Nivale altitude level

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Altitudinal zones of Alps mountains-extended diagram.svg

As nival (of lat. Nothing , Gen. nivis , snow ') are called objects and conditions caused by snow caused or related to snow in context. The associated noun is nivality . That which occurs immediately below the snow line or the snow is called subnival .

Areas in which most or all of the precipitation falls as snow, such as polar regions and high mountains , are nival areas with a nival climate . In the mountains, this altitude is known as the nival zone . For the Alps, for example, it is roughly set at 3000 meters above sea level, but increases above it towards the Mediterranean. In the tropics, the snow line is around 4500 to 5000 meters, in the dry continental areas (Transhimalayas, Andes) up to 6500 meters, i.e. well above the zero degree limit : here the permafrost is largely not nival. Ice-free Nunatakker corridors also occur in the high mountains and the polar regions . The subnival zone lies below the nival zone , it forms a border and transition area to the alpine level.

Nival plants and animals or nival flora and fauna are those populations and species that live constantly in the midst of snow and permanent ice. The nival fauna includes, for example, the glacier flea, the nival flora includes z. B. some types of algae. The subnivium is the habitat within the snow, i.e. between the snow cover and the ground. A seasonal snow cover can also be an important winter refuge for non-nival animals.

If the discharge regime of a river is mainly determined by snowfall and snowmelt, it is referred to as a nival discharge regime .

Individual evidence

  1. subnival. In: duden.de. Retrieved October 14, 2019 .
  2. Dieter Richter : General Geology. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1992, p. 44 (on Google Books )
  3. ↑ Altitude levels. In: Lexicon of Geosciences. Retrieved October 14, 2019 .
  4. ^ Matthias Schaefer: Dictionary of Ecology . Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8274-2562-1 , pp. 116, 283 , keywords subnival and elevation .
  5. Brockhaus, 20th edition, 1998, volume 15, p. 692, keyword nival .
  6. Daniela Hohenwaller u. a .: Report of the Climate Protection Coordination - Status report on climate change in Tyrol . March 19, 2015, p. 28-29 .
  7. Jonathan N Pauli, Benjamin Zuckerberg, John P Whiteman, Warren Porter: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment . January 2013, doi : 10.1890 / 120222 .
  8. discharge regime. In: Spectrum Lexicon of Geography. Retrieved October 14, 2019 .