In most of the circumboreal, this is when winter snow cover finally gives way to spring’s lengthening days and the resurgent flush of leaves and grasses. During this transition, however, there is a critical moment when, with no snow left to cover it, and no foliage yet to shade it, the normally damp, dark forest floor is exposed to the novelty of direct sunlight. This period of a week or two, which occurs before the trees’ roots have fully thawed and their branches have budded, has a name—the “spring dip.” During this brief window of time, between the river’s break-up and the forest’s
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