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Christian Seiler

Christian Seiler

Assistant Professor

School of Environmental Studies

Arts and Sciences

613-533-6000 ext. 75661

New PhD opportunity to start Fall 2024! Click here for details!

Research Interests

My research explores the role of the land surface in the global climate system under current and future climate conditions. By combining numerical modelling and global earth observations, my work addresses questions that advance our ability to predict how the terrestrial carbon cycle will respond to increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Recent topics include model benchmarking, global sensitivity analysis, mechanisms of forest dieback, and the impact of climate model biases on simulated carbon dynamics. Much of this research support the evaluation and development of the Canadian Earth System Model's land surface scheme.

Contact

2023-present Florence Kayode (PhD)

2019-present Raj Deepak (PhD, UVic, with Prof. Adam Monahan)

  • 2024 ENSC 841, Climate Change Science and Policy
  • 2023 ENSC 480, Land Atmosphere Interactions
  • 2021 EOS 491/562, GPHY 890, Land-Atmosphere Interactions
  • 2018 EOS 433/550, The Climate System
  • 2016 EOS 491/562A, An Introduction to Climate Physics

  • Ph.D. Earth System Science Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 2009-2014
  • M.Sc. Earth System Science Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 2006-2008
  • B.Sc. Faculty of Forest and Environment, University of Eberswalde, Germany, 2001-2003

  • 2023-present Assistant Professor for Climate Change Science and Policy, School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University
  • 2018-2022 Research Scientist, Climate Processes Section, Science & Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Government of Canada
  • 2016-2018 Research Climatologist, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), University of Victoria (UVic)
  • 2013-2015 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, PCIC, UVic
  • 2004-2006; 2008-2009 Consultant for Friends of Nature Foundation, Bolivia

Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Arora, V.K., Seiler, C., Arneth, A., Falk, S., Jain, A.K., Joos, F., Kennedy, D., Knauer, J., Sitch, S. and O'Sullivan, M., 2023. Evaluating nitrogen cycling in terrestrial biosphere models: a disconnect between the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Earth System Dynamics, 14(4), pp.767-795.

Curasi, S.R., Melton, J.R., Humphreys, E.R., Wang, L., Seiler, C., Cannon, A.J., Chan, E. and Qu, B., 2023. Evaluating the Performance of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme Including Biogeochemical Cycles (CLASSIC) Tailored to the Pan‐Canadian Domain. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15(4), p.e2022MS003480.

Arora, V.K., Seiler, C., Wang, L. and Kou-Giesbrecht, S., 2022. Towards an ensemble-based evaluation of land surface models in light of uncertain forcings and observations. Biogeosciences, 20, 1313–1355.

Seiler, C., Melton, J. R., Arora, V., Sitch, S., Friedlingstein, P., Arneth, A., Goll, D. S., Jain, A., Joetzjer, E., Lienert, S., Lombardozzi, D., Luyssaert, S., Nabel, J. E. M. S., Tian, H., Vuichard, N., Walker, A. P., Yuan, W., and Zaehle, S. 2022. Are terrestrial biosphere models fit for simulating the global land carbon sink?. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, p.e2021MS002946. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002946

Gillett, N., Cannon, A., Malinina, E., Schnorbus, M., Anslow, F., Sun, Q., Kirchmeier-Young, M., Zwiers, F., Seiler, C., Zhang, X., Flato, G., Wan, H. Li, G. and Castellan, A. 2022. Human Influence on the 2021 British Columbia Floods. Weather and Climate Extremes, p.100441.

Sospedra-Alfonso, R., Merryfield, W.J., Boer, G.J., Kharin, V.V., Lee, W.S., Seiler, C. and Christian, J.R., 2021. Decadal climate predictions with the Canadian Earth System Model version 5 (CanESM5). Geoscientific Model Development, 14(11), pp.6863-6891.

Seiler, C., Melton, J. R., Arora, V. K., and Wang, L., 2021. CLASSIC v1.0: the open-source community successor to the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) and the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM) – Part 2: Global benchmarking, Geoscientific Model Development, 14, 2371–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-2371-2021.

Melton, J. R., Arora, V. K., Wisernig-Cojoc, E., Seiler, C., Fortier, M., Chan, E., & Teckentrup, L., 2020. CLASSIC v1. 0: the open-source community successor to the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) and the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM) – Part 1: Model framework and site-level performance. Geoscientific Model Development, 13(6), 2825-2850.

Swart, N. C., Cole, J. N. S., Kharin, V. V., Lazare, M., Scinocca, J. F., Gillett, N. P., Anstey, J., Arora, V., Christian, J. R., Hanna, S., Jiao, Y., Lee, W. G., Majaess, F., Saenko, O. A., Seiler, C., Seinen, C., Shao, A., Solheim, L., von Salzen, K., Yang, D., and Winter, B, 2019. The Canadian Earth System Model version 5 (CanESM5. 0.3). Geoscientific Model Development, 12(11), 4823-4873.

Seiler, C., 2019. A Climatological Assessment of Intense Extratropical Cyclones from the Potential Vorticity Perspective. Journal of Climate, 32, 2369–2380, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0461.1

Seiler, C. , Zwiers FW, Hodges KI, Scinocca J, 2017. How does dynamical downscaling affect model biases and future projections of explosive extratropical cyclones along North America’s Atlantic coast?. Climate Dynamics, 1-16.

Rezaee, S., Seiler, C. , Pelot, R., Ghasemi, A., 2016. Will commercial fishing be a safe occupation in future? A framework to quantify future fishing risks due to climate change scenarios. Weather and Climate Extremes 13 (2016): 73-85.

Seiler, C. , Zwiers, F.W., 2016. How well do CMIP5 climate models reproduce explosive cyclones in the extratropics of the Northern Hemisphere?. Climate Dynamics 46 (3-4), 1241–1256

Seiler, C. , Zwiers, F.W., 2016. How will climate change affect explosive cyclones in the extratropics of the Northern Hemisphere?. Climate Dynamics 46 (11), 3633–3644

Seiler, C. , Hutjes, R.W.A., Kruijt, B., Hickler, T., 2015. The sensitivity of wet and dry tropical forests to climate change in Bolivia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 120 (3), 399–413

Seiler, C. , Hutjes, R.W.A., Kruijt, B., Quispe, J., Añez, S., Arora, V.K., Melton, J.R., Hickler, T., and Kabat, P., 2014. Modeling forest dynamics along climate gradients in Bolivia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 119 (5), 758–775

Seiler, C. , Hutjes, R.W.A., and Kabat, P., 2013. Likely Ranges of Climate Change in Bolivia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 52 (6), 1303–1317

Seiler, C. , Hutjes, R.W.A., and Kabat, P., 2013. Climate Variability and Trends in Bolivia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 52 (1), 130–146

Seiler, C. , Moene, A.F., 2011. Estimating Actual Evapotranspiration from Satellite and Meteorological Data in Central Bolivia. Earth Interactions, 15, 1–24