maintainer: Anita C Risch

en: microbial-respiration microbial-biomass-carbon anthropogenic-management nutrient-addition soil-properties climate herbivore-exclusion

en: Risch et al. GEB_data.xlsx

media_type: .xlsx

en:
Study sites and experimental design
We collected data from 23 sites that are part of the Nutrient Network Global Research Cooperative (NutNet, https://nutnet.umn.edu/). The mean annual air temperature (MAT) across these sites ranged from -4 to 22°C, mean annual precipitation (MAP) from 252 to 1592 mm, and elevations from 6 to 4261 m above sea level (Fig 1a, Supplementary Table S1), hence cover a wide range of climatic conditions under which grasslands occur (Fig 1b). Soil organic C concentrations ranged between 0.8 to 7.8%, soil total N concentrations between 0.1 and 0.6%, and the soil C:N ratio between 9.1 and 21.5. Soil clay content spanned from 3.0 to 35%, and soil pH from 3.4 to 7.6 (Supplementary Table S2).
At each site, the effects of nutrient addition and herbivore exclusion were tested via a randomized-block design (Borer et al., 2014). Three blocks with 10 treatment plots each were established at each site, except for the site at bldr.us (only two blocks). Each of these 10 plots was randomly assigned to a nutrient or fencing treatment. An individual plot was 5 x 5 m, divided into four 2.5 x 2.5 m subplots. Each subplot was further divided into four 1 x 1 m square sampling plots, one of which was set aside for soil sampling (Borer et al., 2014). Plots were separated by at least 1 m wide walkways. We collected soil samples from four different treatments for this study: (i) untreated control plots (Control), (ii) herbivore exclusion plots (Fence), (iii) plots fertilized with N, P, K, plus nine essential macro and micronutrients (NPK), and (iv) plots with simultaneous fertilizer addition and herbivore exclusion (NPK+Fence). The experiments were established at different times in the past, with years of treatment different among sites (2 – 9 years since start of treatment; Supplementary Table S1). For the nutrient additions, all sites applied 10 g N m-2 each year as time-release urea; 10 g P m-2 yr-1 as triple-super phosphate; 10 g K m-2 yr-1 as potassium sulfate. A micro-nutrient mix (Fe, S, Mg, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, Mo, Ca) was applied at 100 g m-2 together with K in the first year of treatments but not thereafter.
We excluded large vertebrate herbivores (Fence) by fencing two plots, one with and one without NPK additions, within each block. The fences excluded all aboveground mammalian herbivores with a body mass of over 50 g (Borer et al., 2014). At most sites, the fences were 180 cm high, and the fence contained a wire mesh (1 cm holes) for the bottom 90 cm with a 30 cm outward-facing flange stapled to the ground to exclude burrowing animals. Climbing and subterranean animals may potentially still access these plots (Borer et al., 2014). For slight modifications in fence design at a few sites see Supplementary Table S3. Most sites only had wild herbivores, although four sites were also grazed by domestic animals (Supplementary Table S1).

Collection of soil samples, soil microbial respiration, microbial biomass, and other soil properties
Each of the 23 sites received a package containing identical material from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Switzerland to be used for sampling (Risch et al., 2015; Risch et al., 2019). We collected two soil cores of 5 cm diameter and 12 cm depth in each sampling plot and composited them to measure MR, MBC, and soil chemical properties (see below). An additional sample (5 x 12 cm) was collected to assess soil physical properties. This sample remained within a steel sampling core after collection and both ends were tightly closed with plastic caps to avoid disturbance. All soils were shipped cooled to the laboratory at (Location will be disclosed after manuscript acceptance) within a few days after collection. Soils were sampled roughly 6 weeks prior to peak biomass at each site during 2015 and 2016.
To assess MR (CO2 production) in a laboratory incubation experiment we weighed duplicate soil samples (8 g dry soil equivalent) into 50-ml Falcon tubes. No additional substrate (glucose, sugar) was added to these samples. We adjusted the soil moisture of each sample to 60% field capacity. We then placed a 15 ml plastic test tube (Semadeni 1701A) containing 7.25 ml 0.05 M NaOH over each soil sample. The test tube was fixed with a plastic rod so that it was not in contact with the soil sample. The Falcon tubes were then sealed with a screw cap and placed in an incubator under completely dark conditions at 20°C. The CO2 produced by microbial respiration was absorbed by the 0.05 M NaOH. For five weeks we measured the decrease in conductivity within the 0.05 M NaOH solution on a weekly basis with a Multimeter WTW Multi 3410 (WTW GmbH, Germany) and replaced the 0.05 M NaOH with fresh solution. We included Falcon tubes without soil samples in each incubation run as blanks to test if tubes were tight and no CO2 could enter or escape. We calibrated the relationship between conductivity reduction and NaOH absorbed as follows: 400 ml 0.05 M NaOH was placed in a beaker and its conductivity was measured with the multimeter. While stirring, air containing CO2 was blown into the solution for approximately one minute, which reacts with NaOH to form Na2CO3. After this process, conductivity was measured again. We then transferred 7.25 ml of the solution into a smaller beaker and added 1 ml of 0.1 M BaCl2 to precipitate Na2CO3 and then titrated the solution with 0.05 M HCl to determine the remaining NaOH. We then repeated these steps with the remaining solution a total of nine times and plotted the conductivities (y-axis) against the NaOH consumed (x-axis, Supplementary Fig S1). This regression line was used to infer the consumption of NaOH from the conductivity reduction in the incubation experiments and to calculate CO2 evolution during incubation. In addition, we determined the optimum concentration for the NaOH solution in series of preliminary experiments, so that the concentration was not too high to become insensitive, but also not too low so that not all NaOH reacts during incubation. We then calculated MR (mg CO2-C kg dry soil-1 h-1) as total amount of CO2 released over the 5 weeks divided by the duration of the entire incubation in hrs.
Soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC; mg C kg soil-1 ) was measured at the beginning of the experiment by measuring the maximal respiratory response to the addition of glucose solution (4 mg glucose per g soil dry weight dissolved in distilled water; substrate-induced respiration method) on approximately 5.5 g of soil (J. P. E. Anderson & Domsch, 1978; Nico Eisenhauer et al., 2018; Scheu, 1992). For this purpose we used an O2-micro-compensation apparatus (Scheu, 1992). More specifically, substrate-induced respiration was calculated from the respiratory response to D-glucose for 10 hr at 20°C. Glucose was added according to preliminary studies to saturate the catabolic enzymes of microorganisms (4 mg g soil-1 dissolved in 400 ml deionized water). The mean of the lowest three readings within the first 10 hrs (between the initial peak caused by disturbing the soil and the peak caused by microbial growth) was taken as maximum initial respiratory response (MIRR; ml O2 kg soil-1 h-1) and microbial biomass (mg C kg soil-1) was calculated as 38 x MIRR (Beck et al., 1997; Cesarz et al., 2022; Thakur et al., 2015).
The rest of the composited sample was dried at 65°C for 48 h, ground and sieved (2 mm mesh) to assess the soil pH, mineral soil total C and N and C:N ratio, and mineral soil organic C (Risch et al., 2019). The undisturbed sample was used to assess water holding capacity (WHC), bulk density (BD), and soil texture [sand, silt, clay; methods in (Risch et al., 2019)]. We used the percentage of sand and clay as an indicator of soil texture in this study. MAT (°C), MAP (mm) and temperature of the wettest quarter (°C) were obtained from www.worldclim.com (Fick & Hijmans, 2017; Hijmans, Cameron, Parra, Jones, & Jarvis, 2005). These variables were selected as they were found to be drivers of soil nutrient processes across these sites in earlier studies (Risch et al., 2020; Risch et al., 2019). Mean annual soil temperatures (MAST; °C) for the 0 to 5 cm soil layer were obtained for each site from the SoilTemp maps (J. Lembrechts et al., 2021; J. J. Lembrechts et al., 2022), global gridded modelled products of soil bioclimatic variables for the 1979-2013 period at a 1-km² resolution, based on CHELSA, ERA5 and in-situ soil temperature measurements.
Numerical calculations and statistical analyses
We calculated MMQ as MR/MBC. We corrected this measure using the average soil temperature of each site (MMQsoil). This temperature correction is necessary as incubation temperatures are usually much higher than site mean annual soil temperatures (see Xu et al. 2017). MMQsoil = MMQ x Q10(MAST – 20)/10, where Q10 was assumed to be 2 (Xu et al. 2017). See Supplementary Fig S2 for comparison of air and soil temperatures across the 23 sites as well as the incubation temperature.
Some of the explanatory variables (clay, soil organic C, C:N ratio) were skewed and were thus log-transformed prior to analyses. All continuous explanatory variables were centred and scaled to have a mean of zero and variance of one. To avoid collinearity between them we filtered them using correlation analysis (Supplementary Fig S3). From the variables that were strongly correlated (Pearson’s |r| > 0.70) (Dormann et al., 2013), we selected the ones that allowed us to minimize the number of variables (Supplementary Fig S3). Specifically, soil total N concentration, soil total C concentration, soil sand content and soil bulk density were dropped from the dataset. We then assessed how these edaphoclimatic variables are related to MMQ across our global grasslands.
For this, we used linear mixed effects models (LMMs) fitted by maximum likelihood with the lme function in the nlme package (version 3.1-153) (Pinheiro, Bates, DebRoy, & Sarkar, 2021) in R version 3.6.3. (R Core Team, 2019). We used treatment as a fixed effect and plot nested in site as random effects to assess treatment differences in MMQsoil, as well as MR, and MBC. The number of years since the treatment started was included as a fixed effect in all the initial models but was not significant and therefore not retained in the models. To assess how differences in MMQsoil were affected by environmental factors (soil, climatic properties) we again used LMMs. Soil and climatic properties were included as fixed effects and plot nested in site as random effects. We did not include interactions between environmental variables. We then used the MuMin package (Barton, 2018) (version 1.42.1) to select the best models that explained the most variation based on Akaike’s information criterion (AIC; model.avg function). We used the corrected AIC (AICc) to account for our small sample size and selected the top models that fell within 4 AICc units (delta AICc < 4) (Burnham & Anderson, 2002; Johnson & Omland, 2004). We present all our top models rather than model averages. Conditional averages are provided in the Supplementary material.
Based on findings from analyses described above and the literature, we developed a conceptual model of direct and indirect relationships between both edaphoclimatic variables and experimental treatments (Supplement Figure S4) to obtain a more holistic approach in understanding how these properties affect MMQsoil. We had data from 23 sites with 272 observations. We tested this model using structural equation modelling based on a d-sep approach (Lefcheck, 2016; Shipley, 2009). We considered those environmental drivers that were included in our top LMMs, namely temperature of the wettest quarter (T.q.wet), soil pH, water holding capacity (WHC) and soil organic C (organic C; Supplementary Figure S4). These factors were allowed to directly affect MMQsoil, and via their interactions with treatments. In addition, treatments were allowed to directly affect MMQsoil. Treatments were included as dummy variables in the model. We tested our conceptual model (Supplementary Fig S4) using the piecewiseSEM package (version 2.0.2; Lefcheck, 2016) in R 3.4.0, in which a structured set of linear models are fitted individually. This approach allowed us to account for the nested experimental design, and overcome some of the limitations of standard structural equation models, such as small sample sizes (Lefcheck, 2016; Shipley, 2009). We used the lme function of the nlme package to model response variables, including site as a random factor. Good fit of the SEM was assumed when Fisher’s C values were non-significant (p > 0.05). For all significant interactions between soil or climate variables and treatments detected in the SEMs, we calculated treatment effect sizes, i.e., the differences in MMQsoil between Control and treatments as log response ratios (LRR) and plotted these values against the climate or soil factors. The LRR were defined as log(Control/Treatment), where treatment was either Fence, NPK or NPK+Fence. To assess which of the LRR-climate or soil property relationships were significant we again used LMMs, in which soil and climatic properties were included as fixed effects and plot nested in site as random effects.

