Fig. 1: Schematic path diagram showing the effect of shortened snow cover duration on plant productivity.

Cascading relationships of the three pathways include six processes: snow cover duration length (SCD) in the snow hydrological year; snowmelt dates (SMD); thermal regime of the soil ground after snowmelt (soil temperature, Tsoil); soil thaw including start of soil thaw (SOT) and active layer thickness (ALT); N-uptake (Nplant), water availability (soil water content, SWC) and plant phenology (start of season, SOS). Climate factors (air temperature, precipitation, solar radiation), atmospheric N deposition, and runoff are considered in the cascading relationships.