Dr. Mathias Zeller

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Interests

• Pacific Decadal variability/ENSO
• Southern Ocean dynamics
• Numerical modelling with coupled and ocean-only models
• Climate variability on seasonal to multi-decadal time scales
• Interaction between physics and ocean biogeochemistry in upwelling regions

Employment

• Since July 2024: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Gemany (Research Division: Marine Biogeochemistry)
• February-June 2024: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Alfred Wegener Insitute Helmholtz Centre of Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (Research Division: Climate Dynamics)
• 2020-2024: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Gemany (Research Division: Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics)

Education

• 2016–2019: Ph.D., School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
  Thesis: The impact of subtropical to tropical oceanic interactions on tropical Pacific decadal variability (advisor: Dr. Shayne McGregor)
• 2013–2015: M.Sc., Integrated Climate System Science, Institute for Oceanography, University of Hamburg
• 2010-2013: B.Sc., Physical Oceanography, Institute for Oceanography, University of Hamburg

Projects

Current

2023 - 2025
Humboldt Tipping (Phase 2)
Funding: BMBF
Role: Associate Investigator
https://humboldt-tipping.org/

 

Completed

2020 - 2023
PalMod (Phase 2)
Funding: BMBF
Role: Associate Investigator
https://www.palmod.de/home

Teaching/Supervision

• Since 2024: Co-supervising M.Sc. thesis
• 2023/2024: Co-tutoring the M.Sc. unit "Advanced Geophysical Fluid Dynamics"
• 2022: Co-lecturing the M.Sc. unit "Data Analysis and Statistics"
• Since 2021: Supervising semester projects of B.Sc. students
• 2018 & 2019: Tutoring the B.Sc. unit "Climate Change: From Science to Society"

Publications

Zeller, M. and Martin, T. (2024). On warm bias and mesoscale dynamics setting the Southern Ocean large-scale circulation mean state. Ocean Modelling, 191 . Art.Nr. 102426. DOI 10.1016/j.ocemod.2024.102426. https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/60715/

Kjellsson, J., Wahl, S., Bischof, S., Kummer, L., Martin, T., Pilch Kedzierski, R., Zeller, M., Oedalen, M., Park, W. (2023). Reducing Southern Ocean biases in the FOCI climate. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (in revision)

Antonietta Capotondi, Shayne McGregor, Michael J. McPhaden, Sophie Cravatte, Neil J. Holbrook, Yukiko Imada, Sara C. Sanchez, Janet Sprintall, Malte F. Stuecker, Caroline C. Ummenhofer, Mathias Zeller, Riccardo Farneti, Giorgio Graffino, Shijian Hu, Kristopher B. Karnauskas, Yu Kosaka, Fred Kucharski, Michael Mayer, Bo Qiu, Agus Santoso, Andréa S. Taschetto, Fan Wang, Xuebin Zhang, Ryan M. Holmes, Jing-Jia Luo, Nicola Maher, Cristian Martinez-Villalobos, Gerald A. Meehl, Rajashree Naha, Niklas Schneider, Samantha Stevenson, Arnold Sullivan, Peter van Rensch & Tongtong Xu. (2023). Mechanisms of tropical Pacific decadal variability. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 4, 754–769. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00486-x

Zeller, M., McGregor, S., Capotondi, A., van Sebille, E. (2021). Subtropical-tropical pathways of spiciness anomalies and their impact on equatorial Pacific temperature. Climate Dynamics 56, 1131–1144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05524-8

Neske, S., McGregor, S., Zeller, M., & Dommenget, D. (2020). Wind Spatial Structure Triggers ENSO’s Oceanic Warm Water Volume Changes. Journal of Climate

Zeller, M., McGregor, S., Spence, P. (2019). Hemispheric asymmetry of the Pacific shallow meridional overturning circulation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014840

Mueller, V., Pohlmann, H., Düsterhus, A., Matei, D.; Marotzke, J.; Mueller, W.; Zeller, M.; Baehr, J. (2017). Hindcast skill for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at 26.5°N within two MPI-ESM decadal climate prediction systems. Climate Dynanmics Vol. 49, 2975–2990. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3482-z