Global reduction of snow cover in ski areas under climate change

ecological conflicts will become more likely as skiable areas will concentrate towards remote mountainous areas in the future. This negative trend in global scd within ski areas is in line with regional studies [1, 6–10]. In addition, similar negative effects on global snow cover duration were observed between 2000 and 2018 based on remote sensing MODIS products, with decreases of up to 43 days in 78% of the global mountain areas [34]. Ongoing warming causes a shift from solid to liquid precipitation [35, 36] and precipitation will additionally decline under future climate condi- tions in many mountain regions such as the European Alps [37]. Hence, climate change affects Fig 3. a) Percent change in annual snow cover days in future periods relative to 1981–2100 for all ski areas combined and separated into low (<25% percentile, left), medium (>25% and <75% percentile, middle) and high (>75% percentile, right) population density and for low (SSP1-2.6, green), high (SSP3-7.0, yellow) and very high (SSP5-8.5, violet) emissions scenarios. b) Historical, current, and future annual snow cover days for all ski areas, separated into areas with low, medium, and high population density for high (SSP3-7.0, yellow) emissions scenarios. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299735.g003 PLOS ONE Global reduction of snow cover in ski areas under climate change PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299735 March 13, 2024 7 / 15