Experimental Whole-Ecosystem Warming Enables Novel Estimation of Snow Cover and Depth Sensitivities to Temperature, and Quantification of the Snow-Albedo Feedback Effect

Richardson, Andrew D.; Schädel, Christina; Westergaard‐Nielsen, Andreas; Novick, Kimberly A.; Basler, David; Phillips, Jana R.; Krassovski, Misha B.; Warren, Jeffrey M.; Sebestyen, Stephen D.; Hanson, Paul J.

doi:10.1029/2023jg007833

Experimental Whole-Ecosystem Warming Enables Novel Estimation of Snow Cover and Depth Sensitivities to Temperature, and Quantification of the Snow-Albedo Feedback Effect

Journal Article · Fri Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023jg007833· OSTI ID:2476615

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Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States); Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark)
Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
Univ. of Basel (Switzerland)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
USDA Forest Service, Grand Rapids, MN (United States). Northern Research Station

Climate change is reducing the amount, duration, and extent of snow across high-latitude ecosystems. But, in landscapes where persistent winter snow cover develops, experimental platforms to specifically investigate interactions between warming and changes in snowpack, and impacts on ecosystem processes, have been lacking. We leveraged a whole-ecosystem warming experiment in a boreal peatland forest to quantify how snow duration, depth, and fractional cover vary with warming of up to +9°C. We found that every snow-related quantity we examined declined precipitously as the amount of warming increased. The importance of deep, continuous snow cover for moderating shallow soil temperature is highlighted by an increase in soil temperature variance and the frequency of short-duration freeze-thaw cycles in the warmer plots. We used a paired-plot approach to estimate the magnitude of the snow-albedo feedback effect, and demonstrate that albedo-driven warming linked to reduced snow cover varies between December (+0.4°C increase in maximum air temperature) and March (+1.2°C increase) because of differences in insolation. Overall, results show that even modest future warming will have profound impacts on northern winters and cold-season ecosystem processes. Plot-level data from this warming experiment, and emergent relationships between warming and quantities related to snow cover and duration, could be of enormous value for testing and improving the representation of snow processes in simulation models, especially under future climate scenarios that are outside of the range of historically observed variability.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 2476615

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 129; ISSN 2169-8953

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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