Niwa hydrologist Dr Alice Hill is asking for the help of skiers, mountaineers and alpine professionals to collect snow for a new research project - the Aotearoa Snow Isotope Project.
She is launching the project at this week’s southern hemisphere Alpine Conference in Wanaka and is seeking the help of anyone who spends time in the alpine environment, to collect a snow sample and send it to her for chemical isotope analysis.
"We’re asking patrollers, skifield staff, climbers, or avid skiers out for the day to collect a small snow sample.
"Data on snow is very limited in New Zealand, so any citizen science samples we get from this project will provide important information."
Dr Hill said the winter snow season was her immediate data collection focus, but snow samples collected year-round would be valuable to the data set.
The research goal was to determine the amount of meltwater making its way into rivers and groundwater, and how that might change over time.
This was particularly important in a changing climate which might affect future supply, she said.
"Snow is sensitive to rising temperatures, and many industries such as hydropower and agriculture depend on snowmelt for their livelihoods, so we need to know what to expect in the future."
"Climate change and human-induced activities are changing how much snow there is, when and how fast it melts.
"This means our downstream water resources that are partially sourced from snowmelt, like rivers and groundwater, may not look the same in the future.
"This has implications for the way that regional councils manage water takes, and for individual users like farmers who need some certainty around how much water they’ll have access to, and when."
Isotope analysis of snow and water downstream could tell scientists where water came from, and was used to calculate snow melt in rivers.
Canterbury is the initial focus for the research and Dr Hill is targeting specific snowfields such as Temple Basin, Mt Hutt, Broken River, and Craigieburn to help generate a weekly time series.
Snow samples are also sought from citizen scientists all over the South Island to help build the database.
Dr Hill said she would have sampling packs available at the conference.
A small amount of fresh surface snow needs to be scooped into the tube and some details of time and place recorded.
"Just let the snow melt and then send it back to me."
