Presenter(s): Adriann Bechtle − Architecture
Faculty Mentor(s): Dave Sutherland
Poster 140
Research Area: Earth Science
Although the impact climate change has on the cryosphere as a whole is generally understood, the way it plays out in different regions varies and may sometimes seem counter-intuitive. The west coast and midwestern United States are two regions that exemplify the dichotomy between familiar and surprising effects of climate change because their weather is affected by different things and their cryospheres take on nuanced forms. On the west coast the snow is largely limited to high altitudes and it accumulates there to create glaciers. In the midwest, on the other hand, the vast majority of snow
is annual and is highly dependent upon weather patterns. The observable trends in both regions is a decline in snowpack, whether that is annual or accumulative snowpack. Both trends appear to be a direct products of global warming. What differentiates these regions is the change in precipitation and the ways these changes affect the environment and human populations. The west coast is largely suffering from a decline in precipitation and is losing snowpack as a result. This creates a drought because the snowpack is a significant water source. Meanwhile the midwest is actually having an increase in severe winter precipitation, this has its own catastrophic consequences. The question is how these phenomena are connected and if they share an underlying cause. By comparing and contrasting trends in winter precipitation and snowpack from both regions we can see what aspects of climate change are universal versus regional and potentially answer our question.