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Snowpack Loss Promotes Soil Freezing and Concrete Frost
Formation in a Northeastern Temperate Softwoods Stand
Corianne Tatariw1,2,*, Kaizad Patel3, Jean D. MacRae4, and Ivan J. Fernandez3
Abstract - Snowpack produces a thermal layer that protects soil from freezing and provides
a pulse of nutrient-rich water in spring. Climate forecasts for Maine indicate 20–60% reduction
in snowfall by 2050. In January 2015, we initiated a snow-removal experiment in Old
Town, ME to investigate the impact of snow loss on forest soil conditions. Snow removal
significantly lowered winter organic horizon temperatures by 2 °C on average. Soils in
snow-removal plots were 25% wetter during the vernal transition because precipitation was
not intercepted by snow. These rain-on-soil events caused the formation of concrete frost,
delaying soil thaw in snow-removal plots. Our results provide evidence that snowpack loss
increases soil frost and can also increase soil moisture, potentially altering biotic function
within a coniferous forest type.
Introduction
Winter snowpack is ecologically important in the northeastern United States because
it insulates soil and is a source of water and nutrients in the spring (Campbell
et al. 2005, Piatek et al. 2005), but climate change has warmed winters and reduced
snowfall amount and snowpack duration in the region (United States Environmental
Protection Agency 2013). In Maine, state-wide mean annual air temperatures
have increased by 1.6 °C, snowfall has decreased by 2.5 cm (6.6%), and snowpack
duration has decreased by ~2 weeks since 1895 (Fernandez et al. 2015). By 2050,
compared to recent averages, annual snowfall in Maine is expected to decline by
20–40% or more in all but the Northern Interior (i.e., northwestern-most) climate
division of the state (Fernandez et al. 2015). However, in spite of these environmental
changes for Maine winters, there is little published research on wintertime
soil processes in Maine, a state that is 90% forested (Huff and McWilliams 2016).
Loss of snowpack fundamentally alters the magnitude of seasonal changes in
soil moisture and temperature, 2 factors that regulate biological processes in soil.
When snowpack is reduced or absent, soils are more likely to undergo freeze/thaw
cycles that physically alter soil structure and negatively impact multiple taxonomic
levels of soil biota from bacteria to forest grazers (Chamberlain and Gow 1979,
Hinman and Bisal 1968, Williams et al. 2014). Snowpack also provides a pulse of
water and nutrients during the vernal transition (i.e., the period of snowmelt during
the transition from winter to spring), which is reduced with a diminishing snowpack
1Department of Biological Sciences, Box 870344, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
35487. 2 The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, 101 Beinville Boulevard, Dauphin Island, AL 36528.
3School of Forest Resources, 5755 Nutting Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469.
4Civil and Environmental Engineering, 5711 Boardman Hall, University of Maine, Orono,
ME 04469. *Corresponding author - ctatariw@ua.edu.
Manuscript Editor: Christoph Geiss
Winter Ecology: Insights from Biology and History
2017 Northeastern Naturalist 24(Special Issue 7):B42–B54
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(Brooks et al. 1998, Campbell et al. 2014). Earlier soil thaw and snow melt caused
by reduced snowpack and warmer winters directly affect soil processes by making
fresh water available earlier in the year, which could result in drought stress during
the growing season (Grimm et al. 2013, Groffman et al. 2012). However, in Maine,
this reduction in water availability may be offset by an increase in early spring rain
events as climate change reduces the frequency of frozen forms of precipitation
(Fernandez et al. 2015).
There have been multiple studies on the effects of climate change on deciduous
forest soil processes in the northeastern United States (e.g., Campbell et al. 2014;
Decker et al. 2003; Groffman et al. 2001, 2011; Melillo et al. 2002; Reinmann and
Templer 2015; Sorensen et al. 2016). However, although about 33% of the 7.1
million ha of forested land area in Maine is dominated by conifer (Picea [spruce]/
Abies [fir]) species (Huff and McWilliams 2016), there are few published studies
addressing the effects of snowpack loss on coniferous forest soil processes. Unlike
deciduous trees, conifers photosynthesize during the winter (Öquist and Huner
2003, Schaberg et al. 1995) and can be important contributors to wintertime soil
carbon (C) storage (Waring and Franklin 1979). However, soil freezing and water
loss associated with reduced snowpack can have negative impacts on tree photosynthesis
and growth. Sub-freezing soil temperatures reduce winter photosynthesis
(Hadley 2000, Schaberg 2000), and freeze/thaw cycles may further suppress winter
photosynthesis by decreasing plant cold hardiness (Schaberg 2000). Winter freeze/
thaw cycles can also contribute to longer-term reductions in conifer growth by damaging
xylem conduits, effectively reducing plant water transport (Pittermann and
Sperry 2006), and the loss of springtime snowmelt can also cause drought stress,
especially in saplings (Boyce and Lucero 1999).
