Erich Osterberg

|Associate Professor
Academic Appointments

Associate Professor of Earth Sciences

Connect with Us

My overarching research objective is to better understand climate change and air pollution and their impacts on people. My specialty is creating long (50-50,000 years) records of climate change and air pollution by collecting and analyzing ice cores from mountain glaciers and ice sheets. I also analyze data from weather stations and climate models to investigate recent changes in rainfall, extreme storms, droughts, wildfires, and the jet stream. I particularly enjoy partnering with local communities to work collaboratively to increase resilience to climate hazards like flooding, heatwaves and drought. 

Contact

Fairchild, Room 205
HB 6105

Education

  • B.A. Middlebury College (1999)
  • M.S. University of Otago (2001)
  • Ph.D. University of Maine (2007)

Selected Publications

  • *Graduate Student;   **Undergraduate Student;   #Postdoctoral Fellow

    *Chalif, J.I., *Jongebloed, U.A., Osterberg, E.C., Koffman, B.G., Alexander, B., Winski, D.A., **Polashenski, D.J., Stamieszkin, K., Ferris, D.G., Kreutz, K.J., Wake, C.P., Cole-Dai, J., 2024. Pollution drives multidecadal decline in subarctic methanesulfonic acid. Nature Geoscience. doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01543-w.

  • *Cockburn, C.F., Winter, J.M., Osterberg, E.C., Magilligan, F.J., 2023. Drivers of future streamflow changes in watersheds across the Northeastern United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 59, 894-912. doi: 10.1111/1752-1688.13120.

  • *Kopec, B., Feng, C., Osterberg, E.C., Posmentier, E.S., 2022. Climatological Significance of δD-δ18O Line Slopes from Precipitation, Snow Pits, and Ice Cores at Summit, Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 127 (21). doi: 10.1029/2022JD037037.

  • #Koffman, B., **Saylor, P., Zhong, R., Sethares, L., Yoder, M., Hanschka, L., Methven, T., Cai, Y., Bolge, L., Longman, J., Goldstein, S., and Osterberg, E.C., 2022. Provenance of pollution Pb and atmospheric dust to northwestern North America. Environmental Science and Technology 56 (18), 13,107-13,118. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c03767.

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