Snow is becoming more unpredictable across North America, complicating research for scientists Many animals in Alaska, such as moose, are easier to track, count, and monitor against a backdrop of snowfall. The waning of winter snow, due to climate change, is making this work harder for scientists. | Alaska Department of Fish and Game/Neil Barten Lincoln Parrett, a pilot and wildlife biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, typically spends 200 hours every year in a tiny plane, looking for moose, caribou, and wild sheep. From 600 feet up in the sky, it’s almost impractical work. Unless, of course, you’ve got the right conditions, he said. That’s where snow comes in. Against a fresh coating of bright-white fluff, a moose’s husky brown form pops against the Alaskan landscape, making Parrett’s job infinitely more feasible. Parrett’s work guides state-wide wildlife management. Tracking, counting, and monitoring wildlife allows biologists to balance ecosystem preservation and human recreation. In the northern half of North America, this work can often hinge on snowpack, but climate change’s impact on diminishing wintry weather is jeopardizing the viability of many long-held research methods. In some cases, techniques such as aerial surveys are already beginning to falter, according to recent research in the Wildlife Society Bulletin . “Snow conditions are becoming less reliable for these surveys, and it’s changing pretty fast,” said Todd Brinkman, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who coauthored the paper and has studied Alaskan wildlife for over a decade. Snow is integral to the management and research of countless animals across the continent, including caribou, polar bears, pronghorn, and lynx. Scientists can pull environmental DNA from the snowy pawprints of predators, land managers follow the imprints of snow tracks to locate large herds, and the wintry chill that accompanies […]