HR: 0800h
AN: C31A-0291    [Abstracts]
TI: Landscape Vegetation Structure and Snow Cover Relationships at Multiple Scales in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
AU: Selkowitz, D
EM: dave.selkowitz@geo.oregonstate.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Oregon State University, 104 Wilkinson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AU: * Nolin, A
EM: nolina@geo.oregonstate.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Oregon State University, 104 Wilkinson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AU: Fagre, D
EM: dan_fagre@usgs.gov
AF: Glacier Field Station USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Science Center Glacier National Park, West Glacier, MT 59936
AB: A two year study was undertaken to examine the relationships between snow cover and landscape vegetation structure across a range of landscape types and climate regimes in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Nine snow survey transects, each consisting of 30 survey points spaced at 30 meter intervals, were installed at low, medium, and high elevation areas on both sides of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park. Results from the first year of snow surveys indicate that, while distinctly different landscape types (e.g. forests and meadows) exhibit substantial differences in snow cover, subtle differences in forest cover density seem to exert only a weak influence on the distribution of snow cover at the plot scale. Survey measurements taken at 1 meter increments along several survey transects indicate that the scale of snow cover variability (quantified by the correlation length) varies between transects and ranges from about 15 meters to over 50 meters. Additional snow surveys designed to investigate the relationship between forest cover density and snow cover distribution at the forest stand scale will be conducted over the winter of 2004-2005. Results from these surveys, along with the results from a second year of snow surveys along the original nine transects, should clarify the effects of landscape vegetation structure on snow cover distribution at multiple scales and across a range of landscape types and climate regimes.
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting