Please join us for the NC CASC webinar on Thursday, October 14, 2021, 11a -12p MDT titled:

Forest impacts on snow water resources: management and climate adaptation possibilities

Presented by: Dr. Keith Musselman, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder

Registration link:  Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqcOutrjMpH9Hay66HQPzjystnCGcFTG4i 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the meeting.  

Abstract:

Most of the snow water resources that feed North America’s large rivers originate from forested land. Forest canopies greatly affect the snow on the ground. Forest cover intercepts snowfall that subsequently sublimates back to the atmosphere – a water resource that is never realized. At the same time, forest canopy shelters snow from wind and shades it from solar radiation, facilitating the persistent provision of meltwater late into the spring. In this talk, I present both empirical data and models to review how forest structure impacts snow and the critical consequences of climate change and forest structure degradation on the hydrology, meteorology and ecology of forests. The challenges and possibilities to inform adaptive response by forest management practitioners and the needs for robust, community-based predictive models are discussed.

About the speakers:

Dr. Keith Musselman is a research associate at INSTAAR. As a hydrologist, Keith assesses climate change and land cover impacts on freshwater availability, streamflow, and flood risk across a spectrum of scale. Keith holds a B.S. in Geology from the University of Vermont, an M.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from UCLA. As a postdoc, he worked for the University of Saskatchewan on the topics of forest hydrology and land cover change. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) from 2015-2017 where he helped to advance hydrologic model treatment of cold region processes. Now at the University of Colorado Boulder, Keith leads multiple large interdisciplinary research projects including a team of 20 people to assess climate change impacts on Indigenous communities in Alaska and the Yukon using co-production. Keith has authored 30 publications including recent high-profile papers on snowmelt and flood risk in current and future climates.

Past NC CASC Webinar Recordings: https://nccasc.colorado.edu/webinars 

Dates for future NC CASC webinars:

November 11, 2021, 11a-12p MST

December 9, 2021, 11a-12p MST