SNOW ACCUMULATION UNDER THE FOREST CANOPY IN THE MIDDLE URAL
O.V. TOLKACH1, S.V. ZALESOV2
1Botanical Garden, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 620144, Yekaterinburg, ul. 8 Marta, 202a, Russia
tolkach_o_v@mail.ru
2Ural State Forest Engineering University, 620100, Yekaterinburg, Sibirskii trakt, 37, Russia
Zalesov@usfeu.ru
Keywords: запас воды в снеге, таксационные характеристики древостоев, метод главных компонент, средние температуры зимнего сезона, высота снежного покрова, water storage in snow, taxation characteristics of stands, method of principal components, average temperatures of the winter season, snow depth
Abstract
A historical background of the hydrological role of forests abroad and in Russia is presented. Attention is focused on the significance of solid precipitation for the Ural in the formation of the channel flow and groundwater recharge. Forest is considered as a regulated landscape influencing the hydrological regime of the territory. The study as carried out in the southern-taiga for est district of the Middle Ural low-mountain province of the Ural mountain forest region. An analysis is made of snow storage under the forest canopy for a long-term period having regard to the fluctuations in winter weather conditions. Detailed forest inventory characteristics of forest stands on snow survey profiles are presented. Long-term series of observations were analyzed using principal component analysis. Data on the snow depth on open sites and under the forest canopy of a different composition are given. The leading formation factors for the snow layer and water storage in it within forest catchments are determined. It is established that in the Ural the snow depth in the forest is determined by the degree of closeness, the age of the forest stand and average temperatures of the winter season, and snow storage is primarily associated with the meteorological factors and slope exposure and less with the age and degree of closeness of the forest stand. Data on the dynamics of snow storage in forest stands of the same age and the same degree of closeness are presented. It is established that water storage in the snow can decrease with the increasing contribution of dark coniferous species; in this case, the leading formation factor for water storage in the snow is the contribution from coniferous species in the forest stand composition. The range of influence of the species composition of the forest stand depends largely on the weather conditions of the winter season.
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