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www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/7/1005/2010/
doi:10.5194/hessd-7-1005-2010
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Measurements and modelling of snowmelt and turbulent heat fluxes over shrub tundra
1Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
2School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
3Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Abstract. Measurements of snowmelt and turbulent heat fluxes were made during the snowmelt periods of two years at two neighbouring tundra sites in the Yukon, one in a sheltered location with tall shrubs exposed above deep snow and the other in an exposed location with dwarf shrubs covered by shallow snow. The site with buried vegetation showed a transition from air-to-surface heat transfers to surface-to-air heat transfers as bare ground became exposed during snowmelt, but there were daytime transfers of heat from the surface to the air at the site with exposed vegetation even while snow remained on the ground. A model calculating separate energy balances for snow and exposed vegetation, driven with meteorological data from the sites, is found to be able to reproduce these behaviours. Sensitivity of simulated fluxes to model parameters describing vegetation cover and density is investigated.
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Citation: Bewley, D., Essery, R., Pomeroy, J., and Ménard, C.: Measurements and modelling of snowmelt and turbulent heat fluxes over shrub tundra, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 7, 1005-1032, doi:10.5194/hessd-7-1005-2010, 2010. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
