Landscape Controls on Snow Accumulation in an Alpine Catchment (original) (raw)

The central question addressed by this poster is relationship between landscape types and snow accumulation. Of particular interest is the relative amount of snow accumulation in talus areas. Talus areas play an important role in alpine hydrology because these areas have been shown to provide water late into the summer growing season. One reason that talus areas may provide important sources of water late into the growing season is because they accumulate more snow than other landscape types in alpine basins. The roughness of talus areas reduces the redistribution of snow by wind, which may cause an increase in accumulation. Furthermore, talus areas are often located beneath steep rock faces, and these areas may accumulate relatively high amounts of snow due to sluffs and avalanches.