Mountain snowpack response to different levels of warming.

ABSTRACT: Temperature variability impacts the distribution and persistence of the mountain snowpack, which critically provides snowmelt-derived water resources to large populations worldwide. Warmer temperatures decrease the amount of montane snow water equivalent (SWE), forcing its center of mass to higher elevations. We use a unique multivariate probabilistic framework to quantify the response of the 1 April SWE volume and its centroid to a 1.0 to 2.0 °C increase in winter air temperature across the Sierra Nevada (United States). A 1.0 °C increase reduces the probability of exceeding the long-term (1985-2016) average rangewide SWE volume (15.7 km³) by 20.7%. It correspondingly is 60.6% more likely for the centroid to be higher than its long-term average (2,540 m). We further show that a

SUBMITTER: Huning LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6205460 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature