The Permafrost Coastal Systems Network (PerCS-Net) is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaborations (AccelNet)and Arctic System Science Programs. PerCS-Net focuses on accelerating the process of scientific discovery, facilitating public access to scientific data, and promoting convergence through an international, transdisciplinary network focused on science, engineering, and societal issues associated with permafrost-affected coasts and communities in the Arctic. PerCS-Net leverages resources from existing national and international networks that have a common vision of better understanding permafrost coastal system dynamics and emerging transdisciplinary science, engineering, and societal issues in order to amplify the broader impacts by each individual network. PerCS-Net strengthens linkages between existing networks based in Germany, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Poland, and Canada with the activities of several active NSF-funded networks as well as several local, state, and federally funded US-based networks. PerCS-Net benefits from the legacy of previous international permafrost coastal system efforts by leveraging these existing linkages that have been in place, in some instances for 20 plus years.
PerCS-Net will benefit the US and international research communities by (1) developing internationally recognized protocols for quantifying the multitude of changes and impacts occurring in Arctic coastal permafrost systems, (2) sustaining long-term observations from representative coastal key sites, (3) unifying annual and decadal-scale observations of circum-arctic permafrost-influenced coasts, (4) refining a circum-arctic coastal mapping classification system and web-based delivery of geospatial information for management planning purposes and readily accessible information exchange for vulnerability assessments, (5) engaging local communities and observers to capture impacts on subsistence and traditional livelihoods, and (6) promoting synergy across networks to foster the next generation of students, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career researchers faced with the known and unknown challenges of the future Arctic System.
