Spatiotemporal snowmelt patterns within a high Arctic landscape, with implications for flora and fauna

Abstract

Snow conditions are important drivers of the distribution and phenology of Arctic flora and fauna, but the extent and effects of local variation in snowmelt are still inadequately studied. We analyze snowmelt patterns within the Zackenberg valley in northeast Greenland. Drawing on landscape-level snowmelt dates and meteorological data from a central climate station, we model snowmelt trends during 1998–2014. We then use time-lapse photographs to examine consistency in spatiotemporal snowmelt patterns during 2006–2014. Finally, we use monitoring data on arthropods and plants for 1998–2014 to investigate how snowmelt date affects the phenology of Arctic organisms. Despite large interannual variation in snowmelt timing, we find consistency in the relative order of snowmelt among sites within the landscape. With a slight overall advancement in snowmelt during the study period, early melting locations have advanced more than late-melting ones. Individual organism groups differ greatly in how their phenology shifts with snowmelt, with much variance attributable to variation in life history and diet. Overall, we note that local variation in snowmelt patterns may drive important ecological processes, and that more attention should be paid to variability within landscapes. Areas optimal for a given taxon vary between years, thereby creating spatial structure in a seemingly uniform landscape.

Keywords

• snowmelt
• spatiotemporal variability
• phenological mismatch
• high arctic
• climate change