Snow patches in the NSW alpine region are melting two weeks earlier in the year than they did 45 years ago, satellite data has revealed.
The melting of the last snow patches left in the Snowy Mountains post winter, which used to occur in the middle of March, is now occurring at the end of February, researchers at the University of Canberra found.
PhD student Phil Campbell said the semi-perennial snow patches occupy just a few square kilometres of the vast Australian landscape.
Mr Campbell said they were important to the survival of specialised species of plants which were able to survive buried beneath the patches; growing, reproducing and setting seed when the snow melted away.
Thanks to climate change causing the snow patches to melt earlier, plants less specialised and suited to the unique conditions are thought to be moving in, he said.
Scientists are concerned these other species will crowd out the snow patch plants and cause them to go extinct.
Snow patches also play an important role in the ecosystem as they have the capacity to shift the earth beneath them around as they move, as well as provide water for downstream plants when they melt.
Mr Campbell said because they survive until the warmer months when things tend to get as little drier in the alpine regions, the melt water provides welcome relief downstream.
"We've got lots of little bog and fen communities that live down from the snow patches and they're getting a nice little trickle of water during those warmer months and that helps sustain them," he said.
While on average the snow melt is occurring two weeks earlier than before, three snow patches in the Snowy Mountains survived from winter to winter this year.
A bumper snow season coupled with a relatively cool summer meant snow patches survived year round for the first time in 26 years.
Snow patches making it through the warmer months had previously occurred just five times in the 45 years of data, including 1978, 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1997.
Snowpatch Herbfield - the name given to the rare plant species existing beneath the snow - have been listed as critically endangered in the Australian Alps by the NSW government.
Mr Campbell said it was placed on the red list for the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2016, meaning it is globally recognised as critically endangered.
"Our semi-perennial snow patches are an iconic and essential part of our alpine landscape," he said.
Ken Green, Australian National University emeritus professor, spent 27 consecutive summers scanning the mountain tops around Mount Kosciuszko, surveying 26 snow patches monthly and recording what was visible.
Dr Green said the snow patches and the unique Snowpatch Herbfield ecological community they support were already at the top of Australia's highest peaks, and therefore its coldest landscape.
"In a warming world, there is nowhere for them to go, placing them at an extremely high risk of being lost forever," he said.
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