Seven years of snow manipulation at Furka Pass
This year, we performed the snow manipulations at our alpine research site for the 7th time. In this long-term experiment close to the Furka Pass, we investigate how alpine grassland is affected by climate change. Warmer spring temperatures cause snowmelt to occur earlier in the spring, exposing alpine plants to a significantly longer growing season. To study the effects of altered snowmelt timing, we manually increase or decrease the remaining snow cover in certain parcels before snowmelt. This involves three days of heavy shovelling and camping on snow! Because of this year's exceptionally warm spring, snowmelt occurred one month earlier than usual. Many thanks to all participants, who made this year's snow manipulations a success (again).
Shovelers: Ansgar, Erika, Fabijan, Flurina, Nicholas, Nino, Patrick
More information:
https://ppe.duw.unibas.ch/en/research/bel-alp/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-021-03027-x
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00035-021-00252-z