Hierarchic studies of snow-ecosystem interactions - a 100-year snow-alteration experiment

The Niwot Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project is examining the long-term ecological effects of altered snowpack regimes. Key components of the studies include: (1) hierarchic analysis of the relationship between natural snowpack patterns and geobotanical features, and (2) a snow fence experiment. A 3-m high snow fence will be built in the summer of 1993. Baseline soil temperature and snow-depth studies were initiated during the unusually wet winter of 1992-93 (183% of normal precipitation at the D-1 climate station on Niwot Ridge). Minimum winter soil temperatures (15-cm depth) were about -10deg C.