Welcome to ALPECOLe

The view from our office shows the overwhelming panorama of the Bernese Alps - so alpine ecology lies just next door. In our lessons, you will visit the geological basement and the alpine soils and learn about their ecological importance. Moreover, you will have a look at the climate and the landscape hundred to even million of years ago to learn about the dynamics of alpine ecosystems at different timescales.

For us, this view back opens a fascinating world and we are still amazed by the huge changes over time. Let us give an example: In the Central Chilean Andes, one of the driest mountains on Earth, we were looking for marks of former glaciers. If you stand at 4500 m elevation in this arid area and imagine being more than 10,000 years back in time, you see glaciers growing several kilometres long at mountains, where even ice fields are lacking today. Moreover, in dry basins all at a sudden huge lakes of up to 100 m water depth are appearing. Working as a paleoclimatologist or -ecologist is mainly putting pieces of a fascinating puzzle together – always being ready for a surprise.