Examining changes to forest and permafrost distribution in the southern Northwest Territories and northeastern British Columbia

The Canadian subarctic is currently among the most impacted regions in the world as it is experiencing rapid climatic and environmental change. This has led to unparalleled permafrost degradation, which has important implications for wide-ranging boreal peatland landscapes and the associated local hydrology and ecology. Determining and monitoring the state of underlying permafrost as well as the patches of forest above them has risen to the forefront of subarctic research given the dramatic and broad-scale land cover changes that are presently being observed. The first manuscript and second chapter of this thesis examines the amount and rate of change to landcover between the 1970s and present-day. This study also addresses changes to these landcover variations across a latitudinal gradient by considering climatic and environmental factors that correspondingly vary with latitude. The second manuscript and third chapter of this thesis evaluates landcover as a predictor of underlying permafrost presence or absence. The findings of these chapters will aid in furthering the understanding of the relationship climate change has on accelerating permafrost and forest loss in Canada’s subarctic.