Agashashok Long-term Spring Snow Depth (2007-2024)

The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the globe and the warming is seasonally asymmetrical, with modest warming during the summer months and extreme warming during the winter months. In many regions of the Arctic, extreme winter warming is coupled with observed and projected increases in winter precipitation. The combination of extreme winter warming and increasing winter precipitation will lead to rapid winter soil warming, with wide ranging consequences for ecosystem function. Warmer winter soils are generally associated with greater overwinter microbial activity, enhanced breakdown of soil organic matter and a flush of nutrients that may be available for plant uptake following snowmelt. Our long-term research near the Arctic treeline in the western Brooks Range of Alaska has revealed the potential importance of deeper snowpacks and warmer winter soils for the productivity of treeline trees and their advance into the tundra. Here, we present our long-term manual measurements of snow depth typically made in the last week of March at three study sites in the Agashashok River watershed, Noatak National Preserve: riverside terrace, closed forest, and an open tussock tundra treeline.