Winter Climate Variability, De-Icing Salt and Streetside Tree Vitality

Abstract

De-icing salts are applied to roads and walking surfaces to mitigate winter hazards resulting from ice, snow and freezing rain. The vitality of streetside trees, especially those growing in densely built urban areas, is compromised by repeated exposure to de-icing salts. Such trees already experience unfavorable establishment and growing conditions resulting from poor soil quality, inadequate moisture, physical abuse and air pollution−exposure to de-icing salt aggravates these challenges and can be an essential catalyst in tree mortality. Climate change is creating less predictable weather and, in some cases amplifying the intensity of winter storms. Cities that undertake snow and ice management may adopt modified approaches, and those less familiar with this practice may require its episodic adoption. We identify three pathways by which future climate warming may, counterintuitively, result in cities increasing their use of de-icing salt: (a) Warming winter temperatures in cities that were historically too cold to make effective use of sodium chloride (NaCl) for de-icing; (b) cities where daily high temperatures in winter may increase the frequency of freeze-thaw cycles; and, (c) cities in North America and Eurasia that may experience more severe winter weather resulting from greater variability in the circumpolar vortex (CPV). To offset potential damage to existing urban streetside trees and to ensure adequate soil and growing conditions for future trees, there is an immediate need for city foresters to collaborate with traffic safety and public works departments. We present a toolbox of approaches that can facilitate synchronized management efforts, including identifying the location of existing vulnerable trees and re-envisioning future infrastructure that would mitigate tree exposure to de-icing salts. At the same time, we call for the prioritization of research that investigates new potential pathways along which climate change may contribute to the novel adoption of de-icing salts.

Quantifying Exceedances of Chloride Water Quality Guidelines in Niagara Escarpment Streams Around Hamilton, Ontario Using High- Frequency Data

“…In the context of a more variable winter climate, annual road salting application rates may not experience a significant decrease in the future, as slightly warmer winter temperatures leading to more frequent freeze/thaw cycles and a greater proportion of winter precipitation as rainfall that would expedite the transportation of a road salts to streams for the majority of the 21st century, necessitating more frequent road salting events until winter temperatures begin increasing more drastically at the end of the century (Zhang et al, 2019;Cohen et al, 2021;Miron et al, 2022). With residence times in the groundwaters of some watersheds reaching 30 years or more (Gutchess et al, 2016;Modica et al, 1998), it is possible that groundwater loading of [Cl] from road salt applications will continue to increase for several decades with persistent chronically high [Cl] for even longer.…”

Construction and Analysis of Freezing Damage Indices for Winter Wheat During the Overwintering Period in Northern Xinjiang, China

“…Northern Xinjiang, China is an important wheat production and consumption area in northwest China, and more than 70% of the total wheat area is winter wheat (Ma et al, 2020).The winter wheat in this region suffered the most serious potential meteorological disaster is freezing damage (Wang et al, 2011). From 1961 to 2018,the area of wheat affected by freezing damage during this period was over 66,700 hectares, with the three most severely affected regions in descending order being Changji, Tacheng, and Yili (Zhu et al, 2019).Since the 1980s, the climate in northern Xinjiang had become signi cantly warmer (You et al,2022), while climate variation and climate instability has increased (Maaz et al, 2017;Lim et al,2021), temperature has changed rapidly, and the frequency (Zhang et al,2014) and range of the mild and moderate freezing injury has increased (Wheeler et al,2013;Meng et al,2019;Song et al,2022;Miron et al, 2022). This has resulted in a signi cant increase in the frequency of wheat disasters and has directly affected the winter wheat yield ( Jia et al, 2019;Zhao et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022).Therefore, it is necessary to study freezing damage research in northern Xinjiang to explore the occurrence characteristics, temporal evolution trend, and spatial distribution characteristics of the freezing damage regions in northern Xinjiang under a warming climate, providing a theoretical basis for the effective utilization of climatic resources and ensuring the safety of wheat production.…”

Construction and analysis of freezing damage indices for winter wheat during the overwintering period in northern Xinjiang, China

“…Northern Xinjiang, China is an important wheat production and consumption area in northwest China, and more than 70% of the total wheat area is winter wheat (Ma et al, 2020).The winter wheat in this region suffered the most serious potential meteorological disaster is freezing damage (Wang et al, 2011). From 1961 to 2018,the area of wheat affected by freezing damage during this period was over 66,700 hectares, with the three most severely affected regions in descending order being Changji, Tacheng, and Yili (Zhu et al, 2019).Since the 1980s, the climate in northern Xinjiang had become signi cantly warmer (You et al,2022), while climate variation and climate instability has increased (Maaz et al, 2017;Lim et al,2021), temperature has changed rapidly, and the frequency (Zhang et al,2014) and range of the mild and moderate freezing injury has increased (Wheeler et al,2013;Meng et al,2019;Song et al,2022;Miron et al, 2022). This has resulted in a signi cant increase in the frequency of wheat disasters and has directly affected the winter wheat yield ( Jia et al, 2019;Zhao et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022).Therefore, it is necessary to study freezing damage research in northern Xinjiang to explore the occurrence characteristics, temporal evolution trend, and spatial distribution characteristics of the freezing damage regions in northern Xinjiang under a warming climate, providing a theoretical basis for the effective utilization of climatic resources and ensuring the safety of wheat production.…”