Climate Studies
The climate program includes the operation of automatic climate stations in the study areas, short-term measurements of microclimate, the statistical analysis of regional climate records record with respect to the local bioclimate, and the analysis and downscaling of climate change scenarios.
The main effort has been directed at the Mealy Mountains study area, with some basic instruments at a site in the Red Wine Mountains . In Gros Morne National Park , climate studies on the Big Level Plateau have been ongoing since 1997.
Climatological observations began in the Mealy Mountains study area in the summer of 2001, when two automatic climate stations were installed, one at 570 m above sea level (m a.s.l.) near the upper limit of the closed canopy forest, the other at a tundra site at an elevation of 1000 m a.s.l. Those stations record hourly air and ground temperatures, relative humidity and solar irradiance. A bulk precipitation gauge collects annual rain and snowfall.
In 2005, a third station was set up at the Memorial University base camp site at 600 m elevation to measure air and ground temperatures, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and wind speed and direction. Air temperature/humidity and ground temperature sensors have also been deployed at various locations to monitor soil temperature in different vegetation habitats.
Preliminary observations: Trends in Regional Climate. Globally averaged air temperatures have risen dramatically over the past century. In the nearly seven decades of instrumentral records for central Labrador through the early 1990s, the only significant trend was a slight cooling in winter. However, since 1993 a regional summer warming trend has been apparent and summer temperatures for the Mealy Mountains study area have been at or above normal in each of the six years since these studies began. Related studies in Gros Morne National Park indicate a decrease in the period of snow-cover at higher elevations. Accumulating data are providing the basis for our goal of creating downscaled scenarios of regional climate change in order to model local climates more precisely.