en:
This dataset contains all data on which the following publication below is based.

Paper Citation:

Risch Anita C., Zimmermann, Stefan, Schütz, Martin, Borer, Elizabeth T., Broadbent, Arthur A.D., Caldeira, Maria C., Davies, Kendi F., Eisenhauer, Nico, Eskelinen, Anu, Fay, Philip A., Hagedorn, Frank, Knops, Johannes M.H., Lembrechts, Jonas, J., MacDougall, Andrew S., McCulley, Rebecca L., Melbourne, Brett A., Moore, Joslin L., Power, Sally A., Seabloom, Eric W., Silveira, Maria L., Virtanen, Risto, Yahdjian, Laura, Ochoa-Hueso, Raul (accepted). Drivers of the microbial metabolic quotient across global grasslands. Global Ecology and Biogeography

Please cite this paper together with the citation for the datafile.

The microbial metabolic quotient (MMQ; mg CO2-C mg MBC-1 h-1), defined as the amount of microbial CO2 respired (MR; mg CO2-C kg soil-1 h-1) per unit of microbial biomass C (MBC; mg C kg soil-1), is a key parameter for understanding the microbial regulation of the carbon (C) cycle, including soil C sequestration. Here, we experimentally tested hypotheses about the individual and interactive effects of multiple nutrient addition (NPK+micronutrients) and herbivore exclusion on MR, MBC, and MMQ across 23 sites (5 continents). Our sites encompassed a wide range of edaphoclimatic conditions, thus we assessed which edaphoclimatic variables affected MMQ the most and how they interacted with our treatments. Soils were collected in plots with established experimental treatments. MR was assessed in a five-week laboratory incubation without glucose addition, MBC via substrate-induced respiration. MMQ was calculated as MR/MBC and corrected for soil temperatures (MMQsoil). Using LMMs and SEMs, we analysed how edaphoclimatic characteristics and treatments interactively affected MMQsoil. MMQsoil was higher in locations with higher mean annual temperature, lower water holding capacity, and soil organic C concentration, but did not respond to our treatments across sites as neither MR nor MBC changed. We attributed this relative homeostasis to our treatments to the modulating influence of edaphoclimatic variables. For example, herbivore exclusion, regardless of fertilization, led to greater MMQsoil only at sites with lower soil organic C (<1.7%). Our results pinpoint the main variables related to MMQsoil across grasslands and emphasize the importance of the local edaphoclimatic conditions in controlling the response of the C cycle to anthropogenic stressors. By testing hypotheses about MMQsoil across global edaphoclimatic gradients, this work also helps to align the conflicting results of prior studies.

anthropogenic-management

display_name: anthropogenic-management

climate

display_name: climate

herbivore-exclusion

display_name: herbivore-exclusion

microbial-biomass-carbon

display_name: microbial-biomass-carbon

microbial-respiration

display_name: microbial-respiration

nutrient-addition

display_name: nutrient-addition

soil-properties

display_name: soil-properties

educ

en: Education, culture and sport


maintainer: Anita Risch

en: subalpine ecosystem-coupling grazing ecosystem-functions vertebrates invertebrates exclusion grassland ecosystem-multifunctionality swiss-national-park

en: Ecosystem coupling and multifunctionality - exclosure experiment

state: active

type: dataset

en: Datafile

en:
ID: Plot ID composited of Fence & Treatment number (90 plots total)

