Title: Permafrost landform and environmental variable dataset for 7.5 x 7.5 km grid cells covering 14 Level IV Ecoregions of the Northwest Territories, Canada
Citation: Weiss, Niels; Sniderhan, Anastasia Sniderhan,; Kokelj,, Steven V (2026). Permafrost landform and environmental variable dataset for 7.5 x 7.5 km grid cells covering 14 Level IV Ecoregions of the Northwest Territories, Canada.. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31095160.v1
Study Site: Northwest Territories
Purpose: Anticipating the environmental and societal consequences of climate-driven permafrost thaw requires knowledge of terrain and subsurface conditions, which prove challenging to obtain at spatial scales necessary for rigorous prediction and decision-making. Analysis of a systematic inventory of permafrost landforms across northwestern Canada demonstrates that landform assemblages co-develop with ecosystems, distinguishing fundamental permafrost properties across a continental-scale ecoclimatic gradient (106 km2) and among finer-scale ecological regions (103 to 104 km2). This approach quantifies variation in geological and climatic legacies and delineates the diverse consequences of thaw. Here we show that permafrost landsystems, defined by characteristic landform assemblages, express spatial variation in soil, ground ice, geochemical, and carbon characteristics, enabling these intrinsic conditions to be inferred at regional scales through integrated mapping and analyses. Permafrost landsystems also provide a conceptual framework to inform predictions of thaw-driven change, and to formulate, share, and apply permafrost knowledge across scales, disciplines, and ways of knowing.
Abstract: In this study, we utilize a robust, systematic inventory of permafrost-associated landforms from northwestern Canada to explore variation in the patterns of landform assemblages, and by extension, the range of terrain conditions and thaw sensitivities they reflect. Specifically, we (1) explore the broad-scale patterns of permafrost landform assemblages, and (2) evaluate the influence of climate and terrain conditions on their distribution across a continental-scale biophysical gradient (105 km2), (3) determine the influence of geologic, and paleoenvironmental history on variation in landform assemblages and permafrost conditions within and among smaller, landsystem-scale ecoregions (103–104 km2) demonstrate that permafrost landsystems offer a conceptual framework for understanding the spatial variation in permafrost properties and thaw trajectories from quantitative analysis of permafrost landforms. An ecological classification for the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, defines the spatial extent of our study and structures the analyses. A subsample of the NWT-wide permafrost landform inventory used in this study captures a range of permafrost landforms that reflect major ground-ice types, as well as soil, ground temperature, and ecological conditions encountered across northwestern Canada. These data are from a 7.5 × 7.5 km grid-based inventory of the presence or absence of 28 permafrost landform types across 3292 grid cells. The observed landforms within a grid cell combine to form assemblages and reflect permafrost conditions . Feature identification is constrained by the use of Sentinel-2 imagery with a 10 m pixel size, which was available for the entire study region at the initiation of the NWT Thermokarst Collective mapping project. The sampled grid cells represent the total areas of 14 Level IV ecoregions nested within seven ecozones (Level II ecoregions). Redundancy analysis (RDA) was applied to a subsample of the grid-based inventory of permafrost landform types (1,959) across the Level IV ecoregions to examine general associations between landform assemblages and primary climate and terrain conditions.
Supplemental Information Summary:
Research:
Further Info: Kokelj, S.V., Wolfe, S.A., Weiss, N. et al. Permafrost landsystems define regional variability in climate change effects on northern environments. Nat Commun 17, 4799 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71216-2
Status: Complete
Keywords:
meteorology,
mapping,
Permafrost,
climate change,
Geographical coordinates: North: 74.20, South: 61.98 East: -120.70 West: -111.75
Bounding Temporal Extent: Start Date: , End
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