Response of terrestrial carbon dynamics to snow cover change: A meta-analysis of experimental manipulation (II)

Abstract

Snowpack in winter is very sensitive to climate change, and may in turn induce complex effects on terrestrial biochemistry processes. Here we synthesized the results from 49 papers based on snow depth manipulation experiments and conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the general response of 9 variables related to terrestrial carbon pools and dynamics to the altered snowpack depth. Our meta-analysis results indicated that increasing snowpack depth significantly increased litter biomass (+18.4%), MBC (+18.2%) and CO2 emission (+15.5%), and significantly decreased litter C: N ratio (−5.8%) and total soil carbon (−28.5%) under snow addition manipulation, but did not significantly affect fine root biomass, MBC: MBN ratio and soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC). However, increasing snowpack depth only significantly altered litter C: N ratio (+11.2%) under snow removal manipulation. The different responses between snow addition and removal were possibly related to the higher soil temperature and moisture under snow addition than under snow removal manipulation experiments. In addition, the effect of increasing snowpack depth on CH4 flux was not significant, presumably because all these studies were compiled from snow-removal experiments. These results are useful for a better understanding of the effects of altered snowpack on terrestrial carbon cycling under climate change scenarios.