Grassland: Name of the six subalpine grasslands where the exclosure setups were erected. In large grasslands (GRIM, MING, STAB), we established four hierarchical exclosure setups (two in short- and two in tall-grass vegetation), whereas in the small grasslands (BOTS, DADA, MARG) only one setup was erected per vegetation type. BOTS = Val dal Botsch, GRIM = Grimmels, MING = Val Mingér, STAB = Alp Stabelchod, DADA = Stabelchod da daint, MARG = Margunet

Fence: Number of exclosure setup (1 - 18). Note that uneven numbers (1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17) represent setups established on short-grass vegetation, even numbers (2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18) setups established in tall-grass vegetation
Vegetation	Vegetation type, 1 = short-grass vegetation, 2 = tall-grass vegetation; (9 replicate fences on each vegetation type)
Treatment	Progressive animal exclusion, numbers indicate which animals had access to the plot: 1 = Large/medium/small mammals, and invertebrates have access ("L/M/S/I"), 2 = Medium/small mammals, and invertebrates have access (“M/S/I”), 3 = Small mammals and invertebrates have access (“S/I”), 4 = Invertebrates have access (“I”), 5 = No animals have access (“None”)

Bulkden:	Fine fraction soil bulk density (g cm-3)

Soil.moist	: Soil moisture (%)

Soil.org.C: Rhizosphere soil C content (%)

pH: Soil pH

Nema.PC1: First principal component (PC1) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the soil nematode community composition

Nema.PC2: Second principal component (PC2) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the soil nematode community composition

Micro.PC1: 	First principal component (PC1) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the soil microbial community composition

Micro.PC2: Second principal component (PC2) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the soil microbial community composition

Abv.Inv.PC1: First principal component (PC1) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the aboveground-dwelling invertebrate community composition

Abv.Inv.PC2: Second principal component (PC2) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the aboveground-dwelling invertebrate community composition

Arthr.PC1: First principal component (PC1) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the soil arthropod community composition

Arthr.PC2: Second principal component (PC2) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the soil arthropod community composition

Plant.PC1: First principal component (PC1) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the plant community composition

Plant.PC2: Second principal component (PC2) of principal component analysis (PCA) of the plant community composition

Root.biomass: Root biomass (g m-2)

Micro.biomass	: Microbial biomass carbon (mg kg-1)

Plant.richness: Plant species richness

Plant.N: Plant tissue nitrogen content (%)

Soil.N.min: Soil net nitrogen mineralisation (kg ha-1 season)

Soil.resp: Soil carbon dioxide emissions (soil respiration; g m-2 h-1)

format: XLS

en:
This dataset contains all data on which the following publication below is based.

Paper Citation:
 > Risch AC, Ochoa-Hueso R, van der Putten WH, Bump JK, Busse MD, Frey B, Gwiazdowicz DJ, Page-Dumroese DS, Vandegehuchte ML, Zimmermann S, Schütz M. Size-dependent loss of aboveground animals differentially affects grassland ecosystem coupling and functions. 2018. Nature Communications 9: 3684. [doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06105-4](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06105-4).

Please cite this paper together with the citation for the datafile.

