A review of snow manipulation experiments in Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems

Polar research

Christian Rixen¹  Sonja Wipf³ 

[1] WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Unit Ecosystem Boundaries, Alpine Ecosystems, Flüelastr. 11, CH-7260 Davos, SwitzerlandCorrespondence;WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Unit Ecosystem Boundaries, Alpine Ecosystems, Flüelastr. 11, CH-7260 Davos, Switzerland;WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Zürcherstr. 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland

关键词: Meta-analysis;    plant phenology;    productivity;    snow fence;    snow removal;    winter ecology;   

DOI  :  10.1111/j.1751-8369.2010.00153.x

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

Snow cover is one of the most important factors controlling microclimate and plant growing conditions for Arctic and alpine ecosystems. Climate change is altering snowfall regimes, which in turn influences snow cover and ultimately tundra plant communities. The interest in winter climate change and the number of experiments exploring the responses of alpine and Arctic ecosystems to changes in snow cover have been growing in recent years, but their outcomes are difficult to summarize because of the large variability in manipulation approaches, extents and measured response variables. In this review, we (1) compile the ecological publications on snow manipulation experiments, (2) classify the studies according to the climate scenarios they simulate and response variables they measure, (3) discuss the methods applied to manipulate snow cover, and (4) analyse and generalize the response in phenology, productivity and community composition by means of a meta-analysis. This meta-analysis shows that flowering ph...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC