Vegetation change in mountainous regions is often treated as an outcome of changing hydro-meteorological regimes, yet its feedback to those regimes remains poorly resolved. While it is known that vegetation has significant effects on water partitioning, and shifts in species distributions may actively alter the distribution and temporal availability of water in the regions, these latter dynamics remain poorly represented in the scientific discussion and existing Earth-System-Models. A consolidated understanding of the effects has been hampered by their apparent global heterogeneity: While the European Alps have experienced intensive greening rates, other systems like the North American Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada face widespread forest degradation and disturbance driven mortality with varying hydroclimatic impacts.
This session focuses on the underlying and resulting snow-water-vegetation interactions in seasonally and perennially snow-dominated mountain regions across the globe, where runoff generation heavily depends on the seasonality of snow and glacier melt and its interaction with vegetation, surface- and groundwater bodies. We invite contributions addressing the process interactions between snow and glacier melt, surface- and groundwater, evapotranspiration, primary production, soil moisture distribution and runoff generation, welcoming field work as well as modelling studies. We especially look forward to the integration of novel monitoring techniques into modelling frameworks, inviting case studies as well as comparative and scenario studies across space and time.
We want to connect scientists across disciplines to advance ecohydrological understanding of mountain systems and investigate the role of vegetation in these diverse and complex landscapes.