Forests’ vanishing snow is also bad news for carbon storage
The loss of snow cover in temperate forests is set to slow their growth and reduce their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere, an overlooked consequence of climate change
By James Dinneen
7 July 2025
Forests like Mount Mansfield State Forest in Vermont are losing their snowpacks
Douglas Rissing/Getty Images
Many forests are losing their winter snowpack as global temperatures rise, and that could substantially slow their growth – and reduce the amount of carbon they remove from the atmosphere.
Current projections “are not incorporating that complexity of winter climate change, so they are likely overestimating what the future carbon storage will be”, says Emerson Conrad-Rooney at Boston University in Massachusetts.
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Warming temperatures are generally expected to boost growth in temperate forests, mainly by spurring decomposition and making more nutrients available during the warm growing season. However, models largely don’t account for changes during winter – especially the loss of snow.
“The loss of deep, insulating snowpack cannot be understated,” says Elizabeth Burakowsi at the University of New Hampshire. Her research has shown deep snow days will disappear across most of the US by the end of the century, with consequences for water storage and ecosystem health.
To get a better handle on these cold-weather changes, Conrad-Rooney and their colleagues simulated how a global temperature increase of 5°C would affect the growth of red maple trees (Acer rubrum) in an experimental forest in New Hampshire. In some plots, they used buried cables to warm the soil during the growing season. In others, they also removed snow during winter and warmed the soil to induce cycles of freeze and thaw.
