In dense forests, tree branches can intercept a significant share of falling snow before it ever reaches the ground.
“When snow is falling, trees can act as an umbrella, and they can prevent the snow from actually reaching the ground, so it never becomes part of the water supply,” said Emily Howe, an aquatic ecologist with The Nature Conservancy and a co-author of the research published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.
That snow can then evaporate or melt off the branches, meaning it never contributes to the snowpack that feeds Western waterways…