Markus Stoffel (born April 28, 1974 in Visp) is a Swiss environmental scientist and full professor of Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene [1] at the University of Geneva.

Career

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Markus Stoffel graduated in Geography at the University of Fribourg in 1999 with a diploma thesis dedicated to the challenges of climate change for spatial planning in the Vispa valleys. His thesis was part of a major synthesis report for the National Research Program (NRP) 31 Climate Change and Natural Disasters [2] of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and was published by vdf Hochschulverlag at ETH Zurich.

Markus Stoffel defended his habilitation thesis at the University of Bern and was hired as a senior lecturer and assistant professor at the University of Geneva from 2006 onward. In 2017, he was appointed Full Professor of Climate Change Impacts and Climate Risks in the Anthropocene and has since been working at the Institut des Sciences de l'Environnement [3], the Département F.-A. Forel [4] and the Département des Sciences de la Terre [5] at the University of Geneva.

Markus Stoffel is also the founder and director of dendrolab.ch - The Swiss Tree-Ring Lab [6] where he and his team study climatic, ecological and geomorphic processes with growth rings from trees and perennial shrubs.

Research and scientific activity

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The research of Markus Stoffel and his group focuses on the impacts and risks of climate change, with the goal of understanding, documenting, and quantifying processes and drivers of change. The group observes, documents, and analyzes environmental and climate change at both local and hemispheric scales, covering daily to seasonal, decadal, centennial, and millennial time scales.

The C-CIA team's scientific activities focus on the effects of climate change on hydrogeomorphic and gravitational processes in mountains and at high latitudes, as well as on the dendroecology and wood anatomy of trees and shrubs.

Ongoing research projects address the effects of climate change on periglacial mass movements, the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate [7] (temperature, precipitation), the evolution of climate and peatlands in the Holocene [8] , and the effects of climate and global change on biodiversity. The studies are carried out in advance in the Alps, the Himalayas, Central Asia and the Andes.

Markus Stoffel is a member of the scientific advisory board of Interpraevent [9] and in the committee of the Natural Hazards Experts Switzerland [10]. He also chairs the Research Commission [11] of the Swiss National Park since 2020.

Awards

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Markus Stoffel's work has received several awards. His first scientific article [12] received the CHGEOL Award [13] in 2005, and for his dissertation he received the prize for the best work in experimental science from the University of Fribourg in 2006.

In 2010, the Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca awarded him an honorary professorship (Professor honoris causa) for his work in the field of dendrogeomorphology [14].

In 2015, the American Association of Geographers (AAG) awarded him the Denali Recent Achievement Award for excellence in research on climate impacts on mass movements at AAG’s Chicago meeting, and in 2016 he received the José Boninsegna Frontiers in Dendrochronology Award for significant contributions to cutting-edge science in dendrochronology from the International Tree-Ring Society during its conference in Mendoza [15].

Publications (excerpt)

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  • Madrigal-González et al., 2020. Climate reverses directionality in the richness-abundance relationship across the World’s main forest biomes. Nature Communications 11, 5635.[16]
  • Ballesteros-Cánovas et al., 2018. Climate warming enhances snow avalanche risk in the Western Himalayas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 115, 3410–3415.[17]
  • Stoffel M, Corona C, 2018. Future winters glimpsed in the Alps. Nature Geoscience 11, 458–460.[18]
  • Stoffel et al., 2015. Estimates of volcanic-induced cooling in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 1,500 years. Nature Geoscience 8: 784–788.[19]
  • Gobiet et al., 2014. 21st century climate change in the European Alps – A review. Science of the Total Environment 493, 1138–1151.[20]
  • Stoffel M, Corona C, 2014. Dendroecological dating of geomorphic disturbance in trees. Tree-Ring Research 70, 3–20.[21]
  • Bolch et al., 2012. The state and fate of Himalayan glaciers. Science 336: 310–314.[22]
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Markus Stoffel on Google Scholar

