Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere?
Abstract The timing and rate of northern high latitude spring snowmelt plays a critical role in surface albedo, hydrology, and soil carbon cycling. Ongoing changes in the abundance and distribution of trees and shrubs in tundra and boreal ecosystems can alter snowmelt via canopy impacts on surface e...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7/pdf |
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crioppubl:10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 2024-09-09T18:56:15+00:00 Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? Kropp, Heather Loranty, Michael M Rutter, Nick Fletcher, Christopher G Derksen, Chris Mudryk, Lawrence Todt, Markus Canadian Sea Ice and Snow Evolution (CanSISE) Network Colgate University 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7/pdf unknown IOP Publishing http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining Environmental Research Letters volume 17, issue 10, page 104010 ISSN 1748-9326 journal-article 2022 crioppubl https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 2024-07-15T04:16:09Z Abstract The timing and rate of northern high latitude spring snowmelt plays a critical role in surface albedo, hydrology, and soil carbon cycling. Ongoing changes in the abundance and distribution of trees and shrubs in tundra and boreal ecosystems can alter snowmelt via canopy impacts on surface energy partitioning. It is unclear whether vegetation-related processes observed at the ecosystem scale influence snowmelt patterns at regional or continental scales. We examined the influence of vegetation cover on snowmelt across the boreal and Arctic region across a ten-year reference period (2000–2009) using a blended snow water equivalent (SWE) data product and gridded estimates of surface temperature, tree cover, and land cover characterized by the dominant plant functional type. Snow melt rates were highest in locations with a late onset of melt, higher temperatures during the melt period, and higher maximum SWE before the onset of melt. After controlling for temperature, melt onset, and the maximum SWE, we found snow melt rates were highest in evergreen needleleaf forest, mixed boreal forest, and herbaceous tundra compared to deciduous needleleaf forest and deciduous shrub tundra. Tree canopy cover had little effect on snowmelt rate within each land cover type. While accounting for the influence of vegetative land cover type is necessary for predictive understanding of snowmelt rate variability across the Arctic – Boreal region. The relationships differed from observations at the ecosystem and catchment scales in other studies. Thus highlighting the importance of spatial scale in identifying snow-vegetation relationships. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Tundra IOP Publishing Arctic Environmental Research Letters 17 10 104010 |
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Abstract The timing and rate of northern high latitude spring snowmelt plays a critical role in surface albedo, hydrology, and soil carbon cycling. Ongoing changes in the abundance and distribution of trees and shrubs in tundra and boreal ecosystems can alter snowmelt via canopy impacts on surface energy partitioning. It is unclear whether vegetation-related processes observed at the ecosystem scale influence snowmelt patterns at regional or continental scales. We examined the influence of vegetation cover on snowmelt across the boreal and Arctic region across a ten-year reference period (2000–2009) using a blended snow water equivalent (SWE) data product and gridded estimates of surface temperature, tree cover, and land cover characterized by the dominant plant functional type. Snow melt rates were highest in locations with a late onset of melt, higher temperatures during the melt period, and higher maximum SWE before the onset of melt. After controlling for temperature, melt onset, and the maximum SWE, we found snow melt rates were highest in evergreen needleleaf forest, mixed boreal forest, and herbaceous tundra compared to deciduous needleleaf forest and deciduous shrub tundra. Tree canopy cover had little effect on snowmelt rate within each land cover type. While accounting for the influence of vegetative land cover type is necessary for predictive understanding of snowmelt rate variability across the Arctic – Boreal region. The relationships differed from observations at the ecosystem and catchment scales in other studies. Thus highlighting the importance of spatial scale in identifying snow-vegetation relationships. |
author2 |
Canadian Sea Ice and Snow Evolution (CanSISE) Network Colgate University |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kropp, Heather Loranty, Michael M Rutter, Nick Fletcher, Christopher G Derksen, Chris Mudryk, Lawrence Todt, Markus |
spellingShingle |
Kropp, Heather Loranty, Michael M Rutter, Nick Fletcher, Christopher G Derksen, Chris Mudryk, Lawrence Todt, Markus Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? |
author_facet |
Kropp, Heather Loranty, Michael M Rutter, Nick Fletcher, Christopher G Derksen, Chris Mudryk, Lawrence Todt, Markus |
author_sort |
Kropp, Heather |
title |
Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? |
title_short |
Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? |
title_full |
Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? |
title_fullStr |
Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere? |
title_sort |
are vegetation influences on arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the northern hemisphere? |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7/pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Tundra |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters volume 17, issue 10, page 104010 ISSN 1748-9326 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8fa7 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
104010 |
_version_ |
1809815073932181504 |