#Methods
Study sites
The experimental exclosure setups were installed within the SNP (IUCN category Ia preserve; Dudley 2008), in south-eastern Switzerland. The park covers 172 km2 of forests and subalpine and alpine grasslands along with scattered rock outcrops and scree slopes. The entire area has been protected from human impact (no hunting, fishing, camping or off-trail hiking) since 1914. Large, fairly homogenous patches of short- and tall-grass vegetation, which originate from different historical management and grazing regimes, cover the park’s subalpine grasslands entirely. Short-grass vegetation developed in areas where cattle used to rest (nutrient input) prior to the park’s foundation (14th century to 1914) (Schütz and others 2003, 2006) and is dominated by lawn grass species such as Festuca rubra L., Briza media L. and Agrostis capillaris L. (Schütz and others 2003, 2006). Today, this vegetation type is intensively grazed by diverse vertebrate and invertebrate communities that inhabit the park and consume up to 60% of the available biomass (Risch and others 2013). Tall-grass vegetation developed where cattle formerly grazed, but did not rest, and is dominated by rather nutrient-poor tussocks of Carex sempervirens Vill. and Nardus stricta L. (Schütz and others 2003, 2006). This vegetation type receives considerably less grazing, with only roughly 20% of the biomass consumed (Risch and others 2013). Consequently, the two vegetation types together represent a long-term trajectory of changes in grazing regimes. Underlying bedrock of all grasslands is dolomite, which renders these grasslands rather poor in nutrients regardless of former and current land-use regimes.
Experimental design
To progressively exclude aboveground vertebrate and invertebrate animals, we established 18 size-selective exclosure setups (nine in short-grass, nine in tall-grass vegetation) distributed over six subalpine grasslands across the SNP (Risch and others 2013, 2015). Elevation differences of exclosure locations did not exceed 350 m (between 1975 and 2300 m a.s.l.). The exclosures were established immediately after snowmelt in spring 2009 and were left in place for five consecutive growing seasons (until end of 2013). They were, however, temporarily dismantled every fall (late October after first snowfall) to protect them from avalanches. They were re-established in the same location every spring immediately after snowmelt. Each size-selective exclosure setup consisted of five plots (2 x 3 m) that progressively excluded aboveground vertebrates and invertebrates from large to small. The plots are labelled according to the guilds that had access to them “L/M/S/I”, “M/S/I”, “S/I”, “I”, “None”; L = large mammals, M = medium mammals, S = small mammals, I = invertebrates, None = no animals had access. As we only had permission to have the experimental setup in place for five consecutive growing seasons, the experiment had to be completely dismantled in the late fall of 2013 and all material removed from the SNP.
Our exclosure design was aimed at excluding mammalian herbivores, but naturally also excluded the few medium and small mammalian predators, as well as the entire aboveground invertebrate food web. A total of 26 large to small mammal species can be found in the SNP, but large apex predators are missing (wolf, bear, lynx) . Reptiles, amphibians and birds are scarce to absent in the subalpine grasslands under study. Only two reptile species occur in the park and they are confined to rocky areas that warm up enough for them to survive. One frog species spawns in an isolated pond far from our grasslands. Only three bird species occasionally feed on the subalpine grasslands. Using game cameras (Moultrie 6MP Game Spy I-60 Infrared Digital Game Camera, Moultrie Feeders, Alabaster, AL, USA), we did observe that the medium- and small-sized mammals (marmot/hares and mice) were not afraid to enter the fences and feed on their designated plots. We never spotted reptiles, amphibians or birds on camera. We distinguished between 59 higher aboveground-dwelling invertebrate taxa that our size-selective exclosures excluded (see also methods for aboveground-dwelling invertebrates below).
The “L/M/S/I” plot (not fenced) was located at least 5 m from the 2.1 m tall and 7 x 9 m large main electrical fence that enclosed the other four plots. The bottom wire of this fence was mounted at 0.5 m height and was not electrified to enable safe access for medium and small mammals, while fencing out the large ones. Within each main fence, we randomly established four 2 x 3 m plots separated by 1-m wide walkways from one another and from the main fence line: 1) the “M/S/I” plots were unfenced, allowing access to all but the large mammals; 2) the “S/I” plots (10 x 10 cm electrical mesh fence) excluded all medium-sized mammals. Note that the bottom 10 cm of this fence remained non-electrified to enable safe access for small mammals; 3) the “I” plots (2 x 2 cm metal mesh fence) excluded all mammals. We double-folded the mesh at the bottom 50 cm to reduce the mesh size to smaller than 1 x 1 cm openings; and 4) the “None” plots were surrounded by a 1 m tall mosquito net (1.5 x 2 mm) to exclude all animals. The top of the plot was covered with a mosquito-meshed wooden frame mounted to the corner posts (roof). We treated these plots a few times with biocompatible insecticide (Clean kill original, Eco Belle GmbH, Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany) to remove insects that might have entered during data collection or that hatched from the soil, but amounts were negligible and did not impact soil moisture conditions within these plots.
To assess whether the design of the “None” exclosure (mesh and roof) affected the response variables within the plots and, therefore, influenced the results, we established an additional six “micro-climate control” exclosures (one in each of the six grasslands) (Risch and others 2013, 2015). These exclosures were built as the “None” exclosures but were open at the bottom (20 cm) of the 3-m side of the fence facing away from the prevailing wind direction to allow invertebrates to enter. A 20-cm high and 3-m long strip of metal mesh was used to block access to small mammals. Thus, this construction allowed a comparable micro-climate to the “None” plots, but also a comparable feeding pressure by invertebrates to the “I” plots. We compared various properties within these exclosures against one another to assess if our construction altered the conditions in the “None” plots. We showed that differences in plant (e.g., vegetation height, aboveground biomass) and soil properties (e.g., soil temperature, moisture) found between the “I” and the “None” treatments were not due to the construction of the “None” exclosure, but a function of animal exclusions, although the amount of UV light reaching the plant canopy was significantly reduced (Risch and others 2013).
Aboveground invertebrate sampling
Aboveground invertebrates were sampled with two different methods to capture both ground- and plant-dwelling organisms: 1) we randomly placed two pitfall traps (67 mm in diameter, covered with a roof) filled with 20% propylene glycol in one 1 x 1 m subplot of the 2 x 3 m treatment plots in spring 2013 (May) and emptied them every two weeks until late September 2013 (Vandegehuchte and others 2017b, 2018). A pitfall trap consisted of a plastic cylinder (13 cm depth, 6.75 cm diameter). Within each cylinder we placed a 100 ml plastic vial with outer diameter 6.70 cm and on top of the cylinder we placed a plastic funnel to guide the invertebrates into the vials. Each trap was cover with a cone-shaped and transparent plastic roof to protect the trap from rain (Vandegehuchte and others 2017b, 2018). Note that in the “None” plots only one trap was placed as control to check for effectiveness of the exclosure. 2) We vacuumed all invertebrates from a 60 x 60 cm area on another 1 x 1 m subplot with a suction sampler (Vortis, Burkhard manufacturing CO, Ltd., Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, UK) every month from June to September 2013 (Vandegehuchte and others 2017b, 2018). For this purpose, we quickly placed a square plastic frame (60 x 60 x 40 cm) with a closable mosquito mesh sleeve attached to the top edge into the plot from the outside. The suction sample was then inserted into through the sleeve and operated for 45 s to collect the invertebrates (Vandegehuchte and others 2017b, 2018).
We sorted the ≈100 000 individuals collected with both methods by hand and identified each individual morphologically to the lowest taxonomic level feasible (59 taxa, including orders, suborders, subfamilies, families; phylum for Mollusca). These taxa belonged to the following feeding types: 19 herbivores, 16 detritivores, 9 predators, 8 mixed feeders, 5 omnivores and 2 non-classified feeders (or not feeding as adults) (Vandegehuchte and others 2017b). We summed the numbers from the two pitfall traps and the suction sampling over the course of the 2013 season to represent the aboveground invertebrate abundance and community composition of a plot. Note: we did not specifically attempt to catch flying invertebrates with e.g., sticky traps, thus a few flying insects may have been missed with our vacuum sampling approach.
Sampling of plant properties
The vascular plant species composition was assessed at peak biomass every summer (July) by estimating the frequency of occurrence of each species with the pin count method in each plot (Frank and McNaughton 1990). A total of 172 taxa occurred within our 90 plots and we calculated plant species richness for each plot separately. We used the 2013 data in this study. Plant quality was assessed every year in July and September; here we use plant quality at the end of the experiment (September 2013). Two 10 x 100 cm wide strips of vegetation per plot were clipped, combined, dried at 65°C, and ground (Pulverisette 16, Fritsch, Idar-Oberstein, Germany) to pass through a 0.5 mm sieve. Twenty randomly selected samples across all treatments were analysed for N (Leco TruSpec Analyser, Leco, St. Joseph, Michigan, USA) (Vandegehuchte and others 2015). Nitrogen concentrations of the other samples were then estimated from models established for the experiment and the entire SNP relating Fourier transform-near infrared reflectance (FT-NIR) spectra to the measured values of N using a multi-purpose FT-NIR spectrometer (Bruker Optics, Fällanden, Switzerland) (Vandegehuchte and others 2015). Root biomass was sampled every fall by collecting five 2.2 cm diameter x 10 cm deep soil samples (Giddings Machine Company, Windsor, CO, USA) per plot (450 samples year-1). The samples were dried at 30 °C and roots were sorted from the sample by hand. We sorted each sample for 1 h which allowed to retrieve over 90% of all roots present in the samples (Risch and others 2013). The roots were then dried at 65 °C for 48 and weighed to the nearest mg. We averaged the values per plot and used the 2013 data only in this study.
Sampling of edaphic communities
In 2009, 2010, and 2011 we collected three composited soil samples (5 cm diameter x 10 cm depth; AMS Samplers, American Falls, ID, USA) and assessed bacterial community structure using T-RFLP profiling (Liu and others 1997; Blackwood and others 2003; Hodel and others 2014). We detected a total of 89 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). These values are in accordance with other studies reporting OTU richness (Wirthner and others 2011; Zumsteg and others 2012; Meola and others 2014) using T-RFLP profiling, a method that detects the most abundant, and thus likely, the most relevant, taxa. We averaged the data over the three years of collections for our calculations. Microbial biomass carbon (MBC) was determined with the substrate-induced method (Anderson and Domsch 1978) every fall (September) between 2009 and 2013 by collecting three mineral soil samples (5 cm diameter × 10 cm mineral soil core, AMS Samplers, American Falls, ID, USA). The three samples were combined (90 samples for each sampling year), immediately put on ice, taken to the laboratory, passed through a 2-mm sieve and stored at 4°C. Again, we only used the 2013 data in this study.
Soil samples (5 cm diameter x 10 cm depth) to extract soil arthropods were collected in June, July, and August 2011 with a soil corer lined with a plastic sleeve to ensure an undisturbed sample (total of 270 samples). The plastic line core was immediately sealed on both ends using cling film and put into a cooler. All plots were sampled within three days and the extraction of arthropods started the evening of the sampling day using a high-gradient Tullgren funnel apparatus (Crossley and Blair 1991; Vandegehuchte and others 2015). Samples were kept in the extractor for four days and the soil arthropods were collected in 95% ethanol. All individuals were counted and each individual was identified morphologically to the lowest level feasible [76 taxa, including orders, suborders, subfamilies, families (Protura, Thysanoptera, Aphidina, Psylina, Coleoptera, Brachycera, Nematocera, Auchenorryncha, Heteroptera, Formicidae); sub-phylum for Myriapoda, for Acari and Collembola also including morpho-species). Note that we also included larval stages (nine of the 76 taxa) (Vandegehuchte and others 2015). All data were summed over the season. A detailed species list for mites and collembolans is published (Vandegehuchte and others 2017a) [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118679.s001]. Earthworms are rare in the SNP and therefore were not included. We collected eight random 2.2 cm diameter x 10 cm deep soil cores from each plot in September 2013 to determine the soil nematode community composition. The samples were mixed and the nematodes were extracted from 100 ml of fresh soil using Oostenbrink elutriators (Oostenbrink 1960). All nematodes in a 1 ml of the 10 ml extract were counted, a minimum of 150 individuals sample-1 were identified to genus or family level using (Bongers 1988), the numbers of all nematodes were extrapolated to the entire sample and expressed for a 100 g dry sample. In total we identified 63 genus or family levels (Vandegehuchte and others 2015). The list of all the nematodes found is published (Vandegehuchte and others 2015) [http://www.oikosjournal.org/appendix/oik-03341] or DOI: [doi: 10.1111/oik.03341].
We are aware that sampling soil microbes from 2009 to 2011 and soil arthropods in 2011 was not ideal, but we are positive that this does not bias the results. Most of the parameters measured in our experiment either already showed a treatment response after the first growing season (e.g., plant biomass) or did not respond over the entire time experiment (e.g., microbial biomass C). The microbial community composition (2009 – 2011) was highly influenced by inter-annual differences in temperature and precipitation, but did not differ between treatments or vegetation types (Hodel and others 2014). We therefore felt comfortable using the 2009 through 2011 data for describing the soil microbial community in our experimental treatments. Similarly, we are positive that our soil arthropod data are representative. We did assess soil arthropods in August 2012 and found no differences to the August 2011 data. However, we did not feel comfortable combining the 2011 June, July, August data with only August data for 2012 for our analyses.
Sampling of soil properties
We collected three soil samples (5 cm diameter x 10 cm depth) in each plot in September 2013 after removing the vegetation. First, we collected the top layer of mineral soil rich in organic matter, the surface organic layer or rhizosphere, typically 1 to 3 cm in depth with a soil corer (AMS Samples, American Falls, Idaho, USA). Second, we collected a 10 cm mineral soil core beneath this surface layer. The cores for each layer were composited, dried at 65 °C for 48 h and fine-ground to pass a 0.5 mm screen. We then analysed all samples for total C using a Leco TruSpec Analyser (Leco, St. Joseph, Michigan, USA). Mineral soil pH was measured potentiometrically in 1:2 soil:CaCl2 solution with an equilibration time of 30 min.
Soil net N mineralisation was assessed during the 2013 growing season (Risch and others 2015). For this purpose, we randomly collected a 5 cm diameter x10 cm deep soil sample with a soil corer (AMS Samples, American Falls, Idaho, USA) after clipping the vegetation in June 2013. After weighing and sieving (4 mm mesh) the soil, we extracted a 20 g subsample in 1 mol l-1 KCl for 1.5 h on an end-over-end shaker and thereafter filtered it through ashless folded filter paper (DF 5895 150, ALBET LabScience, Hahnenmühle FineArt GmbH, Dassel, Germany). From these filtrates NO3- concentrations were measured colorimetrically (Norman and Stucki 1981) and NH4+with flow injection analysis (FIAS 300, Perkin Elmer, Waltham Massachusetts, USA) (Risch and others 2015). We dried the rest of the sample 105 °C to constant mass to determine fine,fraction bulk density. A second soil sample was collected within each plot in June 2013 with a corer lined with a 5 x 13 cm aluminium cylinder. The corer was driven 11.5 cm deep into the soil so that the top 1.5 cm of the cylinder remained empty. Into this space we placed a polyester bag (250 µm) filled an ion-exchanger resin to capture the incoming N. The bag was filled with a 1:1 mixture of acidic and alkaline exchanger resin (ion-exchanger I KA/ion exchanger IIIAA, Merck AG, Darmstadt, Germany). We then removed 1.5 cm soil at the bottom of the cylinder and placed a second resin exchanger bag into this space to capture the N leached from the soil column. To assure that the exchange resin was saturated with H+ and Cl- prior to filling the bags, the mixture was stirred with 1.2 ml l-1 HCl for 1 h and then rinsed with demineralized water until the electrical conductivity of the water reached 5 µm cm-1. The cylinder with the resin bags in place was reinserted into the soil with the top flush to the soil surface and incubated for three months. We recollected the cylinders in September 2013. Each resin bag and 20 g of sieved soil (4 mm mesh) from each cylinder were then separately extracted with KCl and NO3- and NH4+ concentrations were measured. Nitrate and NH4+ concentrations of all samples were then converted to a content basis by multiplying their values with fine fraction bulk density. Net N mineralisation was thereafter calculated as the difference between the N content of the samples collected at the end of the three-month incubation (including the N extracted from the bottom resin bag) and the N content at the beginning of the incubation (Risch and others 2015).
Soil CO2 emissions were measured every two weeks between 0900 and 1700 hrs from early May through late September 2013 with a PP-Systems SRC-1 soil respiration chamber (15 cm high, 10 cm diameter; closed circuit) attached to a PP-Systems EGM-4 infrared gas analyser (PP-Systems, Amesbury, MA, USA) on two locations per plot (Risch and others 2013). The chamber was placed on randomly placed, permanently installed PVC collars (10 cm diameter) driven 5 cm into the soil at the beginning of the study (Risch and others 2013). Freshly germinated plants growing within the collars were removed prior to each measurement to avoid measuring plant respiration or photosynthesis. The two measurements collected per plot and sampling date were averaged.
Soil moisture (with time domain reflectometry; Field-Scout TDR-100, Spectrum Technologies, Plainfield, Illionois, USA) and temperature (with a waterproof digital pocket thermometer; Barnstead International, Dubuque, Iowa, USA) were measured at five random locations per plot every two weeks during the growing seasons during the experiment for the 0 to 10 cm depth (Risch and others 2013, 2015). As soil moisture and soil temperature were highly negatively correlated (Risch and others 2013), we only used soil moisture for this study. We used plot-level averages of all values available to capture soil moisture variability during the five years of the experiment. The results remained unchanged when we only used soil moisture from the 2013 growing season.
Numeral calculations and statistical analyses
Ecosystem coupling. We conducted principal component analyses (PCAs; unscaled) at the complete dataset level using the abundances of each taxonomical entity to describe each of the five different communities used in this study: aboveground-dwelling invertebrates, vascular plants, soil microorganisms, soil arthropods and soil nematodes. We retained the first two components (PCA axis 1 and PCA axis 2) of each analysis as we found them to adequately represent the temporal and spatial variability of our 90 treatment plots in previous studies55,67. Together they explained a total of 71.70% of the variation for aboveground invertebrates, 44.36% for plants, 44.85% for soil microorganisms, 61.85% for soil arthropods and 77.19% for soil nematodes. In addition, we used soil pH and soil organic C content as a proxy for soil chemical properties, soil bulk density as a proxy for soil physical properties and soil moisture (negatively correlated with soil temperature) as a proxy for soil micro-climatic conditions for an overall total of fourteen constituents.
We calculated ecosystem coupling9 for each exclosure treatment within each vegetation type (i.e., 2  5 treatment combinations in total) as an integrated measure of pairwise ecological interactions between ecosystem constituents representing ecological communities and the soil abiotic environment. These ecological interactions are defined by non-parametric Spearman rank correlation analyses between two constituents, excluding interactions involving two abiotic constituents (e.g., soil pH vs. soil moisture) and interactions between the first (PC1) and second (PC2) component of each community type, as these are orthogonal by definition. Interactions between abiotic constituents were excluded from the analyses because the focus of our study was on communities and how they interact with one another and their surrounding environment; therefore, including abiotic-abiotic interactions was not of interest here. Given that the effectiveness of our experimental design resulted in that no community composition data of aboveground-dwelling invertebrates was available for the “None” plots (all animals excluded), only thirteen instead of fourteen constituents were included in the ecosystem coupling calculations for this treatment. The complete absence of aboveground invertebrates represents the most extreme case of disturbance between aboveground animal communities and the rest of the ecosystem constituents. This may have resulted in a slight overestimation of ecosystem coupling for these plots.
	Average ecosystem coupling was calculated as follows:
Ecosystem coupling=
where Xi is the absolute Coupling was calculated value of the Spearman’s rho coefficient of the ith correlation for each treatment within each vegetation type (i.e., based on nine replicates each), considering and n is the number of pairwise comparisons considered (n = a total of 80; interactions (56 in the case of the “None” treatment). We considered a total of 40 biotic-biotic interactions (i.e., concerning two community-level principal components such as plants and microbes; 24 in the case of the “None” treatment) and 40 abiotic-biotic (i.e., concerning one community-level principal component and one abiotic factor, e.g., plant community and soil properties; 32 in the case of the “None” treatment).	Coupling was calculated for each treatment within each vegetation type (i.e., based on nine replicates each), considering a total of 80 interactions (56 in the case of the “None” treatment). We considered a total of 40 biotic-biotic interactions (i.e., concerning two community-level principal components such as plants and microbes; 24 in the case of the “None” treatment) and 40 abiotic-biotic (i.e., concerning one community-level principal component and one abiotic factor, e.g., plant community and soil properties; 32 in the case of the “None” treatment).
To establish whether constituents were significantly and positively coupled within treatments (i.e., the average of their correlation coefficients were greater than in a null model where correlation only happens by chance), we calculated one-tailed p-values based on permutation tests with 999 permutations.

