Arctic coastal erosion research group

08/05/2026

We have new paper published on "Challenges in the use of local data for regional scale mapping of C and N stocks in the continuous permafrost zone at the Yukon Coastal Plain" by Julia Wagner, Juliane Wolter, Justine Ramage, Victoria Martin, Andreas Richter, Niek Speetjens, Jorien Vonk, Rachele Lodi, Annett Bartsch, Michael Fritz, Hugues Lantuit and Gustaf Hugelius
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-113-2026

The study provides a comprehensive compilation of carbon and nitrogen data and subsequent regional modelling for the Yukon North Slope. This work is based on our Nunataryuk EU-project.

Abstract. Permafrost soils are particularly vulnerable to climate change. To assess and improve estimations of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets it is necessary to accurately map soil carbon and nitrogen in the permafrost region. In particular, soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks have been predicted....

23/04/2026

We just released a preprint of a paper in review in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science on accelerating rates of erosion on Qikiqtaruk and Herschel Island. You can already check the data and the maps in the paper. We'll try to post some figures as well in the group

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average. Rising air and sea temperatures, coupled with a longer open-water season, are intensifying the

29/01/2026

Suzann Ohl won one of the poster awards at the latest DACH Permafrost Conference in Potsdam, for her work performed together with Guido Grosse's group

20/01/2026

Here is our 2026 group picture in field outfit.
Top: Hugues Lantuit, Verena Bischoff, Anna Irrgang, Yiyang Fan, Jiaquan Zhuang
Bottom: Leena-Kaisa Viitanen (the polar bear), Katharina Jaspers, Sophia Weise, Pia Petzold, Lisa Kunz, Suzann Ohl, Michael Fritz
Missing: Deniz Vural

16/01/2026

Check out this incredible endeavor from our colleague Ben Jones in Alaska. A crazy trip on snowmobile along the coast of Alaska for science

I’m excited to share COAST-X 2026! Collaborative Observations of the Arctic Shorezone: a Traverse for knowledge eXchange (COAST-X). In spring 2026, I will be co-leading a ~1,600-mile snowmachine traverse with Phillip Wilson from Bethel to Utqiaġvik along Alaska’s western and northern coasts, li...

15/01/2026

We are very proud of our PhD student Verena Bischoff, who won the poster prize at the EMEC25 (European Meeting on Environmental Chemistry). Her poster was entitled "Composition of Petroleum Hydrocarbons and Technical Additives in Drilling Waste buried in Permafrost Soils"

29/10/2025

Maximilian Rometsch successfully defended his master thesis on Friday, the 24th of October. The thesis is entitled „High-resolution satellite imagery-derived planimetric erosion and LiDAR- derived volumetric coastal changes on Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk, Yukon“. Congrats Max!!!

26/06/2025

Lisa Kunz from University Tübingen finished her 6-week internship at AWI today. She worked with Michael Fritz on contaminant analyses from samples in northwest Canada for our EU-project. : all the best for your Masters program

28/03/2025

A new paper on rare earth elements and their signatures from the Mackenzie River delta to the abyssal Arctic Ocean, co-authored by Michael Fritz

19/03/2025

A new paper led by Mateo Cordier: "Uncovering the Economic Impact of Thawing Arctic Permafrost: Exploring GDP Production in a Changing Landscape". It is the first quantification of the gross "regional" product on permafrost. The idea was to estimate the total economic value of the "country of permafrost" in the Arctic.

03/03/2025

Another new paper led by Jorien Vonk and Michael Fritz on the Arctic land-ocean carbon cycle in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment:

Anthropogenic warming is perturbing the Arctic carbon cycle. This Review provides an overview of contemporary carbon stocks and fluxes across terrestrial, aquatic and oceanic components of the integrated Arctic system.