Our research interests focus on the role of vegetation, its composition and structure, on land surface processes and climate feedbacks. Radiation is one of the key factors linking land surface and atmospheric processes. At the same time, radiation is a limiting growth factor of vegetation, be it in the short wavelength range as photosynthetically active radiation or in the longwave domain as temperature. Our goal is to contribute to ecological and climatological questions through combined field and satellite radiation measurements, radiative modelling, and ecological experimental approaches, from the plant to the landscape scale.
The emphasis lies on continuous process-related ecosystem variables (e.g. albedo, plant traits), going beyond traditional land cover types with spatially discrete class boundaries. Our focus is on vegetation dynamics, biodiversity and related permafrost-vegetation-atmosphere processes in Northeastern Siberian tundra.

Head of group: Prof. Dr. Gabriela Schaepman-Strub

Most recent news

• 11/05/22 - our Cornelia Krug discussed in the Swiss Parliament how biodiversity in Switzerland can be maintained and fostered - excellent summaries also by other speakers how to address the climate and biodiversity crises jointly!
• 03/05/22 - a very warm welcome to Jakob Assmann to our research group! Looking forward to exciting collaboration!
• 22/04/22 - Gabriela was interviewed by a journalist from Swissinfo and NZZ Global about the impact of the current war onto research in the Russian Arctic.
• 14/04/22 - Arctic floods threaten the breeding habitat of the critically endangered Siberian crane - our article is out now!
• 06/04/22 - a very warm welcome to Ramona Heim to our research group! Looking forward to exciting collaboration!
• 01/02/22 - very big congrats to Jin-Soo Kim for his Nature Communications Earth & Environment paper published today: Arctic warming-induced cold damage to East Asian terrestrial ecosystems - a really nice synthesis of observations, modelling and remote sensing data!
• 18/12/21 - recent Science video covers our Siberian crane study - thanks, Inga, for providing beautiful pictures!
• 14/12/21 - New postdoc position available in our group on Arctic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning -  see details here (PDF, 413 KB)!
• 14/12/21 - Get a glimpse through this short video into the interdisciplinary Arctic Century Expedition, where Vitalii and Gabriela participated!
• 14/12/21 - it's already a while that Nils Rietze started as a new PhD student in our research group, working on land surface temperature to assess ecosystem functions in the heterogenous Arctic tundra. Welcome!
• 17/09/21 - Vitalii and Gabriela are back from a once in a lifetime research trip to the high Arctic Russian islands. Check out the blog and the news report in SRF (in  Italian)
• 24/05/21 - Check out the latest reports on Arctic biodiversity officially released last week by the Arctic Council - in two of the reports our group has contributed State of Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity Report and Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining.
• 24/05/21 - Congratulations to Jin-Soo for his 2 co-authored papers on Tropical drivers of interannual vegetation variability in eastern Africa and Modulation of land photosynthesis by the Indian Ocean Dipole!
• 01/05/21 - Gabriela has been elected as new Scientific Director of the Swiss Polar Institute, starting her new part-time position as of today!
• 09/04/21 - Congratulations to Annabelle for the acceptance of her first PhD paper on mangrove forest change on Aldabra Atoll and it's relation to wave power!
• 09/04/21 - Congratulations to Elena and Raleigh for the MethodsX paper describing our tundra precipitation experimental setup!
• 09/04/21 - Interested to know more about vegetation-permafrost interaction? Have a look at the SRF Einstein TV show (in German) about permafrost!
• 14/01/21 - Congratulations to Elena for her first PhD paper! Check out how leaf diversity contributes to light overyielding
• 14/01/21 - Lunch event organized by Swiss Academies on the polar expedition MOSAIC - join in on 11 February (and train your German :-) SCIENCE after NOON - Arktis
• 14/01/21 - Job opportunities in thermal remote sensing TRISHNA positions (PDF, 89 KB)
• 19/10/20 - Congratulations to Maitane Iturrate-Garcia for our article on tundra shrub trait shifts as a response to permafrost thaw and fertilization!
• 14/10/20 - Congratulations to Alizée Le Moigne for her paper on microbial communities and their functions in Siberian thermokarst ponds! Such a nice URPP GCB outcome!
• 06/10/20 - Kick-off meeting of the EU-CHARTER project starting today. We are a project partner in this great opportunity to investigate drivers and feedbacks of changes in Arctic terrestrial biodiversity.
• 05/10/20 - It was great to see so many at my inaugural lecture on the 'Green Arctic'! Thanks for celebrating with me my professorship. The lecture - in German - is now available online (Die Grüne Arktis - Video) for those who missed it ;-)
• 08/09/20 - Annabelle featured in a spotlight on early career researchers of the West Indian Ocean Governance Exchange Network - congratulations!
• 08/07/20 - Gabriela has been interviewed by NZZ am Sonntag and the national radio station SRF Echo der Zeit to discuss the current heat wave in the Siberian Arctic.
• 15/06/20 - Gabriela got nominated as a teacher of the hour. Thanks very much to the students for the nomination!
• 12/06/20 - Congratulations to Simone Stünzi for the acceptance of her first paper on Siberian forest fires!
• 20/05/20 - Congratulations, Jin-Soo, for wining a highly competitive grant for a 'Post-Doctoral Overseas Training', National Research Foundation of Korea!
• 14/05/20 - Another cool article in Nature Communications on Arctic warming mechanisms related to CO₂ physiological forcing. Congrats, Jin-Soo!
• 08/05/20 - Congratulations, Cengiz, for your MSc thesis defense! Was a real pleasure to see this final presentation!
• 08/05/20 - Nice media coverage of Arctic Panel discussion during World Biodiversity Forum today in higgs, but also several regional newspapers Die Arktis wie wir sie heute kennen ist verloren.
• 01/05/20 - Gabriela is the new chair of the Science and Technology Advisory board of the Swiss Polar Institute, supported by the new vice-chair Björn Dählbeck - looking forward to this new service! https://swisspolar.ch/organisation/
• 30/04/20 - Art and Science meet at the poles - Barbara Schibli and Gabriela got one out of 4 PolArts grants awarded and will work together on tundra soundscapes over the coming year https://prohelvetia.ch/en/2020/04/polarts-tandems/
• 22/04/20 - Congratulations to Jin-Soo for the acceptance of his paper on decadal ENSO-global carbon cycle relationships!
• 01/04/20 - Welcome, Jin-Soo Kim, to our research group! Looking forward to develop new research and teaching with you!
• 29/02/20 - The Arctic is greening with climate warming - it's not so straight forward! Our recent paper in Nature Climate Change discusses complexities in the greening of the Arctic.
• 09/01/20 - Exciting times with two substantial papers out within just 2 days by our group members:

