Taking Vaud's temperature: examining Switzerland's environmental health now and in the years to come

Cyanobacteria have a bad reputation: they proliferate in eutrophic lakes, where they deplete oxygen and threaten biodiversity, and sometimes accumulate on the shores of rivers, releasing a pungent smell and poisoning dogs. Often undervalued are the key role played by their ancestors in the evolution of life on earth, their sophisticated morphology and behaviour, and the richness of their interactions with plants, animals, and other microbes. In this talk, I will cover a few key aspects of the biology of cyanobacteria, including their potential responses and adaptations in a changing climate.

Worldwide cities are getting bigger and denser, and are heating up due to the urban heat island effect. In addition, heatwaves are recurring more often now, so that people in the city are regularly exposed to critical temperatures. Urban vegetation, particularly urban trees, have been proposed as a means to mitigate urban heat stress. But how much are trees able to cool down cities? Would it not be better to paint all roofs and walls white? Can urban trees also take up the CO2 we emit and help us to combat climate change?

March 1926, four men are reported missing after a hike on the great Aletsch Glacier. Their remains are found in 2012. What happened in 1926 that sealed the fate of these four men? To answer this question, we will reconstruct the history of glacier dynamics over almost a century through numerical modeling. By extending the method further back in time, we will even be able to reconstruct the evolution of the Rhône Glacier that covered Swiss Romandie during the last glacial maximum about 24,000 years ago.