Arctic coastal erosion research group

12/08/2026

🎮 We flooded Los Santos. The results matched the science.

Our new preprint uses Grand Theft Auto V as a climate research tool. We extracted the terrain of Los Santos — the game's version of Los Angeles — and simulated sea level rise using UN climate projections. The virtual city flooded in the same places as the real one.

What does this mean? That the extraordinary realism of modern open-world games can actually be scientifically validated — and that 225 million GTA V players are already living inside a remarkably faithful model of coastal climate risk.

The paper is out on EGUsphere and open for community review. Read it here 👇

Abstract. We present the first quantitative GIS-based flood inundation analysis using terrain data extracted from a commercial video game, applied to the fictional city of Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) under two contrasting IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) Representative Concentra...

30/06/2026

We're excited to share two environmental monitoring dashboards built for Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island) and Shingle Point/Taqpaq — created with the Inuvialuit Settlement Region community in mind.

These dashboards pull together weather forecasts, sea ice conditions, and coastal data in one place, updated automatically, so anyone — community members, land users, researchers — can check current and upcoming conditions at these two important sites.

Why we built this: so the people who know and depend on this coast best have easy access to the same data we use in our research, in a format that's quick to check before heading out on the land or water.

https://snapdragon-hardboard-204.notion.site/qikiqtaruk-environmental-dashboard
https://snapdragon-hardboard-204.notion.site/shingle-point

This is just the beginning. We'd love to hear from folks in Inuvik and Aklavik: what would make these dashboards more useful to you? Ice trail conditions? Storm alerts? Something else? We're actively looking at what new modules we can realistically add — so if you have ideas, drop a comment or message the page. Thank you for your input as we keep building this together.

— The Arctic Coastal Erosion Research Group

15/06/2026

This time not on Canada: A great article from Nina Nesterova on slump dynamics in western Siberia

Retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) are key indicators of permafrost thaw in the West Siberian Arctic. Based on a new high-resolution remote sensing-derived, field-verified inventory of 6168 RTSs for the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas, we provide the first large-scale spatio-temporal and climate sensitivit...

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"