As snow cover is decreasing in the Alps, green space is growing.
But the more significant part of the research focuses on the increase of vegetative cover, or “greening” of this mountain region. Nearly 80 percent of the Alps above the tree line have experienced this rise in plant growth, which has severe implications for the ecosystem and could potentially accelerate certain factors that contribute to climate change.
“The loss in year-round snow might suggest that a different threshold is being crossed, because it’s going from one land cover type to another,” Adrienne Marshall, a hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines who specializes in snow, says. Areas that saw a decrease in year-round snow were more likely to have shorter summer snow cover, too. But greening only coincided with changes in snow cover in a fraction of the Alps, the study showed.
While there are potential benefits of more plants that can suck carbon dioxide out of the air, researchers say that the negatives outweigh the good. But other feedback systems could have meaningful impacts: An uptick in plants in the Alps will alter snow patterns, speed up snowmelt, and reduce snow cover. Reduced snow cover combined with greener mountains also means less, which occurs when the white frosty layer reflects sunlight back into the atmosphere.
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