Department of Conservation Biology

Google Scholar · ORCID · simonestuenzi.github.io

Consultation hours
Wednesday 2 – 4 p.m. (please register beforehand by e-mail)

Running projects

  • Junior Research Group Ecological Novelty:
    Junior research group on ecological novelty in boreal and Arctic ecosystems, investigating how climate change and disturbance drive these systems into novel states through shrubification, thermokarst, shifting fire regimes, and altered carbon cycling. The group combines process-based modelling, remote sensing, and fieldwork to quantify the mechanisms, thresholds, and feedbacks behind these transformations.
  • Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, hosted by Prof. Moritz Langer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

    • Completed projects
  • Boreal forests' capacity to protect permafrost in a changing climate (BorealFrost)
  • Permafrost Research Towards Integrated Observation and Modelling of the Methane Budget of Ecosystems (MOMENT), Postdoctoral researcher, Alfred Wegener Institute (08/2023–07/2024)
  • Simulating erosion processes in permafrost landscapes under a warming climate – a risk assessment for ecosystems and infrastructure within the Arctic (PermaRisk), Postdoctoral researcher, Alfred Wegener Institute (12/2021–07/2023)
  • Lateral ground fluxes and thermokarst development in boreal permafrost, Geo.X, (07/2022–09/2022)

    • Curriculum Vitae

    Since 2026 Junior Research Group Leader
    Ecological Novelty, Faculty of Biology and Psychology, University of Göttingen, Germany

    2024–2026 Principal Investigator (BorealFrost)
    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

    2023–2024 Postdoctoral researcher (MOMENT)
    Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany

    2022–2023 Postdoctoral researcher (PermaRisk)
    Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany

    05/2018–02/2022 Dr. rer. nat. Geography
    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany

    09/2016–01/2018 MSc Environmental Studies
    University of Zurich, Switzerland

    09/2013–06/2016 BSc Geography
    University of Zurich, Switzerland

    2015–2018 Research assistant
    Resource Economics chair, MTEC, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

    2016 Research intern
    German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany

    Publications
    Google Scholar · ORCID

    Preprints
    Yang H., Stuenzi S. M., Xing Y., Feng F., Langer M. Improving permafrost soil representation in a dynamic global vegetation model enhances predictions of boreal forest carbon dynamics and vegetation structure. EGUsphere (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-870

    Kraak D., Nitzbon J., Stuenzi S. M., Kaiser S., Oehme A., Himmelsbach C., Erland Jensen P., Westermann S., Vonk J., Langer M. Hydrological contaminant mobilisation from thawing permafrost in Alaska. EarthArXiv (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.31223/X5179J

    2026
    Wangchuk S., Stuenzi S. M., Langer M., Lu P., Michaelides R., Schaefer K., Veraverbeke S. 2026. Assessing fire-induced permafrost ground deformation and environmental drivers using interferometric synthetic aperture radar and machine learning. Earth and Space Science 13: e2025EA004473. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EA004473

    Stuenzi S. M., Grosse G., Miesner F., Westermann S., Langer M. 2026. Canopy-mediated climate feedbacks in the boreal continuous permafrost zone. Nature Climate Change 16: 971–979. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02692-z

    Ritchie P. D. L., Steinert N. J., Abrams J. F., Alkhayuon H., Arnscheidt C. W., Bochow N., Chapman R. R., Clarke J., Dennis D. P., Donges J. F., Flores B. M., Garbe J., Högner A., Huntingford C., Lenton T. M., Lohmann J., Lux-Gottschalk K., Milkoreit M., Möller T., Pearce-Kelly P., Pereira L., Quinn C., Schleussner C.-F., Stuenzi S. M., Swingedouw D., Van der Laan L. N., Zickfeld K., Wunderling N. 2026. The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements—a review. Environmental Research Letters 21: 043001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae3cad

    2025
    Gottuk J., Stuenzi S. M., Runge A., Boike J. 2025. Assessing midsummer snow-free land surface albedo variability across multiple Arctic sites using the Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 product. Science of Remote Sensing 12: 100283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srs.2025.100283

    Stuenzi S. M., Boike J., Westermann S., Langer M. 2025. Boreal Forest Cover Delays Thermokarst Onset in Central Siberia’s Yedoma Deposits. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 130(4). https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JF007873

    Chen R., Nitzbon J., Schneider von Deimling T., Stuenzi S. M., Chan N.-H., Boike J., Langer M. 2025. Potential vegetation greenness changes in the permafrost areas over the Tibetan Plateau under future climate warming. Global and Planetary Change 252: 104833. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.104833

