Earth’s Cryosphere, 2018, Vol. XXII, No. 2, p. 80-87

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SNOW DEPTH IN FOREST
AND FIELD AREAS IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

A.V. Sosnovskiy, N.I. Osokin, G.A. Chernyakov

Institute of Geography, RAS,
29, Staromonetny per., Moscow, 119017, Russia; alexandr_sosnovskiy@mail.ru

Long-term mean maximum snow depths measured daily at a permanently mounted snow stake and along snow survey transects at Russian plainland weather stations differ by a factor of 0.6 to 1.9. Mapped maximum snow depths in forest and field areas show a 7 % increase at field sites but a 4 % decrease at forest sites in 2001–2010 relative to those in 1996–2000. The average ratio of mean maximum snow depths in the forest to the respective values in the field is 1.22 for 1966–2000 and 1.06 for 2001–2010. Climate change leads to reduction of March monthly snow depths relative to the long-term mean maximum values.

Climate change, snow depth, forest, field

DOI: 10.21782/EC2541-9994-2018-2(80-87)