The influence of forest stand characteristics on snow interception in the coastal forests of British Columbia

Abstract

The capability of forest stands to intercept snow is an important factor in determining management prescriptions for such hydrologically related phenomenon as avalanches, floods, and water supply as well as suitability for ungulate winter habitat. This study tested the hypothesis that snow interception can be predicted as a function of various stand characteristics and storm sizes. The dependent variable was fresh snow depth under the forest canopy; the independent variables were crown completeness, crown length, crown width, basal area per hectare, tree height, tree density, and storm size. Ten stands were selected for study from two locations on Vancouver Island. Snow depth was monitored over 24 storms ranging from 1.4 to 38.0 cm. The best simple linear regression models that incorporated forest variables were those for individual storms, with fresh snow expressed as a function of mean crown completeness. The best assessments of a particular stand's capability to intercept snow were made using an equation with both storm size and mean crown completeness as independent variables.

Snow accumulation in thinned lodgepole pine stands, Montana, USA

“…Canopy interception rates in conifer forests may be constant (McNay et al, 1988) but more commonly they decrease at varying rates with increasing snowfall (Harestad and Bunnell, 1981;Calder, 1990;Hedstrom and Pomeroy, 1998;Pomeroy et al, 1998). Both constant canopy interception rates and rates that declined as both inverse linear and inverse exponential functions of total storm snowfall and mean storm intensity (cm SWE day À1 ) were evaluated.…”

Simulation of snow accumulation and melt in needleleaf forest environments

“…The retention of foliage by evergreen needleleaf tree species during winter acts to decrease snow accumulation via canopy interception losses (Schmidt, 1991;Lundberg and Halldin, 1994;Pomeroy et al, 1998a) and greatly modify energy exchanges to snow Gryning and Batchvarova, 2001;Ellis et al, 2010). However, forest cover is often discontinuous, containing clearings of varying dimensions which may differ considerably in snow accumulation (McNay, 1988) and melt characteristics (Metcalfe and Buttle, 1995). As such, management of water derived from forest snowmelt is expected to benefit from the effective prediction of snow accumulation and melt in both forest and open environments.…”

Coupled modelling of forest snow interception and sublimation

“…These forests are primarily composed of evergreen conifer species, which retain their needles and therefore intercept snow through the winter. A survey of interception and sublimation values from North American and Russian mass balance studies (Wilm and Dunford, 1945;Miner and Trappe, 1957;Kuz'min, 1963;Troendle and Meiman, 1984;Swanson, 1988;Toews and Gluns, 1986;McNay et al, 1988;Barry, 1991) suggests that in boreal, montane and subalpine forests over one-half of cumulative seasonal snowfall can remain intercepted in midwinter, and 25±45% of the annual snowfall can sublimate from snow intercepted in the canopy (Pomeroy and Gray, 1995). This range has been con®rmed for other snowy environments such as maritime Japan (Nakai et al, 1993).…”