Gabriela Schaepman-Strub

Arctic fires have become more frequent in recent decades. Previous research highlighted climate variables as the driving factor of fire occurrence in the Arctic, largely ignoring the contribution of human activity. Here, we analyzed the relationship between fire occurrence and human activity, as represented by artificial light at night, from 2001 to 2013 at pan-Arctic scale. Our results show a 2.45 [2.14, 2.82] times higher fire occurrence inside the lit area (exactly zero km distance) compared to control points randomly selected from areas with similar climate conditions. Moreover, fire occurrence exhibited a strong spatial association with distance to lit areas, with higher fire occurrence observed closer to human activity. Differences in fire occurrence near lit area for similar human activities suggest the potential of fire management. Effective management of fire risk around lit area to reduce ignition risks along with effective firefighting strategies are important to reduce damage to infrastructure, disturbance to permafrost ecosystems and positive feedbacks to climate warming.

Recent global assessments highlight an urgent need to rethink how we educate and equip current and future generations to engage with biodiversity loss and sustainability challenges. The Villars Institute Global Issues Survey 2025–2026 indicates that young people are calling for learning that develops systems thinking, biodiversity literacy, sustainability competencies, ethical reasoning, and futures literacy. They view these capacities as essential for contributing to more just, resilient, and sustainable planetary futures. In response, we introduce Biosphere Thinking: an integrative framework that brings together ecological understanding, ethics and values, futures capability, and transformation-oriented practice. Biosphere Thinking is structured around three interconnected pillars. Purpose: Ethics, Values, and Visions addresses why biodiversity matters, how plural values of nature can be understood and reconciled, and what constitutes just and legitimate action. It engages learners with environmental ethics, justice in biodiversity governance, and the co-production of inclusive and credible visions of possible future. Possibility: Scenarios and Futures focuses on how change unfolds and how alternative pathways can be explored. It connects social-ecological modelling, biodiversity–climate interactions, and participatory foresight to enable learners to anticipate risks, explore uncertainty, and identify leverage points for transformation. Practice: Translation and Action emphasizes implementation, equipping learners with tools for evidence synthesis, indicator development, decision support, and science–policy–society engagement, with a strong focus on co-production with stakeholders across sectors.Together, these three pillars form a coherent and actionable approach that enables learners not only to understand biosphere challenges but also to respond to them in informed, ethical, and effective ways. The framework aligns closely with international agendas, including those of IPBES and the Global Biodiversity Framework, and is designed to support education and capacity-building efforts across disciplines and sectors.This poster presents the broad concept of Biosphere Thinking education and learning. By integrating purpose, possibility, and practice, Biosphere Thinking offers a pathway to empower learners and practitioners to navigate complexity, bridge knowledge and action, and contribute meaningfully to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. We invite collaboration to refine, implement, and scale this approach across educational and policy contexts.

High-Arctic soils are extreme ecosystems where microbial and viral roles remain poorly studied. Climate-driven vegetation expansion may alter these environments, but its impact is unknown. We generate a shotgun metagenomic database from four High-Arctic islands, comparing vegetated and unvegetated sites at two depths (0–2 cm and 30–50 cm). We analyse the functional gene potential, including biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and assess viral diversity. Vegetated soils at 30–50 cm were enriched in genes for carbon/nitrogen cycling, energy production, and carbohydrate metabolism, indicating enhanced nutrient inputs. Conversely, unvegetated soils show higher BGC and ARG richness, reflecting microbial competition under nutrient limitation. Viral richness decreases in surface vegetated soils, while diversity and giant virus (Nucleocytoviricota) abundance increase with depth. These findings reveal how vegetation and soil depth modulate microbiomes and viromes, critical for predicting ecosystem trajectories in a warming world.

The Arctic is warming about four times faster than the global average, with permafrost thaw representing a potential global climate tipping element. Given the insufficient rate of carbon emission reductions, stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) has emerged as a strategy to abate climate warming. However, its effects on permafrost thaw drivers remain uncertain. The G6sulfur experiment, part of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP6), aims to reduce radiative forcing in the high-emission scenario (ssp585) to levels comparable to those in the moderate-emission scenario (ssp245) by injecting stratospheric aerosols near the equator. Analyzing the G6sulfur results, we find that this intervention alters atmospheric circulation, modifying winds, cloud properties, and the North Atlantic Oscillation, which affect temperature patterns and longwave radiation. These changes shift the relative importance of mechanisms driving summer permafrost thaw, resulting in a distinct spatial pattern: increased thaw depth in the Eastern Hemisphere (+0.51 ± 0.07 m) and decreased thaw in the Western Hemisphere (-0.26 ± 0.06 m), compared to the ssp245 scenario targeted by the intervention. While G6sulfur reduces radiative forcing to levels similar to ssp245 and slows permafrost decline by 2080–2099 relative to ssp585 (+4.61 ± 0.21 × 10⁶ km²), it fails to preserve as much permafrost area as ssp245 (-1.08 ± 0.18 × 10⁶ km²). By altering the drivers of permafrost dynamics, G6sulfur creates spatial variations in thaw patterns, resulting in an overall reduction in permafrost area compared to ssp245. Our findings underscore the need to better understand and optimize SAI deployment to avoid unintended regional impacts.

