Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes
Fyffe CL, Potter E, Miles E, Shaw T, McCarthy M, Orr A, Loarte E, Medina K, Fatichi S, Hellström R, Baraer M, Mateo E, Cochachin A, Westoby M, Pellicciotti F. 2025. Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes. Communications Earth and Environment. 6, 434.
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Author
Fyffe, Catriona LouiseISTA;
Potter, Emily;
Miles, Evan;
Shaw, ThomasISTA 
;
McCarthy, MichaelISTA;
Orr, Andrew;
Loarte, Edwin;
Medina, Katy;
Fatichi, Simone;
Hellström, Rob;
Baraer, Michel;
Mateo, Emilio
All
;
McCarthy, MichaelISTA;
Orr, Andrew;
Loarte, Edwin;
Medina, Katy;
Fatichi, Simone;
Hellström, Rob;
Baraer, Michel;
Mateo, Emilio
All
Corresponding author has ISTA affiliation
Department
Abstract
The snow and glaciers of the Peruvian Andes provide vital water supplies in a region facing water scarcity and substantial glacier change. However, there remains a lack of understanding of snow processes and quantification of the contribution of melt to runoff. Here we apply a distributed glacio-hydrological model over the Rio Santa basin to disentangle the role of the cryosphere in the Andean water cycle. Only at the highest elevations (>5000 m a.s.l.) is the snow cover continuous; at lower elevations, the snowpack is thin and ephemeral, with rapid cycles of snowfall and melt. Due to the large catchment area affected by ephemeral snow, its contribution to catchment inputs is substantial (23% and 38% in the wet and dry season, respectively). Ice melt is crucial in the mid-dry season (up to 44% of inputs). Our results improve estimates of water fluxes and call for further process-based modelling across the Andes.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2025-06-05
Journal Title
Communications Earth and Environment
Publisher
Springer Nature
Acknowledgement
This work was conducted under the PeruGROWS and PEGASUS projects, which were both funded by NERC (grants NE/S013296/1 and NE/S013318/1, respectively) and CONCYTEC through the Newton-Paulet Fund. The Peruvian part of the Peru GROWS project was conducted within the framework of the call E031-2018-01-NERC Glacier Research Circles through its executing unit FONDECYT (Contract N°08-2019-FONDECYT). Francesca Pellicciotti acknowledges support from the SNSF-funded PASTURE project, grant no. 202604. Catriona Fyffe was supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action project EPIC, which was funded by the European Union (grant number 101105480). We thank Florian von Ah for calculating the altitudinally resolved glacier mass balances for the catchment. We also thank Duncan Quincey for his support and guidance within both the PeruGROWS and PEGASUS projects. Gerardo Jacome and Alan Llacza are thanked for their contribution to the climate modelling. We thank Ignacio López-Moreno and Simon Gascoin for their thoughtful and constructive comments, which greatly improved the manuscript. The team dedicates this work to the memory of Ing. Alejo Cochachin Rapre, and his tireless work to monitor the region’s glaciers.
Volume
6
Article Number
434
eISSN
IST-REx-ID
Cite this
Fyffe CL, Potter E, Miles E, et al. Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes. Communications Earth and Environment. 2025;6. doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x
Fyffe, C. L., Potter, E., Miles, E., Shaw, T., McCarthy, M., Orr, A., … Pellicciotti, F. (2025). Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes. Communications Earth and Environment. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x
Fyffe, Catriona Louise, Emily Potter, Evan Miles, Thomas Shaw, Michael McCarthy, Andrew Orr, Edwin Loarte, et al. “Thin and Ephemeral Snow Shapes Melt and Runoff Dynamics in the Peruvian Andes.” Communications Earth and Environment. Springer Nature, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x.
C. L. Fyffe et al., “Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes,” Communications Earth and Environment, vol. 6. Springer Nature, 2025.
Fyffe CL, Potter E, Miles E, Shaw T, McCarthy M, Orr A, Loarte E, Medina K, Fatichi S, Hellström R, Baraer M, Mateo E, Cochachin A, Westoby M, Pellicciotti F. 2025. Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes. Communications Earth and Environment. 6, 434.
Fyffe, Catriona Louise, et al. “Thin and Ephemeral Snow Shapes Melt and Runoff Dynamics in the Peruvian Andes.” Communications Earth and Environment, vol. 6, 434, Springer Nature, 2025, doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x.
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