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Routing of canopy drip in the snowpack below a spruce crown
Author(s) -
Bründl Michael,
Schneebeli Martin,
Flühler Hannes
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(199901)13:1<49::aid-hyp700>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - meltwater , snowpack , snow , subalpine forest , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , crown (dentistry) , snowmelt , canopy , geology , geomorphology , geography , ecology , materials science , montane ecology , biology , geotechnical engineering , composite material , archaeology
Snow that is retained by a forest canopy may either sublimate or evaporate directly from the crown or drop as snow clumps or meltwater to the ground. Redistributed snow and meltwater affect the snow structure and prevent the formation of mechanically weak layers, which is the prerequisite for avalanche formation in forests. In this paper we describe the results of dye tracer experiments conducted in a subalpine forest near Davos, Switzerland. Before a snowfall event we stained snow‐free branches of a spruce with a dye tracer solution. After snowfall the coloured meltwater dripping from the branches down on to the snowpack stained the percolation pathways of the meltwater in the snowpack. Photographs of the snow profiles indicate that the meltwater seeped almost vertically through the isothermal snowpack to the soil surface not exceeding the projected crown edge. Meltwater of different events moves along different preferential flow channels in the snow suggesting that old channels are not non‐conducting and additional meltwater fronts create new channels. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.