Stable Isotope Meeting (STING) 2026 visits the Jungfraujoch
More than 40 isotope biogeoscientists gathered in a cold and snowy Bern for the STING “Stable Isotope Meeting” in January 2026. The meeting brought together the isotope community to discuss progress, breakthroughs, challenges and next steps regarding the use of isotopes to understand C and N cycling, in particular CH4 and N2O emissions. STING26 was organised in four sessions:
- Background and baseline measurements (Convener: Eliza Harris, University of Bern)
- Rare Isotopes (Convener: Joachim Mohn, Empa)
- Co-location of isotope measurements (Convener: Benjamin Wolf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
- Isotopes in Field Applications (Convener: Phillip Agredazywczuk, University of Bern)
Many of the topics discussed were relevant to the research at the Jungfraujoch laboratories, so after the conference ended, we took a field trip to visit the station on the 9th of January. A number of isotope measurements are ongoing at the Jungfraujoch, including online CO2 isotope measurements run by Empa, flask sampling following by isotopic analysis of CO2 and CH4 by the University of Bern, ICOS, and the Max Planck Institute IsoLab, and 14C measurements of CO2 and CH4 made by the LARA Lab at the University of Bern and by ICOS. The STING group was not lucky with the weather but we still had an excellent visit and the HFSJG team were very glad to welcome this diverse group of scientists to the research station.