The objective of this study was to evaluate soil microclimate responses to a declining
snowpack in a Maine conifer stand in light of climate trends and predictions
for less snowpack in a warming climate. Here we describe the impact of snow on
soil temperature and moisture in a coniferous forest stand by experimental snow removal
in University Forest, Old Town, ME. We predicted that snow removal would
(1) enhance soil freezing in the winter, (2) result in more rapid warming during the
vernal transition, and (3) decrease soil moisture through the vernal transition into
spring due to a loss of snowmelt water. To our knowledge, this is the first such study
reported in a northeastern US conifer forest.
Site Description
The study site was located in the University of Maine’s Dwight B. DeMeritt Forest
(44°56'2.5"N, 68°39'51.1"W) in Old Town, ME, which is located in the Southern
Interior climate division. Soils at the site were well-drained coarse loamy frigid
Typic Haplorthods (Series: Bangor) (USDA Handbook 436), and had an O (organic)
horizon 1–5 cm deep and a mineral horizon >90 cm thick. The site was located at the
top of a ridge and covered by coniferous stands. Forest stand composition consisted
of 38% Pinus strobus L. (Eastern White Pine), 27% Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière
(Eastern Hemlock), and 14% Picea rubens Sarg. (Red Spruce) (Alden 1998).
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Methods
Experimental design
In December 2014, we established four 5 m x 20 m experimental plots. Each
plot was divided into two 5 m x 10 m subplots—a reference plot, and a treatment
(snow-removal) plot (Fig. 1). The reference plots were subjected to minimal
disturbance and allowed to accumulate snow throughout the winter. The snow-removal
plots were kept free of snow by shoveling through the entire winter. A 1-m
buffer was established within the perimeter of each subplot (Fig. 1), providing
access to the plots and providing a 2-m separation between coupled treatment and
control plots. To reduce additional mechanical disturbance to the soil, shoveling
was conducted by reaching in from the buffer to the extent possible. No samples
were collected from the buffer. We initiated snow removal the first week of February
following the establishment of snowpack in late January 2015. For the rest
of the winter, snow was removed within 48 hours of a snow event with a total onsite
accumulation of 5 cm or more. To minimize damage to the soil, we “swept”
snow from the interior of the plot to the buffer area with shovels. The swept snow
was then shoveled from the buffer area off of the plot. We left a ~2-cm base layer
of snow on the ground to maintain albedo and reduce disruption of the litter
layer from shoveling.
Temperature
We measured soil temperature at 20- or 30-minute intervals using Thermochron
iButton temperature loggers (Model DS1921G, Maxim Integrated, San
Jose, CA). iButtons were buried at 3 to 5 cm depth within the O horizon in resealable
polyethylene bags. We calculated mean daily soil temperature for each
subplot from 24 hours of temperature readings and obtained mean daily air
temperature by averaging the daily maximum and minimum temperatures from
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather station
located ~2.8 km east of the study site (Station GHCND:USW00094644; Menne
et al. 2012a, b).
Figure 1. Diagram of the reference (left) and treatment (right) plot layout. The black oval
indicates the location of the iButton data loggers and the black X symbols indicate sampling
locations on a roughly 1 m x 1 m grid.
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We divided soil data into 4 time periods using a combination of mean daily air
temperature data and snowpack observations: pre-treatment (24–31 January 2015)
was the period of time prior to the initiation of snow removal when air temperatures
were below freezing; winter (01 February–25 March 2015) was the treatment period
when snowpack was present in the reference plots (Fig. 2A) and air temperatures
were below freezing (Fig. 3A); vernal transition (26 March–15 April 2015), defined
as the transition from winter to spring, started with the melting of the protective
Figure 2. Pictures of a reference
and treatment plot
during (A) winter (treatment
plot in foreground),
(B) vernal transition (treatment
plot on right), and (C)
spring (reference plot outlined
in solid line, treatment
in dashed line).
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2-cm base layer of snow in the treatment plots, a time marked by fluctuations in the
air temperature between above- and below-freezing (Fig. 3A), and ended when the
snowpack in the reference plots was completely melted (Fig. 2B); and spring (16
April—11 June 2015) was the period of time following snowmelt (Fig. 2C) during
which air temperatures were above freezing (Fig. 3A).
Figure 3. (A) Mean daily
temperatures for air
(dashed gray), reference
soil (solid gray), and treatment
soil (solid black).
