• Surprising climate balance: In the long term lakes in permafrost areas have sequestered more greenhouse gas from the atmosphere than they released during their formation

    Press release

  • Permafrost soil is possible source of abrupt rise in greenhouse gases at end of last ice age

    Press release

  • AWI's Friends' Association honours permafrost researcher for extraordinary achievements

    Award
    Permafrost researcher Dr Jens Strauss, AWI Potsdam, was awarded "Young Scientist 2015". With this award the chairmen of the Friends' Association acknowledge the researcher's outstanding achievements

  • Permafrost

    arctic tundra is an unglaciated, treeless landscape characterized by the presence of continuous permafrost. The tundra is vegetated by low vegetation such as grass and sedges, herbs, little bushes, lichens [...] opportunity to receive information about the state of the tundra in large areas near real time. Permafrost in Greenland Geocoded TerraSAR-X scene of Zackenberg valley (© DLR 2013) (Photo: Alfred Wegener

  • Social impacts of thawing permafrost

    The thawing of permafrost poses various endangerments to the Arctic environment and the livelihoods of people. An international team examined the social risks for Arctic regions and identified five key risks related to infrastructure, transport and supply, water quality, food security and health. Press release of the University of Vienna

  • Ocean Warming and Thawing Permafrost Reduce the Arctic Ocean's Biological Carbon Storage and CO2 Uptake

    primary production) over the past two decades, according to remote-sensing studies. At the same time, permafrost thaw is accelerating due to warming, releasing more nutrients and carbon into the Arctic Ocean

  • What dangers lie in industrial contaminated sites in permafrost?

    Industrial waste lurks in thousands of sites in the Arctic permafrost regions – some of it is highly toxic. If the permafrost thaws increasingly deeper due to the massive warming of the Arctic deeper and [...] is part of the joint project "ThinIce" (Thawing industrial legacies in the Arctic - a threat to permafrost ecosystems), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 1.9

  • DACH Permafrost Conference

    connected with several international networks: International Permafrost Association (IPA) Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) Association of Polar Early [...] 16th DACH Permafrost Conference 21–24 January 2026 | HVHS am Seddiner See, near Potsdam, Germany We are pleased to invite you to the 16th DACH Permafrost Conference , taking place from 21 to 24 January [...] researchers to senior scientists. Conference Background The DACH Permafrost Conference began 17 years ago as a meeting for German-speaking permafrost researchers and has since evolved into a fully international

  • Common Grounds – Permafrost Sonification

    Common Grounds – Permafrost Sonification The circumpolar region of the arctic is the fastest warming place on earth. While finally acknowledged by the public, and already felt as more frequent extreme [...] Halperin-Kaddari of the Sono-Choreographic Collective in collaboration with Tobias Grewenig and the Permafrost research group led by Julia Boike at Alfred-Wegener-Institut Potsdam. Common Grounds ATD Documentation [...] Participants (extern) Kerstin Ergenzinger, Bnaya Halperin-Kaddari, Tobias Grewenig Section (AWI) Permafrost Research

  • Permafrost Thaw

    Permafrost Thaw Action Group The Permafrost Thaw Action Group was part of the Terrestrial Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of Arctic Connections (T-MOSAiC). Together with MOSAiC [...] d collection of field data for quantifying permafrost thaw. It addresses the need for integrated observations of multiple connected components of permafrost landscapes, including soils, snow, and vegetation [...] vegetation. Illustration of the standarized permafrost monitoring protocol. The five spheres (snow, water, permafrost, vegetation and soil) with the associated parameters, measurement modes, and observation