  1. Terrestrial land-cover type richness is positively linked to landscape-level functioning in Nature Communications and the related UZH press release - congratulations, Jacqueline!
  2. Relation of fires in Siberia with preceding Arctic Oscillation patterns in Science Advances - congratulations, Jin-Soo!

• 09/12/19 - Enjoy a short movie about the Siberian tundra by our MSc student Cengiz Akandil, screened at the Science Film Festival in November. Very well done, Cengiz and great music by your band!

For news in the past, visit the full news list!

Research themes

• Biodiversity and climate interactions in Arctic tundra ecosystems
• Arctic shrub encroachment and its feedbacks to permafrost and climate
• Land surface reflectance and albedo definitions and measurements
• Validation of satellite-inferred land products
• Spatial patterns of vegetation and animal movement

Projects and collaborations

• CHARTER (EU Horizon 2020 - coming soon!)
• Arctic tundra surface energy budget (SNSF)
• Global change and biodiversity (URPP GCB)
• Swiss Polar Institute (SPI)
• Terrestrial Working Group, International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)
• Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), Arctic Council
• Shrub Hub
• Drone Ecology Network
• Zurich-Aldabra research platform (ZARP)
• CEOS Land product validation (LPV)

Teaching:

• Ecosystems and Climate (UWW182)
• Spatial Ecology and Remote Sensing (UWW252)
• Introduction to Earth System Science (ESS101)
• Earth System Modelling (ESS 416)

• Integrated Knowledge in Biology, Ecology Specialisation of Masters in Biology (BIO520)