• Researchers measure record erosion on Alaskan riverbank

    Permafrost
    According to estimates, Alaska's thawing permafrost soils cost the USA several 100 million dollars every decade – primarily because airports, roads, pipelines and settlements require relocation

  • Matthias Fuchs

    inundation of coastal permafrost areas and their role in the permafrost carbon climate feedback.


    Personal Information Position PostDoc Project P2C2 Research interests Permafrost, coastal wetlands, Arctic
  • AirMeth

    Methane Emissions from Arctic Wetlands (AirMeth) Fig.6: Polar5 flying at low lever over Arctic permafrost. (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) The atmospheric concentration of methane, a potent greenhouse [...] pattern is shown in Fig. 3. Starting from Barrow, long low level flight legs are flown over the permafrost wetland with ascents and descents interspersed for vertical soundings of the boundary layer structure [...] east to west during which the methane concentration accummulates in the boundary layer. Fig.1: Permafrost wetland of the Arctic Coastal Plain near Barrow (Alaska) (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Fig.2:

  • AirMeth

    Methane Emissions from Arctic Wetlands (AirMeth) Fig.6: Polar5 flying at low lever over Arctic permafrost. (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) The atmospheric concentration of methane, a potent greenhouse [...] pattern is shown in Fig.3. Starting from Barrow, long low level flight legs are flown over the permafrost wetland with ascents and descents interspersed for vertical soundings of the boundary layer structure [...] east to west during which the methane concentration accummulates in the boundary layer. Fig.1: Permafrost wetland of the Arctic Coastal Plain near Barrow (Alaska) (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Fig.2:

  • Gallery

    Gallery Muostakh Island is a slender crescent of land in the Laptev Sea with ice-rich Yedoma permafrost. The sun has set over Muostakh Island in the central Laptev Sea. A driftwood fire on the beach provides [...] provides warmth at the end of the summer as we ready to return to civilization. Since permafrost begins to degrade as soon as it is submerged, for example as the coastline retreats, we often work close

  • Projects

    CCI+ Permafrost ESA CCI+ Permafrost The European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI+) provides consistent time series for climate-research related applications. Within CCI+ Permafrost (2018-2021) [...] derived from satellite data. AWI Potsdam is responsible for the Permafrost_cci permafrost product validation. We are assembling the Permafrost_cci und REKLIM data collection of shallow ground temperature [...] Northern hemisphere Permafrost_cci permafrost probability and in situ ground temperature + environmental data collection from a wide range of measurement programs. (right) This Permafrost-cci and REKLIM data

  • Remote Sensing

    order to identify and quantify potential risks for ecosystems and infrastructure emerging from permafrost degradation. Many landforms throughout the Arctic such as thermokarst lakes, thermoerosion gullies [...] the Arctic. In remote and vast Arctic areas satellite and aerial imagery provide insights into permafrost thaw processes on a regional scale which we would not gain from measurements at the surface. Remote [...] sensing component of the project, therefore, addresses the following research questions: 1. How do permafrost erosion features respond to changes in meteorological conditions? 2. What are the factors controlling

  • FLO CHAR

    water and sediment samples. Correlations between permafrost distribution and sediment characteristics will help determine the role of subsea permafrost in ecosystem dynamics. Furthermore, the project will [...] this project is to determine the impact of changing land-ocean matter fluxes and coastal subsea permafrost on nearshore ecosystems and biodiversity in the Beaufort Sea. This project will build on recent [...] zone, focusing on how it is impacted by climate change. Investigate the role of recently submerged permafrost in sediment-water gas exchange. In this project, we plan to conduct two campaigns in the spring

  • Herschel Island

    Coastal Permafrost Prosion, Organic Carbon and Nutrient Release in the Arctic Nearshore Zone ), it’s the ideal field laboratory. Lantuit and his team want to determine how fast the permafrost is thawing [...] measures temperature and moisture Herschel Island's plateau Drilling on the plateau Borehole in the permafrost Investigating the vegetation Determining the biodiversity Soil sample Measurements along the coast

  • Ice Roads

    (Graphic: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Global warming and the thawing of permafrost not only lead to destabilization of the soil in the permafrost regions of the Arctic, but also to a tendency to increasingly delimit [...] risk assessment is therefore crucial from an economic as well as ecological point of view. The permafrost model CryoGrid, which has been further developed as part of PermaRisk, is intended to help predict