We considered six ecosystem functions and process rates commonly used to assess ecosystem functioning (Meyer and others 2015; Manning and others 2018). Plant N content represents a measure of forage quality, while plant richness has been shown to stabilise biomass production, thus allowing the system to respond to changes in herbivory. Soil net N mineralisation, soil respiration, root biomass, and microbial biomass represent fluxes or stocks of energy. For all functions and processes higher values represent higher functioning (Manning and others 2018). All these variables were measured in the last year of the experiment (2013). We then quantified ecosystem multifunctionality using the multiple threshold approach (Byrnes and others 2014; Manning and others 2018), which considers the number of functions that are above a certain threshold, over a series of threshold values (typically 10-99%) that are defined based on the maximum value of each function. We weighted all our functions equally for these calculations (Manning and others 2018). The number of functions in a plot with values higher than a given threshold value for the respective function is summed up. The sum represents ecosystem multifunctionality for that plot. Given that choosing any particular threshold as a measure of ecosystem multifunctionality is arbitrary, we calculated the average of thresholds from 10-90% (in 10% intervals) as a more integrated representation of ecosystem multifunctionality.
We used Pearson correlations to explore the relationships between ecosystem coupling (all interactions, biotic-biotic interactions, abiotic-biotic interactions involving above- and belowground constituents, and all interactions, biotic-biotic interactions, abiotic-biotic interactions involving belowground constituents only) and ecosystem multifunctionality by calculating the slopes of all relationships between ecosystem coupling and multifunctionality for all thresholds between 10 and 99%. We also related ecosystem coupling with the average of multifunctionality at thresholds between 30-80% as explained before and considered this correlation as a robust indication of the type of association between these two variables. In addition, we explored the relationships between ecosystem coupling (all interactions, biotic-biotic interactions, abiotic-biotic interactions involving above- and belowground constituents, and all interactions, biotic-biotic interactions, abiotic-biotic interactions involving belowground constituents only) and individual ecosystem functions. The effects of exclosures and vegetation type on individual functions and multifunctionality were evaluated using linear mixed effects models ('lme' function of the nlme package), with exclosure and vegetation type as fixed effects and fence as a random factor. All statistical analyses and numerical calculations were done in R version 3.4.0 (R Core Team 2016).

