Dr. Jeannette Nötzli

I am interested in the cryosphere with a particular focus on long-term permafrost change in mountain regions. I work on the development and implementation of climate-related scientific obser­vation strategies at both national and international scales to quantify and assess on­going changes, investigate the processes driving them, and extrapolate them across space and time. I also examine the consequences of permafrost degradation for mountain landscapes, ecosystems, natural hazards, or infrastructure. My preferred approach combines statistical analyses of field observations with model experiments of varying complexity.

Long-term observations of permafrost are essential for detecting and quantifying its evolution and provide a critical bases for research, model validation, and anticipating the consequences of permafrost changes in high-mountain environments, including natural hazards, infrastructure vulnerability, and the impact of intense heat waves. The Swiss Permafrost Monitoring Network PERMOS coordinates systematic permafrost monitoring across the Swiss Alps and curates one of the most comprehensive long-term data set on mountain permafrost. PERMOS is carried by seven partner institutions from academia and financially supported by MeteoSwiss in the framework of GCOS Switzerland, the Federal Office for Environment, and the Swiss Academy of Sciences. I have accompanied the development of PERMOS from its beginnings, when research sites were brought together into a loosely coordinated network, to the  internationally recognized programme for national permafrost observation it is today. 

• Publication list (v. 08.2026)
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