon cycle feedback analysis: Results from the C4MIP model intercomparison.
- protected page Greve et al, Nature Geoscience, 2014: Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land
- protected page Guillod et al, Nature Communications, 2015: Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall
- protected page Hirschi et al, Nature Geoscience, 2011: Observational evidence for soil-moisture impact on hot extremes in southeastern Europe.
- external page Humphrey et al. Nature, 2018: Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate to observed changes in terrestrial water storage.
- external page Humphrey et al. Nature, 2021: Soil moisture–atmosphere feedback dominates land carbon uptake variability.
- external page IPCC AR6 WG1, Chapter 5: Global Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks.
- protected page Jung et al, Nature, 2010: Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply.
- protected page Koster et al, J. Hydrometeorology, 2011: The second phase of the Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment: Soil moisture contributions to subseasonal forecast skill.
- protected page Lenton et al, PNAS, 2008: Tipping elements in the Earth’s climate system.
- external page Liu et al. Nature Communications, 2020: Soil moisture dominates dryness stress on ecosystem production globally.
- protected page Malhi et al, Science, 2008: Climate change, deforestation, and the fate of the Amazon.
- protected page Miralles et al, Nature Geoscience, 2014: Mega-heatwave temperatures due to combined soil desiccation and atmospheric heat accumulation
- protected page Morgan et al, Nature, 2011: C4 grasses prosper as carbon dioxide eliminates desiccation in warmed semi-arid grassland.
- protected page Mueller and Seneviratne, PNAS, 2012: Hot days induced by precipitation deficits at the global scale.
- protected page Norby et al, PNAS, 2010: CO2 enhancement of forest productivity constrained by limited nitrogen availability.
- protected page Orth and Seneviratne, J. Climate, 2017: Variability of soil moisture and sea surface temperatures similarly important for warm-season land climate in the Community Earth System Model.
- external page Padrón et al. Nature Geoscience, 2020: Observed changes in dry-season water availability attributed to human-induced climate change.
- protected page Pitman et al, Geophys. Res. Let., 2009: Uncertainties in climate responses to past land cover change: First results from the LUCID intercomparison study.
- protected page Quesada et al, Nature Climate Change, 2012: Asymmetric European summer heat predictability from wet and dry southern winters and springs
- protected page Scheffer et al, Nature, 2009: Early-warning signals for critical transitions.
- protected page Sellers et al, Science, 1997: Modeling the exchanges of energy, water, and carbon between continents and the atmosphere.
- protected page Seneviratne et al, Nature, 2006: Land–atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe.
- protected page Seneviratne et al, Nature, 2016: Allowable CO 2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets
- protected page Sheffield et al, Nature, 2012: Little change in global drought over the past 60 years
- protected page Taylor et al, Nature, 2012: Afternoon rain more likely over dry soils.
- protected page Teuling et al, Nature Geoscience, 2010: Contrasting response of European forest and grassland energy exchange to heatwaves
- protected page Van der Ent et al, Water Resources Research, 2010: Origin and fate of atmospheric moisture over continents.
