Ecological Systems and Devices Annotation << Back Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity of Snow Cover in Mixed and Dark Coniferous Forests and in the Field Kazakova E.N., Kondrashova E.S. The paper examines the variability of snow cover parameters during the winter season in different landscapes - mixed forest, fi eld and dark coniferous forest at three sites located in the vicinity of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. During observations, the average height of snow cover, density by layers were measured once a week, the structure of each layer and the average diameter of crystals were determined. Based on the density and height of snow cover, snow reserve was calculated. It was found that there is no clear relationship between the parameters of snow cover in mixed forest, fi eld and dark coniferous forest, which allows deriving coeffi cients for adjusting the values determined in one type of landscape for another type for poorly studied territories. The difference in the values of various parameters of snow cover in the forest and fi eld increases signifi cantly during thaws and snowstorms. The use of snow cover data obtained at meteorological stations located even at a relatively small distance from the study area in calculations for various surveys leads to signifi cant errors. The same is true for the use of observations conducted in different landscapes, even in areas located at the same altitude and at a small distance from each other. Keywords: snow, snow cover, snow pack, snow density, snow reserve, Sakhalin Island. DOI: 10.25791/esip.8.2024.1465 Pp. 36-42.