The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw
This paper documents the first comprehensive inventory of thermokarst and thaw-sensitive terrain indicators for a 2 million km2 region of northwestern Canada. This is accomplished through the Thermokarst Mapping Collective (TMC), a research collaborative to systematically inventory indicators of per...
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2023
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0009 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/AS-2023-0009 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/as-2023-0009 2024-09-15T17:49:40+00:00 The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw Kokelj, S.V. Gingras-Hill, Tristan Daly, Seamus V Morse, Peter Wolfe, Stephen Rudy, Ashley C.A. van der Sluijs, Jurjen Weiss, Niels O'Neill, Brendan Baltzer, Jennifer Lantz, Trevor C Gibson, Carolyn Cazon, Dieter Fraser, Robert H. Froese, Duane G Giff, Garfield Klengenberg, Charles Lamoureux, Scott F. Quinton, William Turetsky, Merritt R Chiasson, Alexandre Ferguson, Celtie Newton, Mike Pope, Mike Paul, Jason A Wilson, Alice Young, Joseph 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0009 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/AS-2023-0009 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Arctic Science ISSN 2368-7460 journal-article 2023 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0009 2024-08-22T04:08:45Z This paper documents the first comprehensive inventory of thermokarst and thaw-sensitive terrain indicators for a 2 million km2 region of northwestern Canada. This is accomplished through the Thermokarst Mapping Collective (TMC), a research collaborative to systematically inventory indicators of permafrost thaw sensitivity by mapping and aerial assessments across the Northwest Territories (NT), Canada. The increase in NT-based permafrost capacity has fostered science leadership and collaboration with government, academic, and community researchers to enable project implementation. Ongoing communications and outreach have informed study design and strengthened Indigenous and stakeholder relationships. Documentation of theme-based methods supported mapper training, and flexible data infrastructure facilitated progress by Canada-wide researchers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The TMC inventory of thermokarst and thaw-sensitive landforms agree well with fine-scale empirical mapping (69% to 84% accuracy) and aerial inventory (74% to 96% accuracy) datasets. National- and circumpolar-scale modelling of sensitive permafrost terrain contrasts significantly with TMC outputs, highlighting their limitations and the value of empirically-based mapping approaches. We demonstrate that the multi-parameter TMC outputs support a holistic understanding and refined depictions of permafrost terrain sensitivity, provide novel opportunities for syntheses, and inform future modelling approaches, which are urgently required to comprehend better what permafrost thaw means for Canada’s North. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Northwest Territories permafrost Thermokarst Canadian Science Publishing Arctic Science |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
This paper documents the first comprehensive inventory of thermokarst and thaw-sensitive terrain indicators for a 2 million km2 region of northwestern Canada. This is accomplished through the Thermokarst Mapping Collective (TMC), a research collaborative to systematically inventory indicators of permafrost thaw sensitivity by mapping and aerial assessments across the Northwest Territories (NT), Canada. The increase in NT-based permafrost capacity has fostered science leadership and collaboration with government, academic, and community researchers to enable project implementation. Ongoing communications and outreach have informed study design and strengthened Indigenous and stakeholder relationships. Documentation of theme-based methods supported mapper training, and flexible data infrastructure facilitated progress by Canada-wide researchers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The TMC inventory of thermokarst and thaw-sensitive landforms agree well with fine-scale empirical mapping (69% to 84% accuracy) and aerial inventory (74% to 96% accuracy) datasets. National- and circumpolar-scale modelling of sensitive permafrost terrain contrasts significantly with TMC outputs, highlighting their limitations and the value of empirically-based mapping approaches. We demonstrate that the multi-parameter TMC outputs support a holistic understanding and refined depictions of permafrost terrain sensitivity, provide novel opportunities for syntheses, and inform future modelling approaches, which are urgently required to comprehend better what permafrost thaw means for Canada’s North. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kokelj, S.V. Gingras-Hill, Tristan Daly, Seamus V Morse, Peter Wolfe, Stephen Rudy, Ashley C.A. van der Sluijs, Jurjen Weiss, Niels O'Neill, Brendan Baltzer, Jennifer Lantz, Trevor C Gibson, Carolyn Cazon, Dieter Fraser, Robert H. Froese, Duane G Giff, Garfield Klengenberg, Charles Lamoureux, Scott F. Quinton, William Turetsky, Merritt R Chiasson, Alexandre Ferguson, Celtie Newton, Mike Pope, Mike Paul, Jason A Wilson, Alice Young, Joseph |
spellingShingle |
Kokelj, S.V. Gingras-Hill, Tristan Daly, Seamus V Morse, Peter Wolfe, Stephen Rudy, Ashley C.A. van der Sluijs, Jurjen Weiss, Niels O'Neill, Brendan Baltzer, Jennifer Lantz, Trevor C Gibson, Carolyn Cazon, Dieter Fraser, Robert H. Froese, Duane G Giff, Garfield Klengenberg, Charles Lamoureux, Scott F. Quinton, William Turetsky, Merritt R Chiasson, Alexandre Ferguson, Celtie Newton, Mike Pope, Mike Paul, Jason A Wilson, Alice Young, Joseph The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
author_facet |
Kokelj, S.V. Gingras-Hill, Tristan Daly, Seamus V Morse, Peter Wolfe, Stephen Rudy, Ashley C.A. van der Sluijs, Jurjen Weiss, Niels O'Neill, Brendan Baltzer, Jennifer Lantz, Trevor C Gibson, Carolyn Cazon, Dieter Fraser, Robert H. Froese, Duane G Giff, Garfield Klengenberg, Charles Lamoureux, Scott F. Quinton, William Turetsky, Merritt R Chiasson, Alexandre Ferguson, Celtie Newton, Mike Pope, Mike Paul, Jason A Wilson, Alice Young, Joseph |
author_sort |
Kokelj, S.V. |
title |
The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
title_short |
The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
title_full |
The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
title_fullStr |
The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
title_sort |
northwest territories thermokarst mapping collective: a northern-driven mapping collaborative toward understanding the effects of permafrost thaw |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0009 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/AS-2023-0009 |
genre |
Arctic Northwest Territories permafrost Thermokarst |
genre_facet |
Arctic Northwest Territories permafrost Thermokarst |
op_source |
Arctic Science ISSN 2368-7460 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0009 |
container_title |
Arctic Science |
_version_ |
1810291379371245568 |