Spatiotemporal changes in snow cover over China during 1960–2013

Tan, Xiaoheng; Wu, Zhenni; Mu, Xingmin; Gao, Peng; Zhao, Guangju; Sun, Weiwei; Gu, Changzhi

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2018.11.018

Cited by 45 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…However, with rapid climate warming, particularly during winter and spring, there tends to be earlier snow melting and increase in evapotranspiration into the atmosphere, which thus reduces soil moisture availability in semi-arid regions, further constraining forest growth (Pederson et al 2011;Peng et al 2013;Liu et al 2013;Tan et al 2019). More importantly, our results indicate that the compensation effect of winter snow on tree growth is particularly important in drier years, highlighting the crucial role of winter snow in sustaining forest growth in a drying climate.…”

Section: Compensation Effect Of Winter Snowmentioning

confidence: 73%

Compensation effect of winter snow on larch growth in Northeast China

Huang

et al. 2021

Climatic Change

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Winter snow plays a crucial role in regulating tree growth during the subsequent growing season in regions suffering seasonal or even annual drought stress, but the mechanisms of the potential compensation effect of winter snow on subsequent growing-season tree growth are not well understood. In this study, we establish tree-ring chronologies of six larch forest stands along a marked drought gradient across Northeast China. We identify the spatial pattern in the compensation effects of winter snow on subsequent growing-season tree radial growth and uncover a potentially enhanced compensation effect in drier climates. Our results indicate that in snow-rich sites, winter snow tends to exert a significantly positive effect on tree growth during the growing season, whereas this growth compensation effect is reduced in drier sites. More importantly, our findings identify a much higher compensation effect of winter snow on growing-season larch growth in drier years (24.4–48.0%) than in wetter years (6.1–8.1%) at snow-rich sites. Given the projected increase in both severity and duration of droughts in temperate regions, the potential compensation effect of winter snow could play a crucial role in mediating the adaptation ability of boreal/hemi-boreal forest ecosystems in response to a warmer and drier future climate in these regions.

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Section: Compensation Effect Of Winter Snowmentioning

confidence: 73%

Compensation effect of winter snow on larch growth in Northeast China

Huang

et al. 2021

Climatic Change

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“…In the Northern Hemispheric winter at mid-high latitudes, the surface albedo is largely controlled by the number of snow cover days (SCDs) (Ling and Zhang, 2003). It has been reported that the SCDs on the Sanjiang Plain (especially the northern section) have exhibited a significant increasing trend in recent decades (Huang et al, 2016;Tan et al, 2019). Therefore, the increasing trends in winter and spring can largely be explained by the increase of SCDs.…”

Section: Relationship Between Land Surface Albedo and Land Use Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Surface Albedo Variations in Sanjiang Plain from 1982 to 2015: Assessing with GLASS Data

Zhang

2020

Chin. Geogr. Sci.

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As a key parameter for indicating the fraction of surface-reflected solar incident radiation, land surface albedo plays an important role in the Earth's surface energy budget (SEB). Since the Sanjiang Plain has been severely affected by human activities (e.g., reclamation and shrinking of wetlands), it is important to assess the spatiotemporal variations of surface albedo in this region using a long-term remote sensing dataset. In order to investigate the surface albedo climatology, trends, and mechanisms of change, we evaluated the surface albedo variations in the Sanjiang Plain, China from 1982 to 2015 using the Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) broadband surface albedo product. The results showed that: 1) an increasing annual trend (+0.000 58/yr) of surface albedo was discovered in the Sanjiang Plain based on the GLASS albedo dataset, with a much stronger increasing trend (+0.001 26/yr) occurring during the winter. Most of the increasing trends occurred over the cultivated land, unused land, and land use conversion types located in the northeastern Sanjiang Plain. 2) The increasing trend of land surface albedo in Sanjiang Plain can be largely explained by the changes of both snow cover extent and land use. The surface albedo in winter is highly correlated with the snow cover extent in the Sanjiang Plain, and the increasing trend of surface albedo can be further enhanced by the land use changes.

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“…The geographical location of this region creates a unique climatic condition. Winter mean snow depth is 20cm, with snow cover from December to March [11]. Mean winter temperatures show significant spatial heterogeneity with increasing from north to south, ranging from −36 to −2 • C (mean value = −20 • C).…”

Section: A Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Melting snow supplies abundant freshwater resources for vegetation activities [9], [10]. With global climate change, snow depth (SD) has a significant increase in winter, together with a decrease in spring during 1960-2013 [11]. The variations of snow cover would change the water cycle and energy exchange, which has an inevitable impact on vegetation growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Effects of Precipitation and Temperature on the Responses of Forest Spring Phenology to Winter Snow Cover Dynamics in Northeast China

et al. 2019

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The start date of vegetation growing season (SOS) is generally considered as an essential indicator to reflect vegetation growth condition. To date, relatively little research has explored the combined effects of temperature and precipitation on the responses of forest spring phenology to snow cover in detail. To investigate this, we applied the developed plant phenology index (PPI) derived from Moderate Resolution Image Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to estimate SOS over Northeast China from 2004 to 2018, and explored the relationship between SOS and climate variables, such as temperature, precipitation and snow cover. Our results indicated that winter snow cover dynamics had a significant effect on the forest spring growth in the following year. SOS showed a negative correlation with snow cover duration (SCD) and the ending date of snow cover (SCED), whereas had a positive correlation with the onset date of snow cover (SCOD). It implied that a longer SCD, later SCED and earlier SCOD would promote forest growth. Furthermore, we first revealed that SOS was more closely associated with the preseason temperature than winter temperature. Most regions exhibited a significant positive correlation with increasing preseason temperature, but the winter temperature showed an opposite pattern except for the cool-temperate needleleaf forest region. Meanwhile, SOS had a negative relationship with precipitation, especially for preseason precipitation. Furthermore, with increasing of temperature and precipitation in winter, the responses of SOS to snow cover phenology in temperate needleleaf and broadleaf mixed-forest region are contrary to that in the other three regions. During the period from SCED to SOS, the responses of SOS to snow cover phenology varied among different vegetation zones and the gradients of temperature and precipitation.INDEX TERMS Climate change, spring phenology, forest, snow cover.

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Spatiotemporal changes in snow cover over China during 1960–2013

Cited by 45 publications

References 46 publications

Compensation effect of winter snow on larch growth in Northeast China

Compensation effect of winter snow on larch growth in Northeast China

Land Surface Albedo Variations in Sanjiang Plain from 1982 to 2015: Assessing with GLASS Data

Combined Effects of Precipitation and Temperature on the Responses of Forest Spring Phenology to Winter Snow Cover Dynamics in Northeast China

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