The Environmental Physics Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) is a vibrant interdisciplinary team of researchers studying the interaction of biogeochemical cycles and climate from regional to global scales. A new focus of the group is the investigation of extreme events, i.e., conditions in either physical or biogeochemical state that are way outside the norm. We are particularly interested in Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems, such as the California and Humboldt Current Systems, as we suspect them to be particularly susceptible to such events.