Assistant professor, Environmental Science
Ph.D. Chemical and Environmental Science, Insubria University, Italy
MSc Environmental Science, Insubria University, Italy
BSc Natural Sciences, University of Milan, Italy
Office: NC Villa, North Campus, office 12
Phone: +41 91 986 36 35
Email: spiccinelli@fus.edu
Silvia Piccinelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental Science. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical and Environmental Science at Insubria University, Italy, coupled with a Ph.D. Visiting at Geneva University, Switzerland.
Her research studies focus on climate change impacts on vegetation, with a particular interest in species colonizing pre-alpine and high-elevation alpine ecotones, permafrost environments, and high-latitude peatlands. Her expertise includes both dendroecological (ring with and wood anatomical traits) and phytosociological approaches, investigating plant responses to climate variability, from trees and shrubs to alpine grassland, snowbed and pioneer ecological series. Her work has been published in high-level peer-reviewed journals such as Catena and Frontiers in Plant Science. Her teaching interests include all shades of Environmental and Natural Science, with a particular focus on recent Climate Change.
Before joining Franklin University Switzerland, she worked at Geneva University, Switzerland, as FNS PostDoc in the Project « TURBERAS - Reconstruction of Holocene hydro-climatic fluctuations based on multi-proxy peatland records » in collaboration with Lund University, Sweden.
She is currently working in the SPI (Swiss Polar Institute) Project « PAMIR - From ice to microorganisms and humans: toward an interdisciplinary understanding of climate change impacts on the Third Pole » within the Cryospheric hazard Cluster (Geneva University), analysing rock glaciers and surface instability through a multidisciplinary approach in Pamir, Tajikistan.
Publications:
Piccinelli, S., Francon, L., Christophe, C., Stoffel, M., Slamova L., Cannone, N., 2023. Vessels in a Rhododendron ferrugineum (L.) population do not trace temperature anymore at the alpine shrubline. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13:1023384. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1023384
Cannone, N., & Piccinelli, S., 2021. Changes of rock glacier vegetation in 25 years of climate warming in the Italian Alps. Catena, 206, 105562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105562
Piccinelli, S., Brusa, G., Cannone, N., 2020. Climate warming accelerates forest encroachment triggered by land use change: A case study in the Italian Prealps (Triangolo Lariano, Italy). Catena, 195, 104870. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104870