#References

- Anderson J, Domsch K. 1978. A physiological method for the quantitative measurement of microbial biomass in soil. Soil Biol Biochem 10:215–21.
- Blackwood CB, Marsh T, Kim S-H, Paul EA. 2003. Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Data Analysis for Quantitative Comparison of Microbial Communities. Appl Environ Microbiol 69:926–32. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC143601/
- Bongers T. 1988. De nematoden von Nederland. Schoorl, The Netherlands: Pirola
- Byrnes JEK, Gamfeldt L, Isbell F, Lefcheck JS, Griffin JN, Hector A, Cardinale BJ, Hooper DU, Dee LE, Duffy JE. 2014. Investigating the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality: Challenges and solutions. Methods Ecol Evol 5:111–24.
- Crossley DAJ, Blair JM. 1991. A high-efficiency low-technology Tulgren-type extractor for soil microarthopods. Agric Ecosyst Environ 34:187–92.
- Dudley N. 2008. Guidelines for applying protected area managment categories. Gland: IUCN
- Frank DA, McNaughton SJ. 1990. Aboveground biomass estimation with the canopy intercept method: A plant growth form caveat. Oikos 57:57–60.
- Haynes AG, Schütz M, Buchmann N, Page-Dumroese DS, Busse MD, Risch AC. 2014. Linkages between grazing history and herbivore exclusion on decomposition rates in mineral soils of subalpine grasslands. Plant Soil 374.
- Hodel M, Schütz M, Vandegehuchte ML, Frey B, Albrecht M, Busse MD, Risch AC. 2014. Does the aboveground herbivore assemblage influence soil bacterial community composition and richness in subalpine grasslands? Microb Ecol 68:584–95.
- Liu WT, Marsh TL, Cheng H, Forney LJ. 1997. Characterization of microbial diversity by determining terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of genes encoding 16S rRNA. Appl Environ Microbiol 63:4516–22. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC168770/
- Manning P, van der Plas F, Soliveres S, Allan E, Maestre FT, Mace G, Whittingham MJ, Fischer M. 2018. Redefining ecosystem multifunctionality. Nat Ecol Evol 2:427–36. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0461-7
- Meola M, Lazzaro A, Zeyer J. 2014. Diversity, resistance and resilience of the bacterial communities at two alpine glacier forefields after a reciprocal soil transplantation. Environ Microbiol 16:1918–34. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1462-2920.12435
- Meyer ST, Koch C, Weisser WW. 2015. Towards a standardized Rapid Ecosystem Function Assessment (REFA). Trends Ecol Evol 30:390–7. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534715000968
- Norman R., Stucki JW. 1981. The determination of nitrate and nitrite in soil extracts by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. Soil Sci Soc Am J 45:347–53.
- Ochoa-Hueso R. 2016. Non-linear disruption of ecological interactions in response to nitrogen deposition. Ecology 87:2802–2814.
- Oostenbrink M. 1960. Estimating nematode populations by some selected methods. In: Sasser NJ, Jenkins WR, editors. Nematology. Chapel Hill, NC, USA: University of North Carolina Press. pp 85–101.
- R Core Team. 2016. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing
- Risch AC, Haynes AG, Busse MD, Filli F, Schütz M. 2013. The response of soil CO2 fluxes to progressively excluding vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores depends on ecosystem type. Ecosystems 16:1192–202.
- Risch AC, Schütz M, Vandegehuchte ML, Van Der Putten WH, Duyts H, Raschein U, Gwiazdowicz DJ, Busse MD, Page-Dumroese DS, Zimmermann S. 2015. Aboveground vertebrate and invertebrate herbivore impact on net N mineralization in subalpine grasslands. Ecology 96:3312–22.
- Schütz M, Risch AC, Achermann G, Thiel-Egenter C, Page-Dumroese DS, Jurgensen MF, Edwards PJ. 2006. Phosphorus translocation by red deer on a subalpine grassland in the Central European Alps. Ecosystems 9:624–633.
- Schütz M, Risch AC, Leuzinger E, Krüsi BO, Achermann G. 2003. Impact of herbivory by red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) on patterns and processes in subalpine grasslands in the Swiss National Park. For Ecol Manage 181:177–88.
- Vandegehuchte ML, van der Putten WH, Duyts H, Schütz M, Risch AC. 2017a. Aboveground mammal and invertebrate exclusions cause consistent changes in soil food webs of two subalpine grassland types, but mechanisms are system-speciﬁc. Oikos 126:212–23.
- Vandegehuchte ML, Raschein U, Schütz M, Gwiazdowicz DJ, Risch AC. 2015. Indirect short- and long-term effects of aboveground invertebrate and vertebrate herbivores on soil microarthropod communities. PLoS One 10:e0118679.
- Vandegehuchte ML, Schütz M, de Schaetzen F, Risch AC. 2017b. Mammal-induced trophic cascades in invertebrate food webs are modulated by grazing intensity in subalpine grassland. J Anim Ecol 86:1434–46.
- Vandegehuchte ML, Trivellone V, Schütz M, Firn J, de Schaetzen F, Risch AC. 2018. Mammalian herbivores affect leafhoppers associated with specific plant functional types at different timescales. Funct Ecol 32:545–55.
- Wirthner S, Frey B, Busse MD, Schütz M, Risch AC. 2011. Effects of wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) rooting on the bacterial community structure in mixed-hardwood forest soils in Switzerland. Eur J Soil Biol 47:296–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2011.07.003
- Zumsteg A, Luster J, Göransson H, Smittenberg RH, Brunner I, Bernasconi SM, Zeyer J, Frey B. 2012. Bacterial, Archaeal and Fungal Succession in the Forefield of a Receding Glacier. Microb Ecol 63:552–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-011-9991-8

