The drained lake basin near Kotzebue, Alaska, has rapidly transformed since 2024, now densely covered with vegetation and expanding erosion, revealing more ice and supporting a thriving ecosystem, highlighting significant environmental changes since the sudden drainage event in 2022.
Observation by Guido Grosse:
We had the opportunity to revisit the drained lake at Susan and Tim's property near Kotzebue in July 2025. The drained basin has changed a lot since our last visit in summer 2024: it now is densely overgrown with grasses and other pioneer vegetation and there is barely a patch of the original brownish peaty mat left that covered everything after the lake had drained. The once narrow gully that had formed by the catastrophic drainage in June 2022 has widened substantially. The small remnant ponds in the basin seem to form over ice wedge throughs and they appear to be deepening. We found that some ducks enjoyed using these ponds. Overall, our AWI-UAF research team conducted an active layer thickness survey, ground temperature measurements, an vegetation survey of the basin, sampling of the old permafrost sediments and ground ice exposed in the drainage gully, and water sampling. We also surveyed the elevation of the surrounding upland, which can be used later to understand whether permafrost thaw leads to subsidence in the area. Thanks to Susan and Tim for their support in studying this landscape and how it changes.
Comments by Lars Flora
As shown in the pictures, vegetation in the lake basin has accelerated, indicating favorable growing conditions. Erosion has further exposed more ice along the sidewalls of the creek and basin. Local berry populations, particularly the aqpik (low-bush cloudberry), were healthy and abundant. Insects such as the woolly bear caterpillar and Papilio machaon aliaska larvae (Alaskan swallowtail caterpillars) were observed actively roaming the area, suggesting a thriving and dynamic ecosystem.
LEO Says
The Permafrost X Research Team includes experts from Alaska, Russia, and Germany—scientists who have spent many years, even decades, studying permafrost changes across Arctic regions of Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia. When the sudden lake event occurred in 2022, we were fortunate to have both local observers and an international team of researchers on-site to help interpret this rapidly changing landscape. The head researcher, Guido Grosse, provides a summary above, and Anne Morgenstern contributed the 2025 newsletter update for the expedition, available through the link on the side.
Observations From Members 
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