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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2026-330</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>A first 90 m resolution active layer moisture dataset across the Qinghai&amp;ndash;Tibet Plateau permafrost region</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Du</surname>
<given-names>Erji</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wu</surname>
<given-names>Tonghua</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5084-3570</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Dai</surname>
<given-names>Liyun</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8664-9430</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ran</surname>
<given-names>Youhua</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7774-4612</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Min</surname>
<given-names>Yufang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhao</surname>
<given-names>Lin</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0245-8413</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Lingxiao</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2081-1022</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yao</surname>
<given-names>Jimin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Li</surname>
<given-names>Zhibin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Feng</surname>
<given-names>Keting</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9732-9790</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Xiao</surname>
<given-names>Yao</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6393-3068</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hu</surname>
<given-names>Guojie</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zou</surname>
<given-names>Defu</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4445-224X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Guangyue</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7590-0412</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Xing</surname>
<given-names>Zanpin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhu</surname>
<given-names>Xiaofan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chen</surname>
<given-names>Ji</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Cryosphere Research Station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil  Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>National Cryosphere Desert Data Center, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 73000, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science &amp; Technology (NUIST), Nanjing 210044, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710061, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Center for the Pan-Third Pole Environment, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Beiluhe Observation and Research Station of Frozen Soil Engineering and Environment, State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environmental and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>24</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>39</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Erji Du et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-330/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-330/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-330/essd-2026-330.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-330/essd-2026-330.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Active layer moisture (ALM) plays a fundamental role in regulating the hydrothermal dynamics, freeze&amp;ndash;thaw processes, carbon cycling, and ecosystem and load-bearing functions of permafrost. However, spatially continuous, high-resolution datasets that characterize soil moisture across the entire active layer remain largely unavailable for the Qinghai&amp;ndash;Tibet Plateau (QTP), which hosts the largest low- to mid-latitude permafrost region globally. Here, we present the first 90 m resolution, spatially complete dataset of ALM &amp;ndash; the depth-averaged volumetric water content of the entire active layer &amp;ndash; for the entire permafrost region of the QTP. The dataset was produced by integrating 342 in situ samples collected during peak-thaw seasons from 2009 to 2024 with multi-source remote sensing environmental predictors, topographic factors, and soil physicochemical properties. Four ensemble machine learning models, include Random Forest, Extra Trees, XGBoost, and CatBoost, were trained, and a bias-aware multi-model fusion strategy was applied to generate the final ALM product. SHAP-based recursive feature elimination was used to identify the dominant environmental controls and optimize feature selection. Random five-fold cross-validation showed high apparent accuracy (R&amp;sup2; =0.62&amp;ndash;0.63, RMSE &amp;asymp; 0.08 m&amp;sup3; m⁻&amp;sup3;), and a group-based spatial cross-validation provided a conservative transferability estimate (pooled R&amp;sup2; = 0.30&amp;ndash;0.38). Within the permafrost region, ALM ranges from 0.02 to 0.70 m&amp;sup3; m⁻&amp;sup3;, with a mean of 0.21 m&amp;sup3; m⁻&amp;sup3; and a standard deviation of 0.09 m&amp;sup3; m⁻&amp;sup3;, exhibiting a distinct southeast-to-northwest decreasing gradient. The dataset is freely available with DOI: https://doi.org/10.12072/ncdc.permafrost.db7312.2026. The dataset is accompanied by an area-of-applicability (AOA) mask delineating the region &amp;ndash; approximately 60 % of the permafrost region &amp;ndash; where the cross-validated performance can be expected to hold, together with per-pixel uncertainty estimates derived from the DI&amp;ndash;RMSE relationship and the divergence among the four models.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="39"/></counts>
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