Permafrost underlies more than a third of the Canadian land surface. Most of this area will experience persistent loss of subsurface ice in and beyond the 21st century, leading to irreversible landscape changes, profound challenges for the design and maintenance of infrastructure and threats to the health of northerners.
NSERC PermafrostNet united key scholars and stakeholders from government agencies, industry and Indigenous communities with the common goal of boosting Canada’s ability to adapt to large scale permafrost thaw. Network research focused on understanding and predicting permafrost thaw and its consequences, to connect scales from field sites to national-scale prediction and to prototype knowledge products and practices with stakeholders. By including Indigenous partners, perspectives of Traditional Knowledge complemented and enriched network research and relationships. The network addressed foundational research and innovation needs and built on stakeholder priorities. Network outputs included data products for stakeholders, synthesis reporting on permafrost change in Canada and next practices for dealing with permafrost thaw. Transformative change will occur through improved understanding of permafrost thaw and associated risk, novel methods for observing and predicting permafrost thaw, equipping experts with new skills and experiences, and a transformed Canadian permafrost community.
NSERC PermafrostNet offered the critical mass, diversity of expertise and communication that no single research group or government agency has. It supported the work of 16 professors at 12 universities, with 31 collaborators and more than 40 partnering organizations nationally and internationally. The network trained over 40 highly qualified people, including doctoral students, master’s students, postdoctoral fellows and northern research assistants. Stakeholders include federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments as well as northern communities, resource exploitation and construction companies, scientists studying phenomena affected by permafrost, and international organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
NSERC PermafrostNet was funded by partners and participating institutions along with Can$5.5 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Strategic Partnership Grants for Networks.