The dotted horizontal line
indicates 0 °C. Dashed
vertical lines delineate
our 4 defined time periods.
(B) Mean ΔT for
each time period. A negative
ΔT indicates lower
temperatures in treatment
plots. Bars are ± standard
deviation. Letters indicate
significant differences between
time periods at α =
0.05. (C) Hourly temperatures
for reference (gray)
and treatment (black) soil
during the final week of
the vernal transition/first
days of spring. The final
day of snow in the reference
plots was on April
14.
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Soil moisture
We sampled soil at the site during 10 visits over 5 months to capture seasonal
dynamics during winter, vernal transition, and spring (Fig. 2). Three collections
took place during winter (07 February, 04 March, and 06 March 2015), 3 during the
vernal transition (27 March, 08 April, and 15 April 2015), and 4 in spring (22 April,
29 April, 14 May, and 03 June 2015).
O horizon soil samples were collected on a roughly 1 m x 1 m grid. We collected
1 sample per plot per sampling event. Soil within a 10 cm x 10 cm template was
excavated down to the mineral horizon. Due to the shallow nature of the organic
horizon, we collected multiple templates of soil to obtain enough mass for analysis.
When the snowpack was present, we carefully shoveled snow from a roughly
0.25-m2 area prior to sampling. Following soil collection, the snow was replaced
to minimize temperature and albedo disturbances. When frozen, soil samples were
separated from the surrounding soil using a hammer and chisel along the inside
perimeter of the sampling frames, then a trowel or hammer and chisel was used
to dislodge the soil block at the O-mineral interface. If the soil was not frozen, we
collected soil using a trowel with clippers and soil knives to separate the soil block
from the surrounding soil. In all cases, loose litter at the surface was removed prior
to sampling.
Soil samples were placed in resealable polyethylene bags for transport to the laboratory,
where they were held overnight in a refrigerator or in coolers with icepacks
to allow frozen samples to thaw. We hand-sieved thawed, field-moist soils through
a 6-mm mesh to separate fine earth from coarse fragments and roots. We oven-dried
subsamples at 65 °C for 24 hours and calculated gravimetric moisture content (i.e.,
mass of water per unit mass of oven-dry soil) in triplicate for each sample.
Data analysis
We completed all analyses in R Version 3.2.2 using RStudio Version 0.99.485 (R
Core Team 2015, RStudio Team 2015) and determined significant differences at α
= 0.05. To determine the effect of snow removal on soil temperature, we calculated
the difference in mean daily soil temperature between treatment and reference plots
(ΔT). A lower ΔT indicated colder temperatures in treatment plots compared to the
reference plots. ΔT was analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with
Welch’s Correction to account for unequal variances with time period (i.e., pretreatment,
winter, vernal transition, and spring) as the factor (Moser and Stevens
1992). We used the Games-Howell post-hoc test for unequal variances to determine
significant differences between time periods with the R package userfriendlyscience
(Peters 2015).
We visually evaluated hourly mean soil temperature measurements and identified
10–18 April as the period when soil temperatures began to dramatically fluctuate
daily. We then calculated daily temperature amplitudes (difference in daily maximum
and minimum temperature) for each plot during that time period. To determine
the effect of snow removal on soil warming, we used a Kruskal-Wallis rank sum
test to test for significant differences in temperature amplitude between treatments.
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Because we were only interested in treatment effects, we did not test for significant
differences in amplitude between dates.
To determine the effect of snow removal on gravimetric soil moisture over sampling
dates, we used a linear mixed-effects model LME, R Package nlme (Pinheiro
et al. 2015) with log10-transformed soil moisture as the response variable, treatment
and day as interacting fixed factors, and plot as a random factor. The model was
interpreted using analysis of variance and Tukey’s highly significant differences
(HSD) post-hoc test to determine the effects of treatment and day on soil moisture.
Results
Temperature
Winter pre-treatment soil temperatures were near freezing (0 °C) in the reference
and treatment plots, while the air temperature was -5 to -15 °C (Fig. 3A). The
effect of snow removal was seen on soil temperature shortly after initiation of the
treatment. Winter mean daily soil temperatures ranged from 0 to 1 °C in the reference
plots and -4.6 to 0.6° C in the treatment plots. During the vernal transition,
mean daily soil temperatures ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 °C in the reference plots and
-0.2 to 2.3 °C in the treatment plots (Fig. 3A). Following snowmelt in all plots
(spring), reference and treatment plot soil temperatures were similar and generally
increased over time from 1 to 22 °C (Fig. 3A).
