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Earlier snowmelt accompanied by warmer soil temperatures in mid-latitude aspen forest and subalpine meadow: Implications for soil carbon

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Abstract

Background and aims

An advance in snowmelt timing in seasonally snow covered ecosystems has a wide range of potential impacts on plant and soil processes. Plants may respond to earlier melt through changes in phenology and altered allocation of resources to growth and reproduction, and earlier snowmelt may impact active pools of soil C such as microbial biomass and dissolved organic C (DOC).

Methods

In subalpine aspen forests and open meadows in the Wasatch Plateau of the western Rocky Mountains, we manipulated snowmelt timing by adding dust to the snow surface. We obtained a treatment-induced snow-free interval of 6 to 22 days (3% to 11% reduction in snow-covered days). We observed the growth of early and mid-season herbaceous species, measuring above ground biomass, flower and seed counts, and seed mass. We also monitored microbial biomass, DOC, and soil respiration in the days and weeks following snowmelt.

Results

We observed generally warmer soil temperatures in the early snowmelt plots compared to controls. However, we found no difference in microbial biomass C or DOC following snowmelt and we found no legacy effect in growing season soil respiration as a result of earlier snowmelt. After three years of repeated treatments, total soil organic C remained unchanged between treatment and control plots.

Conclusions

Although earlier snowmelt is likely to have a variety of impacts on subalpine ecosystems, we found no change in plant biomass or reproductive allocation and we found that carbon pools and fluxes were not perturbed by earlier snowmelt. A common expectation is that earlier snowmelt will lead to more frequent freeze-thaw cycles in soils, and studies have shown that freeze-thaw events can have significant but temporary impacts on soil C efflux. This study indicates that subalpine plants and soils may be at least partially buffered from some of the anticipated effects of earlier snowmelt. One direction of continuing research may be to identify adaptive buffers in subalpine ecosystems, an understanding of which may be useful in anticipating and responding to future climate change.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Michael McQueen, Desiree Lindley, and MacKenzie Mayo for help collecting data and analyzing soil samples, Rachel Buck and the BYU Environmental Analytics lab for consultation and use of instruments, Debbie Rigby and Zach Anderud for help with analysis methods, and Jayne Belnap, David Bowling, Samuel St. Clair, and Roger Koide for consultation on the design of the snow manipulation experiment. We would like to thank Jeff Gardiner (BLM) for help locating the dust source and for permission to collect dust and the Manti-La Sal National Forest for permission to conduct research in Fairview Canyon. Funding for this research was provided by the GA Harris Graduate Research Instrumentation Fellowship (Decagon Devices, Inc.), Brigham Young University Graduate Studies Research Fellowship, Brigham Young University Mentoring Environment Grants, NASA Rocky Mountain Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellowship, and the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Summer Research Fellowship.

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  1. Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, 4102 Life Science Building, Provo, UT, 84602, USA

    Lafe G. Conner, Richard A. Gill & Joshua T. Harvey

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  1. Lafe G. Conner
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  2. Richard A. Gill
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  3. Joshua T. Harvey
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Correspondence to Lafe G. Conner.

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Responsible Editor: Zucong Cai.

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Conner, L.G., Gill, R.A. & Harvey, J.T. Earlier snowmelt accompanied by warmer soil temperatures in mid-latitude aspen forest and subalpine meadow: Implications for soil carbon. Plant Soil 417, 275–285 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3258-1

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