---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
_id: '19839'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 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.
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.
article_number: '434'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Catriona Louise
  full_name: Fyffe, Catriona Louise
  id: 001b0422-8d15-11ed-bc51-cab6c037a228
  last_name: Fyffe
- first_name: Emily
  full_name: Potter, Emily
  last_name: Potter
- first_name: Evan
  full_name: Miles, Evan
  last_name: Miles
- first_name: Thomas
  full_name: Shaw, Thomas
  id: 3caa3f91-1f03-11ee-96ce-e0e553054d6e
  last_name: Shaw
  orcid: 0000-0001-7640-6152
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Mccarthy, Michael
  id: 22a2674a-61ce-11ee-94b5-d18813baf16f
  last_name: Mccarthy
- first_name: Andrew
  full_name: Orr, Andrew
  last_name: Orr
- first_name: Edwin
  full_name: Loarte, Edwin
  last_name: Loarte
- first_name: Katy
  full_name: Medina, Katy
  last_name: Medina
- first_name: Simone
  full_name: Fatichi, Simone
  last_name: Fatichi
- first_name: Rob
  full_name: Hellström, Rob
  last_name: Hellström
- first_name: Michel
  full_name: Baraer, Michel
  last_name: Baraer
- first_name: Emilio
  full_name: Mateo, Emilio
  last_name: Mateo
- first_name: Alejo
  full_name: Cochachin, Alejo
  last_name: Cochachin
- first_name: Matthew
  full_name: Westoby, Matthew
  last_name: Westoby
- first_name: Francesca
  full_name: Pellicciotti, Francesca
  id: b28f055a-81ea-11ed-b70c-a9fe7f7b0e70
  last_name: Pellicciotti
  orcid: 0000-0002-5554-8087
citation:
  ama: Fyffe CL, Potter E, Miles E, et al. Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and
    runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes. <i>Communications Earth and Environment</i>.
    2025;6. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x">10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x</a>
  apa: 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. <i>Communications Earth and Environment</i>. Springer Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x">https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x</a>
  chicago: 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.” <i>Communications Earth and Environment</i>.
    Springer Nature, 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x">https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x</a>.
  ieee: C. L. Fyffe <i>et al.</i>, “Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff
    dynamics in the Peruvian Andes,” <i>Communications Earth and Environment</i>,
    vol. 6. Springer Nature, 2025.
  ista: 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.
  mla: Fyffe, Catriona Louise, et al. “Thin and Ephemeral Snow Shapes Melt and Runoff
    Dynamics in the Peruvian Andes.” <i>Communications Earth and Environment</i>,
    vol. 6, 434, Springer Nature, 2025, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x">10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x</a>.
  short: C.L. Fyffe, E. Potter, E. Miles, T. Shaw, M. McCarthy, A. Orr, E. Loarte,
    K. Medina, S. Fatichi, R. Hellström, M. Baraer, E. Mateo, A. Cochachin, M. Westoby,
    F. Pellicciotti, Communications Earth and Environment 6 (2025).
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2025-06-15T22:01:28Z
date_published: 2025-06-05T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2025-09-30T12:48:43Z
day: '05'
ddc:
- '550'
department:
- _id: FrPe
doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02379-x
external_id:
  isi:
  - '001503932400002'
  pmid:
  - '40486185'
file:
- access_level: open_access
  checksum: 5d5317640abe280c4f4edfca732cf4e0
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: dernst
  date_created: 2025-06-23T06:41:15Z
  date_updated: 2025-06-23T06:41:15Z
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  file_name: 2025_CommEarthEnvir_Fyffe.pdf
  file_size: 3172494
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file_date_updated: 2025-06-23T06:41:15Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '         6'
isi: 1
language:
- iso: eng
month: '06'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: bdbe6627-d553-11ed-ba76-b5c9eedf278f
  grant_number: '101105480'
  name: ExPloring the ecohydrological Impacts of a changing Cryosphere in the Peruvian
    Andes
publication: Communications Earth and Environment
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2662-4435
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Thin and ephemeral snow shapes melt and runoff dynamics in the Peruvian Andes
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 317138e5-6ab7-11ef-aa6d-ffef3953e345
volume: 6
year: '2025'
...