Colloquium, Tues, Feb. 3, 3:00 pm, EN6085A

Abstract

Snow has a substantial effect on energy budgets, water resources, and ecosystem processes, especially where it is the dominant form of annual precipitation. In spite of its broad importance, snow remains difficult to accurately quantify on many landscapes. Because of its interactions with the atmosphere and surrounding landscape, snow is inherently dynamic and a challenge to measure and model. It is often transported by wind and interacts with topography and vegetation to form a heterogeneous distribution in both space and time. This heterogeneous distribution imparts numerous effects on ecosystem structure and function and land-atmosphere surface fluxes. I will describe tools, techniques, challenges, and outcomes of measuring and modeling snow accumulation and ablation in snowy environments ranging from middle to high latitudes. In addition, I will discuss how emerging Arctic vegetation and sea-ice changes as well as Rocky Mountain beetle outbreaks modify terrestrial snow covers and their attendant influences on atmospheric, hydrologic, and ecosystem processes.

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/people/view.php?id=18