References

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  1. ^ "Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA)". Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA). Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  2. ^ "NRP 31 "Climatic Changes and Natural Hazards" - SNF". www.snf.ch. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  3. ^ "Institute for Environmental Sciences - Institut des Sciences de l'Environnement - UNIGE". www.unige.ch. 2015-06-01. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  4. ^ "Welcome to the Department F.-A. Forel for environmental and aquatic sciences". www.unige.ch. 2014-03-12. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  5. ^ "Department of Earth Sciences - SSTE - UNIGE". www.unige.ch. 2015-08-03. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  6. ^ "Dendrolab - The Swiss Tree Ring Lab". Dendrolab. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  7. ^ "SNSF | P3 Research Database | Project 183571". p3.snf.ch. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  8. ^ "SNSF | P3 Research Database | Project 182032". p3.snf.ch. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  9. ^ ":: Interpraevent ::". www.interpraevent.at. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  10. ^ "FAN | Fachleute Naturgefahren" (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  11. ^ "Research Commission of the Swiss National Park (FOK-SNP)". fok-snp.scnat.ch. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  12. ^ Stoffel, Markus; Schneuwly, Dominique; Bollschweiler, Michelle; Lièvre, Igor; Delaloye, Reynald; Myint, Moe; Monbaron, Michel (2005-06). "Analyzing rockfall activity (1600–2002) in a protection forest—a case study using dendrogeomorphology". Geomorphology. 68 (3–4): 224–241. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2004.11.017. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "CHGEOL Award |" (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  14. ^ "Markus Stoffel, Profesor Honoris Causa la Universitatea Babes-Bolyai | Cluj-Napoca | Ziare.com". ziare.com. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  15. ^ "Tree-Ring Society - Home". www.treeringsociety.org. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  16. ^ Madrigal-González, Jaime; Calatayud, Joaquín; Ballesteros-Cánovas, Juan A.; Escudero, Adrián; Cayuela, Luis; Rueda, Marta; Ruiz-Benito, Paloma; Herrero, Asier; Aponte, Cristina; Sagardia, Rodrigo; Plumptre, Andrew J. (2020-12). "Climate reverses directionality in the richness–abundance relationship across the World's main forest biomes". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 5635. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19460-y. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 7648646. PMID 33159062. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
  17. ^ Ballesteros-Cánovas, J. A.; Trappmann, D.; Madrigal-González, J.; Eckert, N.; Stoffel, M. (2018-03-27). "Climate warming enhances snow avalanche risk in the Western Himalayas". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (13): 3410–3415. doi:10.1073/pnas.1716913115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5879669. PMID 29535224.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
  18. ^ Stoffel, Markus; Corona, Christophe (2018-07). "Future winters glimpsed in the Alps". Nature Geoscience. 11 (7): 458–460. doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0177-6. ISSN 1752-0894. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Stoffel, Markus; Khodri, Myriam; Corona, Christophe; Guillet, Sébastien; Poulain, Virginie; Bekki, Slimane; Guiot, Joël; Luckman, Brian H.; Oppenheimer, Clive; Lebas, Nicolas; Beniston, Martin (2015-10). "Estimates of volcanic-induced cooling in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 1,500 years". Nature Geoscience. 8 (10): 784–788. doi:10.1038/ngeo2526. ISSN 1752-0894. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Gobiet, Andreas; Kotlarski, Sven; Beniston, Martin; Heinrich, Georg; Rajczak, Jan; Stoffel, Markus (2014-09). "21st century climate change in the European Alps—A review". Science of The Total Environment. 493: 1138–1151. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.07.050. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Stoffel, Markus; Corona, Christophe (2014-01). "Dendroecological Dating of Geomorphic Disturbance in Trees". Tree-Ring Research. 70 (1): 3–20. doi:10.3959/1536-1098-70.1.3. ISSN 1536-1098. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ Bolch, T.; Kulkarni, A.; Kaab, A.; Huggel, C.; Paul, F.; Cogley, J. G.; Frey, H.; Kargel, J. S.; Fujita, K.; Scheel, M.; Bajracharya, S. (2012-04-20). "The State and Fate of Himalayan Glaciers". Science. 336 (6079): 310–314. doi:10.1126/science.1215828. ISSN 0036-8075.