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Title: Winter soil temperature varies with canopy cover in Siberian larch forests
Abstract In the Arctic, winter soil temperatures exert strong control over mean annual soil temperature and winter CO2emissions. In tundra ecosystems there is evidence that plant canopy influences on snow accumulation alter winter soil temperatures. By comparison, there has been relatively little research examining the impacts of heterogeneity in boreal forest cover on soil temperatures. Using seven years of data from six sites in northeastern Siberia that vary in stem density we show that snow-depth and forest canopy cover exert equally strong control on cumulative soil freezing degrees days (FDDsoil). Together snow depth and canopy cover explain approximately 75% of the variance in linear models of FDDsoiland freezingn-factors (nf; calculated as the quotient of FDDsoiland FDDair), across sites and years. Including variables related to air temperature, or antecedent soil temperatures does not substantially improve models. The observed increase in FDDsoilwith canopy cover suggests that canopy interception of snow or thermal conduction through trees may be important for winter soil temperature dynamics in forested ecosystems underlain by continuous permafrost. Our results imply that changes in Siberian larch forest cover that arise from climate warming or fire regime changes may have important impacts on winter soil temperature dynamics.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2224776
PAR ID:
10571328
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Institute of Physics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Environmental Research Letters
Volume:
19
Issue:
5
ISSN:
1748-9326
Page Range / eLocation ID:
054013
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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