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Christine Kaufhold

Since May 2022, Christine has been working as a PhD student in the group Long-Term Trajectories (LTT). Her research focuses on the long-term impact of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions on Earth’s climate and the trajectory of the Anthropocene. In particular, she investigates how human activities may influence the timing of future glacial inceptions over the next 100,000 to one million years, and what this means for nuclear waste storage solutions.

Her work examines climate-carbon cycle feedbacks, the persistence of elevated greenhouse gas concentrations, as well as their general implications for Earth’s long-term stability. In addition to glacial-interglacial work, she also examines the legacy of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions (on, for example, future coastlines and regional sea level rise), as well as the potential for strongly positive climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Together, these contribute to a deeper understanding of the Earth system response far beyond the coming centuries.

Department

Earth System Analysis

Working Group

Long-Term Trajectories

Contact

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

kaufhold[at]pik-potsdam.de

P.O. Box 60 12 03
14412 Potsdam

ORCID

0009-0001-1772-9039

Christine Kaufhold studied Physics at the University of Waterloo, Canada with an emphasis on numerical modelling and environmental systems (e.g., oceanography, geosciences). After an internship in particle tracking for contaminant transport at the Department of Stochastic Simulation and Safety Research for Hydrosystems, Universität Stuttgart, she went on to finish her MSc. in Ocean and Climate Physics at Universität Hamburg. Her master's thesis was focused on characterizing regimes of weather forecasting uncertainty via explainable AI methods. Since May 2022 she is at PIK.

2026:

Willeit, M., Robinson, A., Kaufhold, C., and Ganopolski, A.: Long-term future Greenland ice loss determined by peak global warming, 10.31223/X5NN2M, in review.

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Albrecht, T., Klemann, V., and Ganopolski, A.: Future coastlines in a 3 °C warmer world will drive changes in regional and seasonal climate, in prep.

2025:

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Munhoven, G., Klemann, V., and Ganopolski, A.: Timing of a future glaciation in view of anthropogenic climate change. Communications Earth & Environment, 6, 1016, 10.1038/s43247-025-02867-0, 2025.

        • One of four notable articles from Skeptical Science calendar week 50

Willeit, M., Ganopolski, A., Kaufhold, C., Dalmonech, D., Liu, B., and Ilyina, T.: Earth system response to Heinrich events explained by a bipolar convection seesaw. Nature Geoscience, 18, 1159-1166, 10.1038/s41561-025-01814-0, 2025.

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Liu, B., and Ganopolski, A.: Assessing the lifetime of anthropogenic CO₂ and its sensitivity to different carbon cycle processes. Biogeosciences, 22, 2767–2801, 10.5194/bg-22-2767-2025, 2025.

        • Second highest downloaded article in Biogeosciences in the year 2025–2026

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Talento, S., Ganopolski, A., and Rockström, J.: Interplay between climate and carbon cycle feedbacks could substantially enhance future warming. Environmental Research Letters, 20, 044027, 10.1088/1748-9326/adb6be, 2025.

        • Winner of the ERL Editor's Choice Awards 2025 - Early Career Researcher
• Part of the March 25th 2025 newsletter from  CarbonBrief

Scheduled:

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Albrecht, T., Klemann, V. and Ganopolski, A.
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM), University of Bremen
PalMod IOSC 2026, Bremen, Germany
Future coastlines and regional climate shaped by the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets (poster presentation)

Past:

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Albrecht, T., Klemann, V. and Ganopolski, A.
EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria
Changes in sea-level, regional climate, and future coastlines due to the progressive disintegration of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets (oral presentation)

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M. and Ganopolski, A.
Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), Incheon, South Korea
Current status of climate-related modelling for high-level radioactive waste disposal in Germany (invited oral presentation)

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M. and Ganopolski, A.
30th International Symposium on Polar Sciences (ISPS) 2025
20th Workshop on Antarctic Meteorology and Climate (WAMC) 2025, Incheon, South Korea
Impact of Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet melting on sea level, regional climate, and future coastlines (oral presentation)

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Munhoven, G., Klemann, V. and Ganopolski, A.
EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria
Magnitude of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions and pre-industrial carbon cycle state as key factors which determine timing of the next glacial period (oral presentation)

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., and Ganopolski, A.
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM), University of Bremen
Ocean Floor Symposium 2024, Bremen, Germany
Impact of anthropogenic CO₂ on the next glacial inception (invited poster presentation)

Kaufhold, C., Willeit, M., Talento, S. and Ganopolski, A.
EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria
Uncertainties in climate sensitivity and residual carbon emissions permit for a hothouse climate ahead (poster presentation)

Kaufhold, C. and Ganopolski, A.
safeND Interdisciplinary Research Symposium 2023, Berlin, Germany
Deep-future climate change scenarios for site selection of nuclear waste disposal in Germany (oral presentation)

Kaufhold, C. and Ganopolski, A.
Tage der Standortauswahl 2022, Aachen, Germany
A set of long-term future climate change scenarios for Germany (oral presentation)