TY - JOUR

T1 - Winters are changing

T2 - snow effects on Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

AU - Rixen, Christian

AU - Høye, Toke Thomas

AU - Macek, Petr

AU - Aerts, Rien

AU - Alatalo, Juha M.

AU - Anderson, Jill T.

AU - Arnold, Pieter A.

AU - Barrio, Isabel C

AU - Bjerke, Jarle W.

AU - Björkman, Mats P.

AU - Blok, Daan

AU - Blume-Werry, Gesche

AU - Boike, Julia

AU - Bokhorst, Stef

AU - Carbognani, Michele

AU - Christiansen, Casper T.

AU - Convey, Peter

AU - Cooper, Elisabeth J.

AU - Cornelissen, J. Hans C.

AU - Coulson, Stephen J.

AU - Dorrepaal, Ellen

AU - Elberling, Bo

AU - Elmendorf, Sarah C.

AU - Elphinstone, Cassandra

AU - Forte, T’ai G.w.

AU - Frei, Esther R.

AU - Geange, Sonya R.

AU - Gehrmann, Friederike

AU - Gibson, Casey

AU - Grogan, Paul

AU - Halbritter, Aud Helen

AU - Harte, John

AU - Henry, Gregory H.R.

AU - Inouye, David W.

AU - Irwin, Rebecca E.

AU - Jespersen, Gus

AU - Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg Svala

AU - Jung, Ji Young

AU - Klinges, David H.

AU - Kudo, Gaku

AU - Lämsä, Juho

AU - Lee, Hanna

AU - Lembrechts, Jonas J.

AU - Lett, Signe

AU - Lynn, Joshua Scott

AU - Mann, Hjalte M.R.

AU - Mastepanov, Mikhail

AU - Morse, Jennifer

AU - Myers-smith, Isla H.

AU - Olofsson, Johan

AU - Paavola, Riku

AU - Petraglia, Alessandro

AU - Phoenix, Gareth K.

AU - Semenchuk, Philipp

AU - Siewert, Matthias B.

AU - Slatyer, Rachel

AU - Spasojevic, Marko J.

AU - Suding, Katharine

AU - Sullivan, Patrick

AU - Thompson, Kimberly L.

AU - Väisänen, Maria

AU - Vandvik, Vigdis

AU - Venn, Susanna

AU - Walz, Josefine

AU - Way, Robert

AU - Welker, Jeffrey M.

AU - Wipf, Sonja

AU - Zong, Shengwei

N1 - CENPERMOA[2022]

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions, and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation, plant-animal interactions, permafrost conditions, microbial processes, and biogeochemical cycling. We also compare studies of natural snow gradients with snow experimental manipulation studies to assess time scale difference of these approaches. The number of tundra snow studies has increased considerably in recent years, yet we still lack a comprehensive overview of how altered snow conditions will affect these ecosystems. Specifically, we found a mismatch in the timing of snowmelt when comparing studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulations. We found that snowmelt timing achieved by snow addition and snow removal manipulations (average 7.9 days advance and 5.5 days delay, respectively) were substantially lower than the temporal variation over natural spatial gradients within a given year (mean range 56 days) or among years (mean range 32 days). Differences between snow study approaches need to be accounted for when projecting snow dynamics and their impact on ecosystems in future climates.

AB - Snow is an important driver of ecosystem processes in cold biomes. Snow accumulation determines ground temperature, light conditions, and moisture availability during winter. It also affects the growing season’s start and end, and plant access to moisture and nutrients. Here, we review the current knowledge of the snow cover’s role for vegetation, plant-animal interactions, permafrost conditions, microbial processes, and biogeochemical cycling. We also compare studies of natural snow gradients with snow experimental manipulation studies to assess time scale difference of these approaches. The number of tundra snow studies has increased considerably in recent years, yet we still lack a comprehensive overview of how altered snow conditions will affect these ecosystems. Specifically, we found a mismatch in the timing of snowmelt when comparing studies of natural snow gradients with snow manipulations. We found that snowmelt timing achieved by snow addition and snow removal manipulations (average 7.9 days advance and 5.5 days delay, respectively) were substantially lower than the temporal variation over natural spatial gradients within a given year (mean range 56 days) or among years (mean range 32 days). Differences between snow study approaches need to be accounted for when projecting snow dynamics and their impact on ecosystems in future climates.

U2 - 10.1139/as-2020-0058

DO - 10.1139/as-2020-0058

M3 - Review

VL - 8

SP - 572

EP - 608

JO - Arctic Science

JF - Arctic Science

SN - 2368-7460

IS - 3

ER -