Delta-T varied significantly between time periods (one-way ANOVA: P < 0.001;
Fig. 3B). Snow removal lowered soil temperature in winter, as is indicated by ΔT
being significantly larger than pre-treatment (Games-Howell: P < 0.001), vernal
transition (Games-Howell: P < 0.001), and spring (Games-Howell: P < 0.001 (Fig.
3B). Pre-treatment ΔT was lower than spring ΔT (Games-Howell: P < 0.001).
During the vernal transition, mean daily soil temperature for all plots was within
± 1 °C of freezing until 11 April, when soil temperatures began to fluctuate on a diel
basis in the snow-removal plots. On that date, soil temperatures in the treatment
plots had a significantly larger amplitude of 3.67 °C, compared to 0.16 °C in the
reference plots (Kruskal-Wallis: P = 0.020; Fig. 3C). Amplitude continued to be
significantly larger in treatment plots (Kruskal-Wallis: P = 0.020 for all dates) until
17 April, 3 days after the snow cover had melted in the reference plots (Kruskal-
Wallis: P = 0.149; Fig. 3C).
Moisture
Soil moisture was 25% higher in treatment than reference plots across all dates
(LME: P < 0.001; Fig. 4). The linear mixed-effects model showed a significant interaction
between treatment and date (LME: P < 0.001; Fig. 4). Soil moisture in the
treatment plots was higher than reference plots during the first 2 vernal transition
sampling days (Tukey’s HSD: P < 0.001), but there was no effect of snow removal
on soil moisture during winter and spring. Within treatments, soil moisture varied
significantly between collections in the snow-removal plots but not the reference
plots. Soil moisture in the treatment plots was highest during the vernal transition
and the lowest during the spring (Fig. 4).
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Discussion
Snow removal lowered soil temperature below freezing during winter and
accelerated soil warming during the vernal transition. In the reference plots, soil
temperature stayed at or slightly above freezing underneath snowpack, as the subnivean
soil was thermally insulated throughout the winter. Snow, which mostly
consists of air, has a low thermal conductivity (Zhang 2005). Depending on the
density of the snowpack, the thermal conductivity can be 5–20 times lower than
that of mineral soil, decoupling air and soil temperatures (Grundstein et al. 2005,
Zhang 2005). Our reference plots demonstrated the insulating properties of the
snowpack, with winter soil temperature under snowpack consistently at or above
0°C. In contrast, snow removal recoupled soil-air temperatures, as patterns in soil
temperature in the treatment plots tracked fluctuations in air temperature. A snowremoval
study conducted at the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research
Center (450 km west of our site) found that soil temperatures in snow-free plots
tracked inter-annual variations in winter air temperatures; notably, during a warm
winter, soils were often colder under snowpack than in snow-removal plots (Decker
et al. 2003). Similarly, at the Harvard Forest in Massachusetts (390 km southwest of
our site), the loss of insulating snowpack during a warmer winter contributed to soil
frost formation in both snow-removal and reference plots (Reinmann and Templer
Figure 4. Mean gravimetric moisture (left axis, circles) and daily rainfall (right axis, light
gray fill). Frozen precipitation (i.e., snow) is not included. Vertical dashed lines delineate
seasons. For moisture, treatment plots are indicated by dark gray circles and reference plots
by open circles and bars are standard deviation. Asterisks indicate significant differences
between treatments on that date. Letters indicate significant differences between dates for
treatment plots (there were no significant dif ferences in soil moisture for reference plots).
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2015). Given that climate-change predictions indicate that decreased snowpack
will be concomitant with warmer winters (Fernandez et al. 2015), it is important
to note that our measurements, which were made in a colder than average winter
(1.9 °C colder than the 30-year average, NOAA 2016), do not fully represent the
predicted impacts of climate change on soil. However, regardless of the variability
of temperature change, this and other studies (e.g., Cleavitt et al. 2008, Comerford
et al. 2013) indicate that the loss of snowpack insulation associated with climate
change will result in recoupling of air and soil temperatures, increasing wintertime
temperature variability in soil.
At the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), which is ~265 km southwest
of our site, mild soil freezing (0 to -4 °C) was cold enough to damage fine
roots via cellular and physical disruption (Cleavitt et al. 2008, Tierney et al.
2001). Temperatures in our treatment plots were below -4°C on 12 days, with a
minimum of -6 °C. Thus, it is probable that snow removal disrupted soil biological
processes in treatment plots due to soil freezing. In the interior northeastern
climate region, springtime biological activity typically increases once soil temperatures
reach 4 °C (Groffman et al. 2012). Although soil temperatures warmed 3
days earlier in the treatment plots, damage to fine roots and microbes could delay
springtime nutrient uptake, resulting in increased export to surface waters. Although
we only measured O horizon soils (maximum depth = 5 cm), other studies
in New England have shown that snow-removal results in colder soil temperatures
as deep as 30 cm (Decker et al. 2003, Hardy et al. 2001) and soil frost formation
at depths >15 cm (Hardy et al. 2001, Reinmann and Templer 2015) below the surface.
