Tracking the impacts of recent warming and thaw of permafrost peatlands on aquatic ecosystems: A multi-proxy approach using remote sensing and lake sediments

Regions within the discontinuous permafrost zone of the southern Northwest Territories (Canada) are experiencing accelerated thaw of permafrost as a result of recent warming. We used remotely-sensed imagery (1947–2012) to track changes in the extent of peat plateau collapse around two study lakes: KAK-1 and TAH-7. Subfossil diatoms were analyzed from sediment cores to reconstruct limnological changes over the past ~300 years and assess whether …