Abstract Title: Influence of Forest Canopy Type on a Seasonal Snowpack in the Central Adirondack Mountains, NY

Abstract Submitted to: CRYOSPHERE SCIENCES

Abstract Text:

In the Adirondack Mountains in New York, seasonal snow may be captured by tree canopies, delaying, or preventing snow from depositing on the land surface. Tree canopies shade the snowpack, slowing sublimation and allowing for differential melting between open and closed canopies due to varying radiative and turbulent conditions. Quantifying the effect of canopy interception of snow is difficult and many snow monitoring sites are focused on open areas where instruments, satellites, and manual measurements are more accessible and interpretable. Recently, considerable attention has been focused on understanding vegetation influences on snowpack in the western U.S. (e.g., NASA SnowEx), but the eastern U.S. is comparatively less studied. We aim to produce a multi-year study quantifying canopy influences on snowpacks in an eastern U.S. forest. We focus on the Arbutus Lake watershed, located within the Huntington Wildlife Forest in the central Adirondack Mountains of New York, USA. Arbutus Lake watershed is heavily forested with a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees. We use traditional snow depth (SD) and snow water equivalent (SWE) transect methods collected at a biweekly interval to quantify how SD and SWE vary between three canopy types: heavily coniferous, heavily deciduous, and an open canopy meadow. We also collected hemispherical canopy photos along each transect for gap fraction indices, snow temperature profile time series, and a time series of SD for the entire winter from timelapse imagery and snow stakes. We examine how the snowpack changes during the winter season and relate it to radiative conditions and midwinter melt events. Preliminary results show a distinct change in SD and SWE dynamics where open canopies result in deeper snowpacks after snowstorms but show more rapid melting than closed canopies. During the winter, open canopies consistently show higher SDs and SWE than closed canopies and melt out faster at the end of the season. Additionally, hemispherical canopy photos along each transect show that changes in gap fraction can cause variability in snow cover over short distances.