PeTCaT project field site visits in the Canadian Arctic 2025

10 October 2025, by C. Voigt & C. Knoblauch

Carolina Voigt and Christian Knoblauch, researchers in the newly established Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle project PeTCaT – Rapid Permafrost Thaw Carbon Trajectories, traveled to the Northwest Territories in the Canadian Arctic in September, to explore potential research sites for future work investigating the impacts of permafrost thaw on carbon fluxes. With the help of local Canadian collaborators from the University of Alberta, a helicopter took the team to impressive wildfire scars and thaw slump features in the region. First samples were collected from a handful of sites along transects of various thaw age and vegetation cover for preliminary analyses, taking place at UHH in the coming months.

The PeTCaT project is an international consortium project coordinated by the Permafrost Research Section at Alfred Wegener Institute. More information about the project can be found here.