A large snow fence was built that is designed to impact a series of alpine soils and plant communities along a snow gradient. Snow fence on the Niwot Saddle. The leeward drift extends approximately 75-m downwind of the fence. The fence must be removed during the summer to prevent summer wind regime changes to the permanent study plots. Snow fence grid experimental area in winter.
Snow depth is measured at striped stakes as shown in the above photograph.
The area enclosed by the experiment is 60 x 125 m. The fence is built on an ecotone between a moist Acomastylis rossii community, a wet Salix planifolia shrubland, and a dry Kobresia myosuroides community. The plots are used to monitor changes to plant-species composition, biomass, spectral reflectance, soil characteristics, insects, and small mammals. The transect A-B is the location of the soil temperature data shown in Figure 6. View of the snowfence on a 3-D display of the Niwot Saddle.