While additional research is needed to explore these hypotheses, we believe
that snow removal altered soil temperatures enough to impact soil biota, and by
extension, ecosystem processes.
Snow removal significantly altered temporal patterns in soil moisture. The
maximum average snow depth measured in the reference plots was 540 ± 40 mm
(equivalent to 79 ± 23 mm of liquid precipitation), so we expected moisture would
be lower in the treatment plots due to the absence of snowmelt water as was observed
at HBEF (Hardy et al. 2001). However, we found that soils were wettest in
the snow removal plots during the vernal transition prior to the thaw. We propose
that increases in soil moisture and persistent freezing soil temperatures that occurred
during the vernal transition can be attributed to a 9.1-mm rain event in late
March that penetrated the bare soil and froze, resulting in the formation of “concrete
frost” in treatment plots. Concrete frost occurs when soils of high moisture
content freeze (Shanley and Chalmers 1999, Zhang 2005), and we expect that it
contributed to the freezing soil temperatures in the treatment plots until warmer air
temperatures melted both the soil frost and snowpack at the end of March. Ice and
snow require heat energy to melt, and this heat sink can result in freezing soil temperatures
during snowmelt (Zhang 2005). In contrast, during rain-on-snow events
(such as occurred in our reference plots during the vernal transition), most rainwater
is absorbed by snow and does not reach the soil (Huntington et al. 2009). Rain
that does percolate through snow forms frost at the snow-soil interface, warming
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soil temperatures farther down in the soil profile through the release of latent heat
during freezing (Putkonen and Roe 2003). Soil temperatures in the reference plots
stayed above freezing, suggesting that frost did not penetrate below 3–5 cm in the
soil profile.
Although snow removal recoupled air and soil temperatures in winter, concrete
frost formation during the vernal transition caused treatment soil temperatures to
mirror those of the reference plots. However, fluctuations in soil temperature indicate
that soils in snow-removal plots thawed 6 days earlier than reference plots. At HBEF
and Harvard Forest, snowpack was only removed for part of the winter, and soil frost
persisted longer in snow-removal plots (Hardy et al. 2001, Reinmann and Templer
2015). However, at the Proctor Maple Research Center, snow was removed throughout
the entire winter (as in this study), and soils warmed earlier in snow-removal
plots (Decker et al. 2003) due to a combination of the loss of the thermal barrier of
snow and reduced albedo. The fact that concrete frost delayed thawing bare soils is
important in Maine, where winter non-snow precipitation events are expected to increase
due to climate change (Fernandez et al. 2015).
To our knowledge, this study marks the first snow-manipulation experiment in
a coniferous forest in the northeastern United States. Trends in soil temperature
were similar to those in other New England temperate forest stands, with loss of
snowpack leading to greater soil frost which may affect springtime microbial,
plant, and macroinvertebrate activity (Campbell et al. 2005). Soil moisture was
also influenced by snow removal, but not as we had hypothesized, with wetter soils
resulting from concrete frost due to rain on soil during the vernal transition. It is
interesting to note that our conclusions could have been different had there been no
rain on soil during the vernal transition period for this study. These results highlight
the importance of interacting factors and a high variability in space and time that
is inherent in a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of a changing
climate. Since the trajectory of climate will likely result in greater loss of snow
cover with time, it is increasingly important to understand the physical, chemical,
and biological consequences of these shifts in ecosystem function to manage and
model the cascading forest response to a changing climate.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Andrew Reeve for lending us iButtons. We thank Cheryl Spencer, Nina Caputo,
Tyler Coleman, Justin Libby, Christian Oren, and Lindsey White for their assistance
in the field and laboratory. Drs. Sarah Nelson and Kevin Simon provided valuable feedback
on experimental design. This research was funded by grants from the University of Maine
Graduate Student Government Grant and an Ecology and Environmental Sciences Graduate
Research Grant. Support for this research was, in part, from the Maine Agricultural and Forest
Experiment Station and the National Science Foundation (DEB-1056692). We thank the
3 anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. Finally, we are extremely grateful to
our team of shoveling volunteers: Alex Bacjz, Kalyn Bickerman-Martens, Kelsey Boeff, Jesse
Call, Meaghan Conway, Julia McGuire, Jules Michaud, and Kaitlyn O’Donnell. This project
was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project #ME0-
41507. This is Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station Publication No. 3520.
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