COLDSPOT expedition to the Canadian Arctic 2025

19 September 2025, by C. Voigt, M. Jenrich, A. Pellissier-Tanon & F. Neiske

Photo: UHH/IfB/C. Voigt

Trail Valley Creek research camp

Aimée Pellissier-Tanon, Friederike Neiske, and Carolina Voigt of the newly formed ERC bridge group COLDSPOT (UHH & Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research) recently made their way to Trail Valley Creek, a research camp near Inuvik in the Western Canadian Arctic to investigate greenhouse gas dynamics in permafrost landscapes. This isolated research camp located in arctic tundra is home to state-of-the-art research on permafrost-, snow-, and biogeochemistry-related topics, and the COLDSPOT team works closely together with other international research groups there.

Greenhouse gas flux measurements were combined with environmental measurements, installations for a root exclusion experiment, and soil and microbial sampling for laboratory studies taking place at UHH in the coming months.

After almost two intense weeks spent at Trail Valley Creek, the team still visited an additional, boreal forest site near Inuvik for further measurements, and used the remaining day to explore the town and enjoy the amazing tundra autumn colours.