Snow cover in the Sierra Nevada is expected to shrink overall as the climate warms, but avalanche frequency could remain the same or even increase at high elevations. That's bad news for bighorn sheep that live there, according to new research.
Snow cover in the Sierra Nevada is expected to shrink overall as the climate warms, but avalanche frequency could remain the same or even increase at high elevations. That's bad news for bighorn sheep that live there, according to new research.
Ned Bair, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and colleagues ran simulations for the current and future climate to find out how avalanches might continue to affect bighorn sheep. They found that while snow cover may decrease in the Sierra Nevada as the climate warms, avalanches that kill bighorn sheep might not.
While snow cover will generally decrease in the Sierra Nevada in the future, that decrease will mostly be at lower elevations, where snowfall may become rain. The high elevations where bighorn sheep live will have fewer changes to snow cover. Those high elevations may even see an increase in snow accumulation as climate change increases the number and strength of California's atmospheric rivers, which were responsible for the Sierra Nevada's deep snowpack in 2023.
Veterinary Medicine Cows Sheep Pigs Prions Snow And Avalanches Environmental Awareness Climate Global Warming
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