Snowmelt water supplies streamflow and growing season soil moisture in mountain regions, yet pathways of snowmelt water and their effects on moisture patterns are still largely unknown. This study examined how flow processes during snowmelt runoff affected spatial patterns of soil moisture on two steep sub‐alpine hillslope transects in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA. The transects have northeast‐facing and east‐facing aspects, and both extend from high‐elevation bedrock outcrops down to streams in valley bottoms. Spatial patterns of both snow depth and near‐surface soil moisture were surveyed along these transects in the snowmelt and summer seasons of 2008–2010. To link these patterns to flow processes, soil moisture was measured continuously on both transects and compared with the timing of discharge in nearby streams. Results indicate that both slopes generated shallow lateral subsurface flow during snowmelt through near‐surface soil, colluvium and bedrock fractures. On the northeast‐facing transect, this shallow subsurface flow emerged through mid‐slope seepage zones, in some cases producing saturation overland flow, whereas the east‐facing slope had no seepage zones or overland flow. At the hillslope scale, earlier snowmelt timing on the east‐facing slope led to drier average soil moisture conditions than on the northeast‐facing slope, but within hillslopes, snow patterns had little relation to soil moisture patterns except in areas with persistent snow drifts. Results suggest that lateral flow and exfiltration processes are key controls on soil moisture spatial patterns in this steep sub‐alpine location. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Watershed mass-balance methods are valuable tools for demonstrating impacts to water quality from atmospheric deposition and chemical weathering. Owen Bricker, a pioneer of the mass-balance method, began applying mass-balance modeling to small watersheds in the late 1960s and dedicated his career to expanding the literature and knowledge of complex watershed processes. We evaluated long-term trends in surfacewater chemistry in the Loch Vale watershed, a 660-ha. alpine/subalpine catchment located in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA. Many changes in surface-water chemistry correlated with multiple drivers, including summer or monthly temperature, snow water equivalent, and the runoff-to-precipitation ratio. Atmospheric deposition was not a significant causal agent for surface-water chemistry trends. We observed statistically significant increases in both concentrations and fluxes of weathering products including cations, SiO 2 , SO 4 2-, and ANC, and in inorganic N, with inorganic N being primarily of atmospheric origin. These changes are evident in the individual months June, July, and August, and also in the combined June, July, and August summer season. Increasingly warm summer temperatures are melting what was once permanent ice and this may release elements entrained in the ice, stimulate chemical weathering with enhanced moisture availability, and stimulate microbial nitrification. Weathering rates may also be enhanced by sustained water availability in high snowpack years. Rapid change in the flux of weathering products and inorganic N is the direct and indirect result of a changing climate from warming temperatures and thawing cryosphere.
Abstract. Snowmobile use is a popular form of winter recreation in Colorado, particularly on public lands. To examine the effects of differing levels of use on snowpack properties, experiments were performed at two different areas, Rabbit Ears Pass near Steamboat Springs and at Fraser Experimental Forest near Fraser, Colorado USA. Differences between no use and varying degrees of snowmobile use (low, medium and high) on shallow (the operational standard of 30 cm) and deeper snowpacks (120 cm) were quantified and statistically assessed using measurements of snow density, temperature, stratigraphy, hardness, and ram resistance from snow pit profiles. A simple model was explored that estimated snow density changes from snowmobile use based on experimental results. Snowpack property changes were more pronounced for thinner snow accumulations. When snowmobile use started in deeper snow conditions, there was less difference in density, hardness, and ram resistance compared to the control case of no snowmobile use. These results have implications for the management of snowmobile use in times and places of shallower snow conditions where underlying natural resources could be affected by denser and harder snowpacks.
1Physical and material properties of the snowpack, including snow density, temperature, 2 stratigraphy, hardness, and ram resistance were measured from snow pit profiles to examine the The Cryosphere Discuss.,
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