Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of long-term trends of greenup and snowmelt timings and the resultant effects.
From: Carbon response of tundra ecosystems to advancing greenup and snowmelt in Alaska
A In a present-day ecosystem, snow cover usually melts (blue circle) before greenup occurs (red circle) with interannual variations (blue and red distributions for snowmelt and greenup timings, respectively), and snowmelt is occasionally delayed when there is high snowfall (chance of early snowmelt and delayed snowmelt events in green and brown areas, respectively). The relative advance of the two timings (snowmelt in the blue solid line and greenup in the red dashed line) decide whether there will be B more frequent early snowmelt events or C more frequent delayed snowmelt events (i.e., suspending greenup from the meteorologically possible timing).
