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A remote sensing approach is used to examine the direct and indirect effectsof snow cover duration and weather conditions on the growth response ofmountain grasslands located above the tree line in the French Alps.Time-integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVIint), used as asurrogate for aboveground primary productivity, and snow cover duration werederived from a 13-year long time series of the Moderate-resolution ImagingSpectroradiometer (MODIS). A regional-scale meteorological forcing thataccounted for topographical effects was provided by theSAFRAN–CROCUS–MEPRA model chain. A hierarchical path analysis wasdeveloped to analyze the multivariate causal relationships between forcingvariables and proxies of primary productivity. Inter-annual variations inprimary productivity were primarily governed by year-to-year variations inthe length of the snow-free period and to a much lesser extent bytemperature and precipitation during the growing season. A prolonged snowcover reduces the number and magnitude of frost events during the initialgrowth period but this has a negligible impact on NDVIint as comparedto the strong negative effect of a delayed snow melting. The maximum NDVIslightly responded to increased summer precipitation and temperature but theimpact on productivity was weak. The period spanning from peak standingbiomass to the first snowfall accounted for two-thirds of NDVIint and thisexplained the high sensitivity of NDVIint to autumn temperature and autumnrainfall that control the timing of the first snowfall. The ability ofmountain plants to maintain green tissues during the whole snow-free periodalong with the relatively low responsiveness of peak standing biomass tosummer meteorological conditions led to the conclusion that the length ofthe snow-free period is the primary driver of the inter-annual variations inprimary productivity of mountain grasslands

Growth response of temperate mountain grasslands to inter-annual variations in snow cover duration