The Arctic is warming about four times faster than the global average, with permafrost thaw representing a potential global climate tipping element. Given the insufficient rate of carbon emission reductions, stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) has emerged as a strategy to abate climate warming. However, its effects on permafrost thaw drivers remain uncertain. The G6sulfur experiment, part of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP6), aims to reduce radiative forcing in the high-emission scenario (ssp585) to levels comparable to those in the moderate-emission scenario (ssp245) by injecting stratospheric aerosols near the equator. Analyzing the G6sulfur results, we find that this intervention alters atmospheric circulation, modifying winds, cloud properties, and the North Atlantic Oscillation, which affect temperature patterns and longwave radiation. These changes shift the relative importance of mechanisms driving summer permafrost thaw, resulting in a distinct spatial pattern: increased thaw depth in the Eastern Hemisphere (+0.51 ± 0.07 m) and decreased thaw in the Western Hemisphere (-0.26 ± 0.06 m), compared to the ssp245 scenario targeted by the intervention. While G6sulfur reduces radiative forcing to levels similar to ssp245 and slows permafrost decline by 2080–2099 relative to ssp585 (+4.61 ± 0.21 × 10⁶ km²), it fails to preserve as much permafrost area as ssp245 (-1.08 ± 0.18 × 10⁶ km²). By altering the drivers of permafrost dynamics, G6sulfur creates spatial variations in thaw patterns, resulting in an overall reduction in permafrost area compared to ssp245. Our findings underscore the need to better understand and optimize SAI deployment to avoid unintended regional impacts.

Mangroves represent distinctive coastal ecosystems that offer ecological benefits, notably through their high carbon sequestration rates. However, their resilience to extreme climate events remains uncertain. Here, we investigate the response of mangroves in East Asia to climate variability by employing the remote-sensing derived normalized difference vegetation index as a proxy for mangrove health. We found East Asian mangrove growth has positive relations with temperature and solar radiation, particularly in cumulative anomalies on seasonal time scales. These findings are extrapolated to future projections by the Earth system modelling to explore not only existing mangroves but also potential habitats. While shifts in wintertime isotherms indicate northward expansion of mangroves under global warming, low solar radiation events associated with aerosol emissions in East Asia could remain as a limiting factor for their growth. This study underscores the importance of climate extremes in practical planning for future mangrove conservation, restoration, and migration, which are considered effective nature-based climate solutions.

Mangroves represent distinctive coastal ecosystems that offer ecological benefits, notably through their high carbon sequestration rates. However, their resilience to extreme climate events remains uncertain. Here, we investigate the response of mangroves in East Asia to climate variability by employing the remote-sensing derived normalized difference vegetation index as a proxy for mangrove health. We found East Asian mangrove growth has positive relations with temperature and solar radiation, particularly in cumulative anomalies on seasonal time scales. These findings are extrapolated to future projections by the Earth system modelling to explore not only existing mangroves but also potential habitats. While shifts in wintertime isotherms indicate northward expansion of mangroves under global warming, low solar radiation events associated with aerosol emissions in East Asia could remain as a limiting factor for their growth. This study underscores the importance of climate extremes in practical planning for future mangrove conservation, restoration, and migration, which are considered effective nature-based climate solutions.

