The cold season dominates most of the year in Arctic and alpine regions, but it is understudied due to challenging working conditions and accessibility. However, plant and microbial activity, and biogeochemical turnover, continue under snow cover and sub-zero temperatures. Such activity is likely to play an important role, not only in the winter, but year-round in regulating ecosystem functioning, and carbon and nutrient cycling, which affects plant productivity, phenology and -diversity .
Moreover, at high latitudes and many high elevation areas, the winter period is experiencing the highest rates of climate warming – leading to system altering phenomena including rain-on-snow events and snow cover loss. These phenomena affect the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of terrestrial ecosystems, and may trigger vegetation damage and permafrost carbon loss. Addressing the cold-season knowledge gap is therefore essential – not only to gain a comprehensive understanding of high latitude ecosystems year-round, but also their vulnerability to warmer winters as a result of amplified climate change.
This interdisciplinary session unites researchers working on cold season biogeochemistry, microbiology and plant-soil processes, across the Arctic-boreal region and in Alpine environments. By bringing together varied perspectives, we form an integrated ecosystem approach that considers drivers, transformations, feedbacks, and interdependencies of cold-season processes. We welcome studies focusing on observational, experimental and modelling approaches to understand winter plant and microbial functioning, biogeochemical cycling, and associated impacts on the growing season and year-round dynamics – emphasizing responses to changing seasonality and winter climate regimes.