. Ecological investigations of the tundra biome in the Prudhoe Bay region, Alaska. Tundra ecology. 23 inhomogeneous distribution of ice masses. Dur- ing the spring only a small amount of heat must be added to raise the temperature of the entire snowpack to the melting point, yet it takes a long time for this to happen. Throughout this time the snow structure can undergo significant changes from only a few days of abnormally warm weather. The warm spell in early May 1972 reduced the amount of heat required to only one-third of the amount required in mid- April. However, a few cool days in mid-M
. Ecological investigations of the tundra biome in the Prudhoe Bay region, Alaska. Tundra ecology. 23 inhomogeneous distribution of ice masses. Dur- ing the spring only a small amount of heat must be added to raise the temperature of the entire snowpack to the melting point, yet it takes a long time for this to happen. Throughout this time the snow structure can undergo significant changes from only a few days of abnormally warm weather. The warm spell in early May 1972 reduced the amount of heat required to only one-third of the amount required in mid- April. However, a few cool days in mid-May doubled the amount required. Furthermore, ice lenses produced by the warm spell in early May remained in the snow for a month. Distribution of Snow and Windblown Dust The locations of traverses and of snow sample sites are indicated in Fig. 1. Some data on snow characteristics were presented above. A summary of the data obtained mainly from vertical core samples at 176 sample sites is presented in Table 5. To facilitate digestion of these data, they will be discussed according to: (a) water equivalent, (b) snow drifting and, (c) dust drifting. Water equivalent of the snow It is not easy to simply cite a single value for the amount of snow on the tundra. This is because of the variability in snow depth and density produced by wind drifting and the com- plexity of small-scale topographic features. We have attempted to determine average values for snow depth and density which can be used to calculate the water equivalent of snow on the tundra apart from drift traps such as banks of lakes and rivers. The average depth of undisturbed snow on the tundra at Prudhoe Bay in May 1972 was 32 cm. This value is based on 871 probe depth values that were all made more than 150 m from any road or other disturbance that may cause drifting. The average density, based on the detailed studies shown in Figs. 7 and 9, was g cm -^. The water equivalent from these studies averaged cm H2O
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