Project Details: Snow modelling to understand the impacts of Little Ice Age climate change

Project Description

Parent Project Title: Sub Projects	Snow Modelling Iceland Snow modelling Hörgardalur Snow modelling Skaftártunga
Title:	Snow modelling to understand the impacts of Little Ice Age climate change
Description	This project aims to use an existing process based snow model to simulate changes in snow cover and distribution for sites in Iceland and in Greenland. Changes in the duration and depth of snow cover through periods of climatic deterioration may have had significant impacts on pastoral farmers, particularly if snow cover extended into the spring. The Little Ice age is a known period of climatic cooling that would have increased the duration of snow cover. Long term records of snow cover beyond a few decades do not exist so modelling is the only way to determine how snow cover would have changed. Climatic scenarios are drawn from Global Circulation models to show snow cover in good (warm) and bad (cold) years. Fieldwork in March 2014 at the two study areas took measurements of snow thickness and density allowing a calibration of the model against modern meteorological datasets. Currently (November 2015) this project is being written up for publication in 2016. Sites in Iceland will be compared to sites in Greenland.
Keywords:	Comparative Island Ecodynamics modelling LIttle Ice Age snow
Sponsors/Funders	NSF
Country	Other
Project Start Year	2014
Project End Year	2016

Contact:	Richard Streeter
Address	Institute of Geography and Sustainable Development Irvine Building St Andrews
Postcode	KY16 9AL
Email	rts3@st-andrews.ac.uk