Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) applies Developing spatially explicit permafrost datasets and climate assessments at scales relevant to northern communities is increasingly important as land users and decision makers incorporate changing permaf...
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ftunivlethb:oai:opus.uleth.ca:10133/6075 2023-05-15T17:46:32+02:00 Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning Gibson, C. Cottenie, K. Gingras-Hill, T. Kokelj, S. V. Baltzer, J. L. Chasmer, Laura Turetsky, M. R. 2021 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10133/6075 en_US eng IOP Science Publishing Arts and Science Department of Geograpy and Environment University of Guelph Wilfrid Laurier University Northwest Territories Geologic Survey University of Lethbridge Colorado University https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe74b Gibson, C., Cottenie, K., Gingras-Hill, T., Kokelj, S. V., Baltzer, J. L., Chasmer, L., & Turetsky, M. R. (2021). Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning. Environmental Research Letters, 16(5), Article 055022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe74b https://hdl.handle.net/10133/6075 Permafrost thaw Community adaptation Spatial dataset Peatland permafrost Permafrost--Northwest Territories Thermokarst Peatlands--Northwest Territories Article 2021 ftunivlethb 2021-10-23T22:58:55Z Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) applies Developing spatially explicit permafrost datasets and climate assessments at scales relevant to northern communities is increasingly important as land users and decision makers incorporate changing permafrost conditions in community and adaptation planning. This need is particularly strong within the discontinuous permafrost zone of the Northwest Territories (NWT) Canada where permafrost peatlands are undergoing rapid thaw due to a warming climate. Current data products for predicting landscapes at risk of thaw are generally built at circumpolar scales and do not lend themselves well to fine-scale regional interpretations. Here, we present a new permafrost vulnerability dataset that assesses the degree of permafrost thaw within peatlands across a 750 km latitudinal gradient in the NWT. This updated dataset provides spatially explicit estimates of where peatland thermokarst potential exists, thus making it much more suitable for local, regional or community usage. Within southern peatland complexes, we show that permafrost thaw affects up to 70% of the peatland area and that thaw is strongly mediated by both latitude and elevation, with widespread thaw occuring particularly at low elevations. At the northern end of our latitudinal gradient, peatland permafrost remains climate-protected with relatively little thaw. Collectively these results demonstrate the importance of scale in permafrost analyses and mapping if research is to support northern communities and decision makers in a changing climate. This study offers a more scale-appropriate approach to support community adaptative planning under scenarios of continued warming and widespread permafrost thaw. Yes Article in Journal/Newspaper Northwest Territories permafrost Thermokarst University of Lethbridge Institutional Repository Canada Northwest Territories |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Lethbridge Institutional Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivlethb |
language |
English |
topic |
Permafrost thaw Community adaptation Spatial dataset Peatland permafrost Permafrost--Northwest Territories Thermokarst Peatlands--Northwest Territories |
spellingShingle |
Permafrost thaw Community adaptation Spatial dataset Peatland permafrost Permafrost--Northwest Territories Thermokarst Peatlands--Northwest Territories Gibson, C. Cottenie, K. Gingras-Hill, T. Kokelj, S. V. Baltzer, J. L. Chasmer, Laura Turetsky, M. R. Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
topic_facet |
Permafrost thaw Community adaptation Spatial dataset Peatland permafrost Permafrost--Northwest Territories Thermokarst Peatlands--Northwest Territories |
description |
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) applies Developing spatially explicit permafrost datasets and climate assessments at scales relevant to northern communities is increasingly important as land users and decision makers incorporate changing permafrost conditions in community and adaptation planning. This need is particularly strong within the discontinuous permafrost zone of the Northwest Territories (NWT) Canada where permafrost peatlands are undergoing rapid thaw due to a warming climate. Current data products for predicting landscapes at risk of thaw are generally built at circumpolar scales and do not lend themselves well to fine-scale regional interpretations. Here, we present a new permafrost vulnerability dataset that assesses the degree of permafrost thaw within peatlands across a 750 km latitudinal gradient in the NWT. This updated dataset provides spatially explicit estimates of where peatland thermokarst potential exists, thus making it much more suitable for local, regional or community usage. Within southern peatland complexes, we show that permafrost thaw affects up to 70% of the peatland area and that thaw is strongly mediated by both latitude and elevation, with widespread thaw occuring particularly at low elevations. At the northern end of our latitudinal gradient, peatland permafrost remains climate-protected with relatively little thaw. Collectively these results demonstrate the importance of scale in permafrost analyses and mapping if research is to support northern communities and decision makers in a changing climate. This study offers a more scale-appropriate approach to support community adaptative planning under scenarios of continued warming and widespread permafrost thaw. Yes |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gibson, C. Cottenie, K. Gingras-Hill, T. Kokelj, S. V. Baltzer, J. L. Chasmer, Laura Turetsky, M. R. |
author_facet |
Gibson, C. Cottenie, K. Gingras-Hill, T. Kokelj, S. V. Baltzer, J. L. Chasmer, Laura Turetsky, M. R. |
author_sort |
Gibson, C. |
title |
Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
title_short |
Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
title_full |
Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
title_fullStr |
Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
title_sort |
mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning |
publisher |
IOP Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10133/6075 |
geographic |
Canada Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Canada Northwest Territories |
genre |
Northwest Territories permafrost Thermokarst |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories permafrost Thermokarst |
op_relation |
Gibson, C., Cottenie, K., Gingras-Hill, T., Kokelj, S. V., Baltzer, J. L., Chasmer, L., & Turetsky, M. R. (2021). Mapping and understanding the vulnerability of northern peatlands to permafrost thaw at scales relevant to community adaptation planning. Environmental Research Letters, 16(5), Article 055022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe74b https://hdl.handle.net/10133/6075 |
_version_ |
1766150232119181312 |