ecosystem-coupling

display_name: ecosystem-coupling

ecosystem-functions

display_name: ecosystem-functions

ecosystem-multifunctionality

display_name: ecosystem-multifunctionality

exclusion

display_name: exclusion

grassland

display_name: grassland

grazing

display_name: grazing

invertebrates

display_name: invertebrates

subalpine

display_name: subalpine

swiss-national-park

display_name: swiss-national-park

vertebrates

display_name: vertebrates

fr: Éducation, culture et sport

de: Bildung, Kultur und Sport

it: Istruzione, cultura e sport

envidat

fr: EnviDat: le portail de données environnementales

de: EnviDat: das Umwelt-Datenportal

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

it: EnviDat: il portale dei dati ambientali

fr: EnviDat est le portail de données du WSL; il offre un accès uniformisé et réglementé aux données de surveillance et de recherche en matière d’environnement. Ce portail est capable d’héberger et de publier des ensembles de données précieuses et uniques, qui sont partagées aux quatre coins de la planète. Ce faisant, EnviDat favorise la recherche et contribue à l’avancement des sciences environnementales.

en: EnviDat is the WSL data portal providing unified and managed access to environmental monitoring and research data. The portal has the capability to host and publish data sets. Through the sharing of unique and high-value data sets worldwide, EnviDat fosters research and contributes to advancing environmental science.

de: EnviDat ist das Datenportal der WSL für einen einheitlichen und verwalteten Zugang zu Umweltdaten aus Monitoring- und Forschungsprojekten. Auf dem Portal können Datensätze gehostet und veröffentlicht werden. Durch die weltweite Bereitstellung einzigartiger und wertvoller Datensätze leistet EnviDat einen Beitrag zur Forschung im Bereich der Umweltwissenschaften.

it: EnviDat è il portale dati del WSL che fornisce un accesso unificato e gestito ai dati di monitoraggio ambientale e di ricerca. Il portale ha la capacità di ospitare e pubblicare serie di dati preziosi e unici che vengono condivisi in tutto il mondo. Così facendo, EnviDat promuove la ricerca e contribuisce al progresso della scienza ambientale.

political_level: other

wsl

capacity: public

type: organization

approval_status: approved

key: guid

key: uri

value: Envidat Harvester


root-traits

maintainer: Ivano Brunner

title_for_slug: root-traits

en: belowground-biomass fine-root-traits ingrowth-cores soil-coring drought

en: Root-traits

media_type: application/zip

format: ZIP

mimetype: application/zip

en:
Fine-root traits of Scots pine in response to enhanced soil water availability deriving from long-term irrigation in the Pfynwald

Data_Fig.1.xlsx
Fine-root biomass of the topsoil (0-10 cm) in the dry and irrigated treatment of the Scots pine forest of the years 2003 to 2016 recorded by soil coring

Data_Tab1+2_2005.xlsx
Fine-root traits from roots of ingrowth cores from 2005 after two years of growth in the dry and irrigated treatment of the Scots pine forest

Data_Tab1+2_2016.xlsx
Fine-root traits from roots of ingrowth cores from 2016 after two years of growth, and from roots of the soil-coring sampling from 2016 in the dry and irrigated treatment of the Scots pine forest

belowground-biomass

display_name: belowground-biomass

drought

display_name: drought

fine-root-traits

display_name: fine-root-traits

ingrowth-cores

display_name: ingrowth-cores

soil-coring

display_name: soil-coring


maintainer: Jana von Freyberg

en: stable-water-isotope alptal precipitation hydrology stream-water catchment

en: Four years of daily stable water isotope data in stream water and precipitation from three Swiss catchments

media_type: PDF

format: PDF

media_type: .txt

en:
Version 2 of the dataset contains additional information on:
- line-conditioned (lc) excess
- precipitation sample volumes
- isotope data quality

format: SERVICE

media_type: TXT

en: Single comma-separated txt-file with daily data of stable water isotopes measured in streamwater and precipitation in the Swiss Alptal catchment and two of its tributaries (Erlenbach and Vogelbach), as well as daily data of key hydrometeorological variables from the Alptal valley

format: TXT

en: Data Set Documentation: alptal_Isotopes_daily_2015-2019_v2

media_type: .pdf

en: Documentations contains meta data of the data columns and information about the study catchments.

en: This dataset contains four years of daily measurements of the natural isotopic composition (2H, 18O) of precipitation and stream water at the Alp catchment (area 47 km2) in Central Switzerland and two of its tributaries (0.73 km2 and 1.55 km2). In addition, the dataset contains daily measurements of key hydrometeorological variables.

alptal

display_name: alptal

catchment

display_name: catchment

hydrology

display_name: hydrology

precipitation

display_name: precipitation

stable-water-isotope

display_name: stable-water-isotope

stream-water

display_name: stream-water


maintainer: Marcia Phillips

en: permos gemsstock temperature permafrost borehole

en: Processed permafrost borehole data (2940 m asl), Gemsstock, Switzerland

en: DATASET & PLOTS

media_type: URL

en: Data visualiser and download service provided by PERMOS.

en: PERMOS DATA POLICY

en: Map of PERMOS borehole network

en:
Processed ground temperature measurements at the Gemsstock permafrost borehole in canton Uri, Switzerland. The borehole is located at 2940 m asl on a steep (50°) North-West slope (315°). The surface material is bedrock and borehole depth is 40 m. Thermistors used YSI 44008. Year of drilling 2006. This borehole is part of the Swiss Permafrost network, PERMOS (www.permos.ch). Contact phillips@slf.ch for details of processing applied.

Publications

1. A. Haberkorn, M. Phillips, R. Kenner, H. Rhyner, M. Bavay, S.P. Galos, M. Hoelzle. Thermal regime of rock and its relation to snow cover in steep Alpine rock walls: Gemsstock, central Swiss Alps. 2015. Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography. Volume 97. Issue 3. 579–597. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geoa.12101. 10.1111/geoa.12101.

