Mollie Izabella Olsen, Master student. Kirsten S. Christoffersen getting ready for taking samples , Aug 2026. Photo : Mollie Olsen. Hello, I´m Mollie and this summer I had the pleasure of assisting my former bachelor’s thesis supervisor, Kirsten Seestern Christoffersen, with monitoring and collecting samples from the very same lakes, Sommerfuglesø and Langemandssø, that formed the basis of my bachelor’s project. I was already in Zackenberg sampling for my masters project. I

As we walked into the Arctic tundra, the mountain slopes rose above us, and the lake came into view. We trekked a few kilometers carrying our equipment in backpacks, except for the rubber dinghy, which had thankfully been left lakeside by a group of students working in the area.

Manuscript submitted to newspaper Inarilainen (Read .pdf in finnish here) Minna Turunen, Helena Syrjänen, Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo University of Lapland, Arctic Centre The FROST project encompasses 12 research areas across the Arctic region. In Finland, the research sites are Muddusjärvi (in picture) and Kilpisjärvi. As the older generation of fishermen steps aside, the traditional fishing culture is fading. The number of people who fish with nets has declined and continues t

We sampled Pelly Lake on a perfect 15°C day, with blue skies and barely a breath of wind. We had the pleasure of bringing two Elders from the community, Navalik and her friend Josie, out on the land to enjoy the beautiful weather

When you head out into the field in Nunavik, you quickly realize that the experience begins long before reaching the study site. After several days of preparation, we set out on our snowmobiles for a three-hour journey through the fjords and mountains of Ungava.

Two students from Milla Rautio's lab at UQAC in Chicoutimi, Québec - Cassia and Félix -travelled to Alaska to sample Toolik Lake as part of FROST activities led by Sally MacIntyre. Here, Cassia shares highlights and reflections from the experience:

May 2026 If there's one thing Arctic fieldwork has taught us, it's this: no matter how carefully you plan, the Arctic always has a few surprises waiting for you. Last May, several enthusiastic Frosties headed to Polar Continental Shelf Program at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, for another winter sampling campaign. As expected, everything didn't quite go according to plan. The adventure began with Laura Brown's team, who measured ice thickness and snow cover, installed new time-lapse

A team of scientists from Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (Akvaplan-NIVA) just carried out the first field campaign for the FROST project. The project's main study location in Norway is Takvatnet, a large lake located 2 hours drive southeast of Tromsø city. Due to an extraordinarily mild autumn, the ice formation at Takvatnet that usually occurs during November, was very late this year. This delayed the first compr

The first ice sampling at Lake Kilpisjärvi, northern Finland, happened during December 2025. The lake is located at 69° N, experiencing nearly two months without direct sunlight, with the sun lingering just below the horizon and providing a few hours of beautiful twilight each day. Whole lake had frozen couple of weeks earlier and 33 cm of clear ice with some 10-20 cm of snow made snow mobile logistics easy. “Sampling of benthic invertebrates at -30 degrees celsius is a perfe

Last November, Frosties from Sweden went to sample Lake Vuoskojaure. Danny Lau, researcher at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and his team measured ice thickness and sampled water, sediment core, zooplankton, and benthic invertebrates. Prof Danny Lau working in the lab after a long day of sampling. Photo by Mikael Östlund Danny Lau’s team on their snowy journey to sample Lake Vuoskojaure. Photo by Karl Heuchel Lake Vuoskojaure is located close to the village Abi

The FROST Small Lake team of 2025. From the left: Félix Cloutier-Artiwat, Debbie Iqaluk, Laura Brown, Lisa Marno and Riley Forth. ©Laura Brown Last August, Laura Brown and her team from the University of Toronto (On, Ca) and Félix Cloutier-Artiwat, master student in Raoul Couture group from Université Laval (Qc, Ca), went to Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island to carry out FROST sampling at Small Lake and to maintain cameras, sensors and meteorological station accompanied with

Camille (left) and Milla (right) sorting benthic invertebrates in Cambridge Bay, Nuvavut, CA. Credits : © Elise Imbeau Last July, Milla Rautio and her team from University du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC, Qc, CA) traveled to Cambridge Bay to carry out FROST sampling. Together with community members, they monitored water quality and collected plankton, invertebrates, and Arctic char, building valuable knowledge about the lake ecosystem.