Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (<1 m) and deeper (>1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 11 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 11 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover. These geospatial datasets are the foundation for the journal article, "Evidence for non-uniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes", published in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface.

Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (<1 m) and deeper (>1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 11 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 11 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover. These geospatial datasets are the foundation for the journal article, "Evidence for non-uniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes", published in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface.

Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (<1 m) and deeper (>1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 11 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 11 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover. These geospatial datasets are the foundation for the journal article: Minsley, B. J., N. J. Pastick, B. K. Wylie, D. R. N. Brown, and M. Andy Kass (2016), Evidence for nonuniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 121, 320–335, doi:10.1002/2015JF003781.

Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (less than 1 m) and deeper (greater than 1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 14 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 14 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover.

Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (<1 m) and deeper (>1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 11 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 11 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover. These geospatial datasets are the foundation for the journal article: Minsley, B. J., N. J. Pastick, B. K. Wylie, D. R. N. Brown, and M. Andy Kass (2016), Evidence for nonuniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 121, 320–335, doi:10.1002/2015JF003781.

Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (<1 m) and deeper (>1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 11 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 11 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover. These geospatial datasets are the foundation for the journal article: Minsley, B. J., N. J. Pastick, B. K. Wylie, D. R. N. Brown, and M. Andy Kass (2016), Evidence for nonuniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 121, 320–335, doi:10.1002/2015JF003781.

Fire can be a significant driver of permafrost change in boreal landscapes, altering the availability of soil carbon and nutrients that have important implications for future climate and ecological succession. However, not all landscapes are equally susceptible to fire-induced change. As fire frequency is expected to increase in the high latitudes, methods to understand the vulnerability and resilience of different landscapes to permafrost degradation are needed. Geophysical and other field observations reveal details of both near-surface (<1 m) and deeper (>1 m) impacts of fire on permafrost along 11 transects that span burned-unburned boundaries in different landscape settings within interior Alaska. Data collected along the 11 transect locations include: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), active layer thickness (ALT), organic layer thickness (OLT), and plant species cover. These geospatial datasets are the foundation for the journal article: Minsley, B. J., N. J. Pastick, B. K. Wylie, D. R. N. Brown, and M. Andy Kass (2016), Evidence for nonuniform permafrost degradation after fire in boreal landscapes, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 121, 320–335, doi:10.1002/2015JF003781.

This release contains plant species cover measured along transects in Alaska, 2015. Site condition information in terms of wildfire burns is also included.

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), downhole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and manual permafrost-probe measurements were used to quantify permafrost characteristics along transects within several catchments in interior Alaska in late summer 2016 and 2017. Geophysical sites were chosen to coincide with additional soil, hydrologic, and geochemical measurements adjacent to various low-order streams and tributaries in a mix of burned and unburned watersheds in both silty and rocky environments. Data were collected in support of the Striegl-01 NASA ABoVE project, "Vulnerability of inland waters and the aquatic carbon cycle to changing permafrost and climate across boreal northwestern North America." Additional geophysical measurements were conducted at the Bonanza Creek LTER and at a thermokarst bog site. ERT transects were 100 - 200 m in length, and produce models of electrical resistivity structure to depths of 10 - 15 m that indicate the distribution of frozen ground with high spatial resolution. Manual permafrost-probe measurements were made periodically along ERT transects to validate the depth to the top of permafrost. Downhole NMR measurements were made at select locations near the ERT transects to quantify in situ unfrozen water content and to help constrain interpretations of electrical resistivity models.