Relative Influence of Timing and Accumulation of Snow on Alpine Land Surface Phenology

Xie, Jing; Kneubühler, Mathias; Garonna, Irene; Jong, Rogier de; Notarnicola, Claudia; Gregorio, Ludovica De; Schaepman, Michael E.

doi:10.1002/2017jg004099

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 102 publications

(210 reference statements)

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“…, Xie et al. ). The warmer temperatures found under deeper snow are conducive to the decomposition of forest litter, likely producing the differences seen in soil quality here among snow depth treatments (Buckeridge and Grogan , Wipf and Rixin , Shibata et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, leaf litter stoichiometry was more prone to change in the winter and seasonal transitions. Snow depth can affect litter decomposition and the release of nutrients: As snow is a good insulator, temperatures under the snowpack remain relatively stable (Williams et al 1995, Zeidler et al 2014, Xie et al 2018. The warmer temperatures found under deeper snow are conducive to the decomposition of forest litter, likely producing the differences seen in soil quality here among snow depth treatments (Buckeridge and Grogan 2008, Wipf and Rixin 2010, Shibata et al 2013.…”

Section: Influence Of Seasonal Snow Cover On Ecological Stoichiometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The ecological stoichiometry and interrelationship between litter and soil under seasonal snowfall in Tianshan Mountain

2018

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Changes in snow cover caused by global climate change will profoundly affect the process of litter decomposition and soil nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. The presence of seasonal snow cover during the winter has a significant impact on forest ecosystems. The goals of this study were to explore how seasonal snow cover modulates litter decomposition dynamics and elemental cycling in forest ecosystems, and to characterize the ecological stoichiometry of nutrients in the leaf litter and soils over time. Seasonal snowfall leads to different snow depths on the ground, especially when comparing forest gaps to closed canopy. Snow cover in this study was categorized as absent, thin, intermediate, and thick according to depth (n = 4 treatments). Leaf litter and underlying soils were sampled in plots from each category of snow cover over the course of multiple seasons (i.e., the freeze–thaw period, deep‐freeze period, thaw period, pre‐growth season, and late growth season). The carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentration of leaf litter and soils were determined at each stage. The litter decomposition rate and nutrient concentration were largely dependent on the thickness of the snowpack formed by seasonal snowfall. Overall, variability in the ecological stoichiometry of elements in the leaf litter and soils was small. However, in the leaf litter, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations and their stoichiometric ratios differed across the snow cover gradient during the winter when snow was present, but not when snow was absent in the warmer months. Thicker snowpacks better maintained litter decomposition and kept nutrient levels stable. Furthermore, correlations between leaf litter and soil ecological stoichiometry were affected by seasonal snow cover, with element concentration also varying over time.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Influence Of Seasonal Snow Cover On Ecological Stoichiometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecological stoichiometry and interrelationship between litter and soil under seasonal snowfall in Tianshan Mountain

2018

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“…AVHRR GIMMS NDVI well represents elevation-dependent variation of greenness in mountain areas (Trujillo et al, 2012). The Midpoint pixel approach is well adapted to different vegetation types and various elevation belts in the European Alps (Xie et al, 2017(Xie et al, , 2018. SOS metrics (i.e., SOS EVI2 , SOS NDVI , SOS Midpoint ) are expressed as day of the (calendar) year (DOY).…”

Section: Start Of Season (Sos)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…factors at landscape level, which is due to a relatively short time span of the commonly used data, as well as their limited spatial coverage considered across the European Alps (Xie et al, 2017(Xie et al, , 2018(Xie et al, , 2020. SOS is particularly sensitive to inter-annual variations of climatic factors (Bennie et al, 2018;Fu et al, 2015;Wipf & Rixen, 2010), especially in winter and spring (Euskirchen et al, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spring Temperature and Snow Cover Climatology Drive the Advanced Springtime Phenology (1991–2014) in the European Alps

et al. 2021

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The average global temperature has been reported rising in recent decades, particularly in mountainous regions (IPCC, 2018, 2018). In the European Alps, the average temperature has increased by about 1.1°C over the past 100 years (Böhm et al., 2001). The European Alps were reported to be particularly sensitive to inter-annual variations in climatic drivers such as temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation (Beniston et al., 2003; Gobiet et al., 2014), as well as, depending on elevation, snow cover extent and its depth (Jonas et al., 2008; Xie et al., 2017). Recent climatic warming was reported to have led to considerable variance and shifts in plant phenology across ecosystems (Graven et al., 2013; Parmesan, 2006; Parmesan & Yohe, 2003) and thus may threaten species with synchronized life cycles (Dozier & Painter, 2004; Post et al., 2009). The firm link between phenological changes and seasonal temperature variability suggests that broad-scale and long-term phenology observations could serve as a proxy for detecting and tracing global climate change over space and time (

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“…In a study on the Tibetan Plateau [73], mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and snow cover duration (SCD) metrics have been correlated for some individual and accumulated months over ten years, but not looking into the strength of the identified correlations. Xie et al [74] correlated inter-annual changes of phenological metrics to snow accumulation and melt date, but they conducted this analysis only for the Swiss Alps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between Spatiotemporal Variations of Climate, Snow Cover and Plant Phenology over the Alps—An Earth Observation-Based Analysis

et al. 2018

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Alpine ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate change, and therefore it is of significant interest to understand the relationships between phenology and its seasonal drivers in mountain areas. However, no alpine-wide assessment on the relationship between land surface phenology (LSP) patterns and its climatic drivers including snow exists. Here, an assessment of the influence of snow cover variations on vegetation phenology is presented, which is based on a 17-year time-series of MODIS data. From this data snow cover duration (SCD) and phenology metrics based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) have been extracted at 250 m resolution for the entire European Alps. The combined influence of additional climate drivers on phenology are shown on a regional scale for the Italian province of South Tyrol using reanalyzed climate data. The relationship between vegetation and snow metrics strongly depended on altitude. Temporal trends towards an earlier onset of vegetation growth, increasing monthly mean NDVI in spring and late summer, as well as shorter SCD were observed, but they were mostly non-significant and the magnitude of these tendencies differed by altitude. Significant negative correlations between monthly mean NDVI and SCD were observed for 15–55% of all vegetated pixels, especially from December to April and in altitudes from 1000–2000 m. On the regional scale of South Tyrol, the seasonality of NDVI and SCD achieved the highest share of correlating pixels above 1500 m, while at lower elevations mean temperature correlated best. Examining the combined effect of climate variables, for average altitude and exposition, SCD had the highest effect on NDVI, followed by mean temperature and radiation. The presented analysis allows to assess the spatiotemporal patterns of earth-observation based snow and vegetation metrics over the Alps, as well as to understand the relative importance of snow as phenological driver with respect to other climate variables.

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Relative Influence of Timing and Accumulation of Snow on Alpine Land Surface Phenology

Cited by 17 publications

References 102 publications

The ecological stoichiometry and interrelationship between litter and soil under seasonal snowfall in Tianshan Mountain

The ecological stoichiometry and interrelationship between litter and soil under seasonal snowfall in Tianshan Mountain

Spring Temperature and Snow Cover Climatology Drive the Advanced Springtime Phenology (1991–2014) in the European Alps

Relationship between Spatiotemporal Variations of Climate, Snow Cover and Plant Phenology over the Alps—An Earth Observation-Based Analysis

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