Gabriela Schaepman-Strub - Curriculum Vitae#

Education

• 2005 PhD, U Zurich
  
• 1999 Dipl Geography, (minor Biology & European Ethnology), U Zurich

Employment

• 2025 - present Full prof. Earth System Science, U Zurich
  
• 2019 - 2025 Assoc. prof. Earth System Science, U Zurich
  
• 2014 Visiting scientist, NASA JPL
  
• 2009 - 2019 Research scientist, U Zurich
  
• 2007 - 2009 Research scientist, Wageningen U
  
• 2005 - 2007 External postdoc fellow, European Space Agency, Wageningen U
  
• 2001 Visiting PhD student, Boston U

Leadership roles

• 2025 - present Vice-president, International Arctic Science Committee
  
• 2024 - present Chairperson, World Biodiversity Forum 2026
  
• 2021 - 2023 Scientific director, Swiss Polar Institute

Teaching and supervision

• Courses in study programmes Earth System Science (Intro to ESS; Earth system modelling) and Biodiversity (Ecosystems and climate, From species to landscape – remote sensing of biodiversity)
  
• Supervision of PhD (12), MSc (34) and BSc students

Publications (selected, complementary to highlighted, * supervised by Schaepman-Strub)

*Assmann, High variation in the surface extent of freshwater ponds creates dynamic Arctic tundra landscapes in the lowlands of Eastern Siberia. Environmental Research Letters, 20(11), 2025

García Criado, Plant diversity dynamics over space and time in a warming Arctic. Nature, 642(8068), 653–661, 2025

*Heim, Arctic tundra ecosystems under fire—Alternative ecosystem states in a changing climate? Journal of Ecology, 2025

*Rietze, Pre-fire vegetation conditions and topography shape burn mosaics of Siberian tundra fire scars. Biogeosciences, 2025

*Zemlianskii, Finding northernmost baselines: high variability of above-ground biomass on Eurasian polar desert islands. Environmental Research: Ecology, 4(3), 2025

Gonzalez, A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7, 1947–1952, 2023

*Plekhanova, Mid-summer snow-free albedo across the Arctic tundra was mostly stable or increased over the past two decades. Environmental Research Letters, 17, 124026, 2022

Kim, Extensive fires in southeastern Siberian permafrost related to preceding Arctic Oscillation. Science Advances, 6(2), 2020

*Le Moigne, The biogeochemical variability of Arctic thermokarst ponds is reflected by stochastic and niche-driven microbial community assembly processes. Environmental Microbiology, 22(11), 4847-4862, 2020

*Oehri, Terrestrial land-cover type richness is positively linked to landscape-level functioning. Nature Communications, 11(1), 2020

*Ksenofontov, ‘There are new species’: indigenous knowledge of biodiversity changes in Arctic Yakutia. Polar Geography, 42, 34-57, 2019

*Oehri, Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale. PNAS, 114(38), 2017

Myers-Smith, Climate sensitivity of shrub growth across the tundra biome. Nature Climate Change, 5, 887, 2015

*Blok, Shrub expansion may reduce summer permafrost thaw in Siberian tundra. Global Change Biology, 16, 1296-1305, 2010