Switzerland is among the regions experiencing the strongest warming trends in Europe, with air temperatures increasing well above the global mean. This amplified warming leads to heat stress across terrestrial, aquatic, and cryospheric ecosystems, affecting water availability, ecosystem functioning, and land–atmosphere energy exchange. Capturing these processes requires observations that directly resolve surface temperature dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution.Thermal Infrared (TIR) remote sensing has emerged as a key approach to address this need, particularly in light of upcoming satellite missions such as ESA LSTM, CNES/ISRO TRISHNA and NASA SBG-TIR. Over the past four years, different ecosystems in Switzerland have served as testbeds for advancing TIR-based ecosystem research within the ESA PRODEX-funded TRISHNA – Science and Electronics Contribution (T-SEC) project. This contribution synthesises scientific insights gained from T-SEC, highlighting recent methodological and instrumental advancements in thermal remote sensing. Key developments include modelling of thermal directionality, advances in calibration and validation strategies, and the use of field campaigns and laboratory measurements to better quantify uncertainties in TIR observations at different spatial, temporal, and spectral scales. The presented work spans a range of contrasting ecosystems, including Swiss forests, alpine glaciers and permafrost sites, and perialpine and alpine lakes. Together, these case studies illustrate the potential and challenges of TIR remote sensing for monitoring ecosystem heat stress, water status, and energy fluxes – always with a particular focus on complex terrain. The results underline the importance of multi-scale, multi-sensor approaches to accurately retrieve surface temperature information. Such information is crucial for understanding ecosystem responses to a rapidly warming climate and for fully exploiting the capabilities of next-generation thermal satellite missions.

Global environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change across various regions of the world are deeply intertwined with social and political tensions. Yet the voices and hopes of people living in conflict-affected or politically divided regions are not often reflected in ecological research or policy. In these times when conflicts are becoming more frequent and damage from environmental destruction and climate change more commonplace, alternative and equitable visions for the future is more urgently needed than ever. In this study focussed on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) of Korea – one of the world's most militarised and politically sensitive regions – we co-developed futures of peaceful coexistence between nature and people with Korean citizens. Using a visioning process that included various creative facilitation methods and collaborative activities, we imagined what desirable and peaceful futures for people and nature on the Korean peninsula could be. The visions described by the participants emphasised human-nature coexistence, ecosystem restoration, self-sufficient renewable energy systems, social inclusion and wellbeing, and lifelong ecological learning. Many participants viewed peace itself as an essential prerequisite for environmental recovery and community welfare. This study demonstrates how the Korean Peninsula's unique geopolitical context shapes the ways people imagine and negotiate future possibilities, but also what some of their core aspirations are. Our findings demonstrate that participatory visioning can serve as an effective approach to start incorporating citizens' perspectives into decision-making processes across jurisdictional levels. Connecting local aspirations to national and global objectives is one important role of the science-policy-society in bridging between research, governance, and community voices. This offers a pathway towards more inclusive and transformative sustainability planning, even within complex or divided contexts. In this presentation, we introduce two visioning workshops conducted with citizen stakeholders during the DMZ Open Festival’s Ecopeace Forum in 2023 and 2024 in Korea, where diverse frameworks, methodological and analytical approaches, and science-communication tools were used to catalyze transformative change.

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing unprecedented environmental and societal change, driven by accelerated climate warming and expanding human activities. These transformations alter key ecological processes, reshape biodiversity, and directly affect the well-being, food security, and cultural heritage of Arctic Indigenous peoples and local communities. Despite the growing urgency of these changes, the ecosystem services (ES) concept (now widely used in biodiversity conservation, land-use planning, and policy-making elsewhere) remains underdeveloped and underutilized in the Arctic. Only a small fraction of global ES assessments explicitly address Arctic systems, reflecting both conceptual misconceptions and structural barriers to uptake.We argue that an appropriately adapted ES framework can provide an essential bridge between science, policy, and Indigenous and local priorities in the North. We identify three overarching reasons for the limited use of ES in the region: persistent misunderstandings of ES as primarily monetary valuation; fragmented, multi-level Arctic governance that limits coordinated policy integration; and existing ES frameworks that inadequately represent Arctic socio-ecological realities. Climate-driven ecological transitions, strong seasonal dynamics, and culturally embedded relationships with the land, all call for Arctic-specific approaches to ES assessment.Building on the well-established MAES framework, we propose a revised, Arctic-tailored approach that embeds Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge throughout the assessment process, adapts ES classifications to reflect Arctic-specific values and ecosystem functions, and incorporates seasonality and rapid ecological change. We also highlight opportunities for improving governance uptake, including the potential of Arctic Council bodies such as CAFF and AMAP to support co-developed ES initiatives, enhanced collaboration with Indigenous rights-holders, and greater visibility of Arctic ES in science-policy platforms such as IPBES, as well as in international statistical and accounting frameworks like the SEEA-EA. Integrating an ES lens into Arctic biodiversity research and decision-making is both timely and necessary, and a co-developed, context-aware ES framework can support more inclusive dialogues at the science–policy–decision-making interface, strengthen intercultural understanding, and contribute to more sustainable actions in a rapidly changing Arctic.