<p>The discontinuous permafrost zone is undergoing rapid transformation as a result of unprecedented permafrost thaw brought on by circumpolar climate warming. Rapid climate warming over recent decades has significantly decreased the area underlain by permafrost in peatland complexes. It has catalyzed extensive landscape transitions in the Taiga Plains of northwestern Canada, transforming forest-dominated landscapes to those that are wetland-dominated. The high rate and large spatial extent of this thaw-induced landcover transformation indicates that this region is particularly sensitive to warming temperatures and will continue to respond to climatic changes and landscape disturbances. This study explores the current trajectory of landcover change across a 300 000 km<sup>2</sup> region of northwestern Canada's discontinuous permafrost zone by presenting a space-for-time substitution that capitalizes on the region's 600 km latitudinal span. To illustrate this trajectory of change we present the distribution of peatland-rich environments that govern permafrost coverage in this region of the discontinuous permafrost zone. We also establish that relatively undisturbed forested plateau-wetland complexes dominate the region's higher latitudes, forest-wetland patchworks are most prevalent at the medial latitudes, and forested peatlands are increasingly present across lower latitudes, indicating not only a climatic gradient but also a landscape in transition as local mean temperatures increase. This study combines extensive geomatics data with ground-based meteorological and hydrological measurements to inform a new conceptual model of landscape evolution that accounts for the observed patterns of permafrost thaw-induced landcover change, and provides a basis for predicting future changes.</p>