Snow cover significantly affects microbial activity in the soil underneath by influencing both respiration and soil nitrification and denitrification processes. My research will investigate how seasonal snowpack influences the forest ecosystem carbon and nitrogen budgets at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). Furthermore, this study will address how future changes in snowpack depth and duration, and in winter and springtime soil temperature and moisture, may alter soil biogeochemical processes and feedbacks on atmospheric composition and chemistry at the UMBS forest ecosystem. While a number of related studies have been done in alpine environments, this study will be one of the few to investigate gas fluxes through the snowpack at a low-elevation, deciduous forest environment. By interpretation of findings from UMBS and comparison with previous research from high-elevation environments, this study will provide improvements in our ability to assess effects and feedbacks of snow cover changes on regional and continental budgets of oxidized carbon and nitrogen.