Discontinuous Permafrost Alliance (DPA)

加拿大西北地区（NWT）的不连续永久冻土区是地球上变暖最快的地区之一。变暖引起的变化的规模和速度表明，该地区对气候变暖特别敏感，能够迅速变化。前所未有的冻土融化速度正在改变土地覆盖，改变水的流量、储存和质量，并对北方水资源的未来可用性和质量提出了新的严重关切。多年冻土融化改变了土地覆盖、水流、沉积物和溪流、河流和湖泊的地球化学状况，从而破坏了北方人的经济、福祉和生计。政府规划者、决策者和管理者、共同管理委员会、市政当局和土著社区都迫切需要基于科学的预测工具和用户驱动的缓解和适应战略，以确保"西北地区的沃茨永远保持清洁、丰富和富有成效"，正如西北地区水资源管理战略所设想的那样。为了直接应对这些挑战，我们提出了不连续冻土联盟（DPA），这是一个以西北地区为重点的知识生产者，动员者和来自大学，土著社区和政府的用户的合作伙伴关系，共同努力提高对永久冻土融化的理解和预测能力，并减轻对西北地区水资源的影响。DPA的总体目标是提供适应性风险管理解决方案，这些解决方案由前沿科学提供信息，并得到创新决策支持工具的支持，这是管理西北地区不连续永久冻土区快速解冻所需的。这将通过共同开发新的i）指导可持续资源开发所需的知识，ii）实用的，基于知识的预测和诊断工具，iii）最大限度地减少冻土融化影响的适应战略，以及iv）最大限度地提高知识吸收和应用的合作网络来实现。DPA的解决方案将直接适用于以泥炭地为主的不连续永久冻土区，这些地区主导着加拿大北方的大部分地区和环极地区。

The discontinuous permafrost region of Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT) is one of the most rapidly warming on Earth. The scale and rate of warming-induced changes indicates this region is particularly sensitive to climate warming and capable of rapid change. Unprecedented rates of permafrost thaw are transforming land covers, changing the flow, storage and quality of water, and raising serious new concerns about the future availability and quality of northern water resources. Permafrost thaw has altered land covers, flow, sediment and biogeochemical regimes of streams, rivers, and lakes, and is thereby disrupting the economy, well-being and livelihoods of northerners. Government planners, decision makers and managers, co-management boards, municipalities and Indigenous communities, all urgently require science-based predictive tools and user-driven mitigation and adaptation strategies to ensure that "the waters of the Northwest Territories will remain clean, abundant and productive for all time", as envisioned in the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy. In direct response to these challenges, we propose the Discontinuous Permafrost Alliance (DPA), a NWT-focused partnership of knowledge producers, mobilisers and users from universities, Indigenous communities, and government, working collaboratively to improve the understanding of and ability to predict and mitigate the impacts of permafrost thaw on the NWT's water resources. DPA's overall goal is to deliver the adaptive risk management solutions informed by leading-edge science and supported by innovative decision support tools, needed to manage the rapid thaw in the NWT's discontinuous permafrost zone. This will be achieved by co-developing new i) knowledge needed to guide sustainable resource development, ii) practical, knowledge-based predictive and diagnostic tools, iii) adaptation strategies to minimise the impacts of permafrost thaw, and iv) collaborative networks to maximise knowledge uptake and application. DPA's solutions will be directly applicable to the peatland-dominated regions of discontinuous permafrost that dominate much of northern Canada and the circum-polar region.