    2024
    Burn C., Bartsch A., Chakraborty E., Das S., Frauenfelder R., Gärtner-Roer I., Gisnås K., Herring T., Jones B., Kokelj S., Langer M., Lathrop E., Murton J., Nielsen D., Niu F., Olson C., O’Neill H., Opfergelt S., Overduin P., Schaefer K., Schuur E., Skierszkan E., Smith S., Stuenzi S. M., Tank S., van der Sluijs J., Vieira G., Westermann S., Wolfe S., Yarmak E. 2024. Developments in Permafrost Science and Engineering in Response to Climate Warming in Circumpolar and High Mountain Regions, 2019–2024. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 36: 167–188. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2261

    Zweigel R. B., Dashtseren A., Temuujin K., Aalstad K., Webster C., Stuenzi S. M., Aas K. S., Lee H., Westermann S. 2024. Simulating the Thermal Regime and Surface Energy Balance of a Permafrost-Underlain Forest in Mongolia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 129(6). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JF007609

    Nitzbon J., Schneider von Deimling T., Aliyeva M., Chadburn S. E., Grosse G., Laboor S., Lee H., Lohmann G., Steinert N. J., Stuenzi S. M., Werner M., Westermann S., Langer M. 2024. No respite from permafrost-thaw impacts in the absence of a global tipping point. Nature Climate Change 14: 573–585. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02011-4

    Langer M., Nitzbon J., Groenke B., Assmann L.-M., Schneider von Deimling T., Stuenzi S. M., Westermann S. 2024. The evolution of Arctic permafrost over the last 3 centuries from ensemble simulations with the CryoGridLite permafrost model. The Cryosphere 18: 363–385. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-363-2024

    2023
    Westermann S., Ingeman-Nielsen T., Scheer J., Aalstad K., Aga J., Chaudhary N., Etzelmüller B., Filhol S., Kääb A., Renette C., Schmidt L. S., Schuler T. V., Zweigel R. B., Martin L., Morard S., Ben-Asher M., Angelopoulos M., Boike J., Groenke B., Miesner F., Nitzbon J., Overduin P., Stuenzi S. M., Langer M. 2023. The CryoGrid community model (version 1.0) – a multi-physics toolbox for climate-driven simulations in the terrestrial cryosphere. Geoscientific Model Development 16: 2607–2647. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-2607-2023

    2022
    Stuenzi S. M., Kruse S., Boike J., Herzschuh U., Oehme A., Pestryakova L. A., Westermann S., Langer M. 2022. Thermohydrological Impact of Forest Disturbances on Ecosystem-Protected Permafrost. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 127(5). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JG006630

    Kruse S., Stuenzi S. M., Boike J., Langer M., Gloy J., Herzschuh U. 2022. Novel coupled permafrost-forest model revealing the interplay between permafrost, vegetation, and climate across eastern Siberia. Geoscientific Model Development 15(6). https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2395-2022

    Boike J., Chadburn S., Martin J., Zwieback S., Althuizen I. H. J., Anselm N., Cai L., Coulombe S., Lee H., Liljedahl A. K., Schneebeli M., Sjöberg Y., Smith N., Smith S. L., Streletskiy D. A., Stuenzi S. M., Westermann S., Wilcox E. J. 2022. Standardized monitoring of permafrost thaw: a user-friendly, multiparameter protocol. Arctic Science 8: 153–182. https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2021-0007

    van Geffen F., Heim B., Brieger F., Geng R., Shevtsova I. A., Stuenzi S. M., Bernhardt N., Troeva E. I., Pestryakova L. A., Zakharov E. S., Pflug B., Herzschuh U., Kruse S. 2022. SiDroForest: a comprehensive forest inventory of Siberian boreal forest investigations including drone-based point clouds, individually labeled trees, synthetically generated tree crowns, and Sentinel-2 labeled image patches. Earth System Science Data 14: 4967–4994. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4967-2022

    2021
    Stuenzi S. M., Boike J., Gädeke A., Herzschuh U., Kruse S., Pestryakova L. A., Westermann S., Langer M. 2021. Sensitivity of ecosystem-protected permafrost under changing boreal forest structures. Environmental Research Letters 16: 084045. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac153d

    Stuenzi S. M., Boike J., Cable W., Herzschuh U., Kruse S., Pestryakova L. A., Schneider von Deimling T., Westermann S., Zakharov E. S., Langer M. 2021. Variability of the surface energy balance in permafrost-underlain boreal forest. Biogeosciences 18: 343–365. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-343-2021

    Shevtsova I., Herzschuh U., Heim B., Schulte L., Stuenzi S. M., Pestryakova L. A., Zakharov E. S., Kruse S. 2021. Recent above-ground biomass changes in central Chukotka (Russian Far East) using field sampling and Landsat satellite data. Biogeosciences 18: 3343–3366. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3343-2021

    2020
    Stuenzi S. M., Schaepman-Strub G. 2020. Vegetation Trajectories and Shortwave Radiative Forcing Following Boreal Forest Disturbance in Eastern Siberia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 125(6). https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JG005395