2. R. Kenner, M. Phillips, C. Danioth, C. Denier, P. Thee, A. Zgraggen. Investigation of rock and ice loss in a recently deglaciated mountain rock wall using terrestrial laser scanning: Gemsstock, Swiss Alps. 2011. Cold Regions Science and Technology. Volume 67. Issue 3. 157–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2011.04.006. 10.1016/j.coldregions.2011.04.006.

borehole

display_name: borehole

gemsstock

display_name: gemsstock

permafrost

display_name: permafrost

permos

display_name: permos

temperature

display_name: temperature

educ

en: Education, culture and sport


maintainer: EnviDat Support

en: pest-invasion torymus-sinensis dryocosmus-kuriphilus castanea-sativa population-evolution southern-switzerland biological-control

media_type: text/csv

en:
Data has been collected from summer 2011 to 2016.

Main reasons for NA values:

-	D. kuriphilus still not arrived in the site.
-	No galls were found during the field sampling.
-	Site has not been sampled in the correspondent year because of time, weather or money constrains.
-    T. sinensis not found in the galls

Variable description:

Year = sampling year.

Coordinate, elevation, slope, aspect = average site characteristics.

ts_arrival = T. sinensis arrival year.

dk_arrival = D. kuriphilus arrival year.

dk_parasitism_by_ts = D. kuriphilus parasitism rate by T. sinensis. Formula: (no. of T. sinensis/ no. of D. kuriphilus chambers) * 100 at gall level.

dk_infestation = Percentage of attacked buds. Formula: no. of attacked buds / no. of total developed buds*100 (as presented in Kotobuki et al. 1985) at shoot level.

ts_per_bud = number of alive T. sinensis individual calculated at bud level.

dk_per_bud = number of alive D. kuriphilus individual calculated at bud level.

dk_pot_per_bud = overall number (dead and alive) D. kuriphilus individual calculated at bud level.

total_gall_nr_per_bud = average gall number per bud.

chamber_per_galls = average D. kuriphilus chamber number per gall.

For details see the submitted publication with the same name

References
Kotobuki, K., Mori, K. and Sato, Y. (1985) ‘2 methods to estimate the tree damage by chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus-kuriphilus’, Bulletin of the fruit tree research station A (Yatabe), 2(12), pp. 29–36.

format: CSV

mimetype: text/csv

en:
This dataset contains the population evolution of a pest and its biocontrol agent in terms of presence proportion at gall level and absolute number of insects.

The study area extends from the Cuneo region (Piedmont, Italy) to southern Switzerland. In order to provide a complete range of data covering the entire process from the pest arrival to complete biological control by its natural enemy T. sinensis, a space-for-time substitution approach has been adopted so as to create a temporal gradient of the epidemic stages over the whole study area.

The southernmost Swiss sites roughly represent the arrival and establishment of the pest without the presence of the natural enemy, the central ones the early epidemic stage and the epidemic peak, whereas the northern ones the end of the epidemic with the beginning of the biocontrol. The Italian ones represent the beginning of the equilibrium between the two population as well as the situation with stable T. sinensis populations on the long term.

These data are used in the paper entitled: Torymus sinensis local and regional early population dynamics in the Insubrian and Piedmont regions

biological-control

display_name: biological-control

castanea-sativa

display_name: castanea-sativa

dryocosmus-kuriphilus

display_name: dryocosmus-kuriphilus

pest-invasion

display_name: pest-invasion

population-evolution

display_name: population-evolution

southern-switzerland

display_name: southern-switzerland

torymus-sinensis

display_name: torymus-sinensis

envidat

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

en: EnviDat is the WSL data portal providing unified and managed access to environmental monitoring and research data. The portal has the capability to host and publish data sets. Through the sharing of unique and high-value data sets worldwide, EnviDat fosters research and contributes to advancing environmental science.


lidar-davos-wolfgang

maintainer: Patric Seifert

title_for_slug: lidar-davos-wolfgang

en: lidar clouds raclets tropos polly

en: LIDAR Davos Wolfgang

en: Raman Lidar Davos

en: A portable Raman lidar system (Polly) from Leibnitz Institute for Tropospheric Research (Tropos) was deployed at Davos Wolfgang (LON: 9.853594, LAT: 46.835577). Please use this [link](http://polly.tropos.de/?p=lidarzeit&Ort=39), to be directly forwarded to the Davos location and select the date of interest from the calendar (bold numbers). The data can be requested directly at the Polly team.

clouds

display_name: clouds

lidar

display_name: lidar

polly

display_name: polly

raclets

display_name: raclets

tropos

display_name: tropos


maintainer: Leonie Schönbeck

en: drought gas-exchange photosynthesis pinus-sylvestris fluorescence acclimation vpd

en: 2013-2020 gas exchange at Pfynwald

en: Pfynwald gas exchange

media_type: CSV

en:
Full dataset of Pfynwald gas exchange data taken in the period from June 2013 to October 2020.
All metdata can be found in attached documents.
Data uploaded after quality control using guidelines by Ely et al (2021). A reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata. Ecological Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101232

en: Methods fluorescence

en:
Parameters and methodology for Fluorescence measurements

Metadata format from
Ely et al (2021). A reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata. Ecological Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101232

en: Methods survey

media_type: .csv

en: Parameters and methods for point measurements / survey measurements

en: Variable names and units

media_type: XLSX

en: Variable names, description and units for the Pfynwald Gas exchange data

en: Methods light response

en: Methods and parameters for light response curves

en: Methods diurnal measurements

en:
Parameters and methodology for diurnal measurements

Metadata format from
Ely et al (2021). A reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata. Ecological Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101232

en: Methods ACi curves

en:
Parameters and methods for CO2 response curves of Photosynthesis.

Metatdata format by
Ely et al (2021). A reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata. Ecological Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101232

en: Instrument details

en:
Instrument details for all LiCor instruments used during collection of dataset.

Metatdata created following guidelines from
Ely et al (2021). A reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata. Ecological Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101232

en:
Gas exchange was measured on control, irrigated and irrigation-stop trees at the irrigation experiment Pfynwald, during the years 2013, 2014, 2016-2020. The measurement campaigns served different purposes, resulting in a large dataset containing survey data, CO2 response curves of photosynthesis, light response curves of photosynthesis, and fluorescence measurements. Measurements were done with LiCor 6400 and LiCor 6800 instruments. Until 2016, measurements were done on excised branches or branches lower in the canopy. From 2016 onwards, measurements were done in the top of the canopy using fixed installed scaffolds.
All metadata can be found in the attached documents.

acclimation

display_name: acclimation

drought

display_name: drought

fluorescence

display_name: fluorescence

gas-exchange

display_name: gas-exchange

photosynthesis

display_name: photosynthesis

pinus-sylvestris

display_name: pinus-sylvestris

vpd

display_name: vpd


en: longwave-radiation meteo-station shortwave-radiation gemstock snow-height

en: GEM2: Meteorological and snow station at Gemsstock (3021 m asl), Canton Uri, Switzerland

en: DATA ACCESS

media_type: SMET

en:
Meteo data at Gemsstock [Level 2 dataset](http://models.slf.ch/p/dataset-processing/).

fields      = timestamp TSS HS VW DW VW_MAX OSWR ISWR ILWR RECORD AUX_VOLTAGE LOGGER_VOLTAGE LW_SENSOR_TEMP VENTILATION_FLAG OLWR

en: Meteorological station at Gemstock (3021 m asl) in Canton Uri. The station includes in/out LW/SW and a snow height sensor.

gemstock

display_name: gemstock

longwave-radiation

display_name: longwave-radiation

meteo-station

display_name: meteo-station

shortwave-radiation

display_name: shortwave-radiation

snow-height

display_name: snow-height

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

envidat

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

en: EnviDat is the WSL data portal providing unified and managed access to environmental monitoring and research data. The portal has the capability to host and publish data sets. Through the sharing of unique and high-value data sets worldwide, EnviDat fosters research and contributes to advancing environmental science.


en: species-richness-models insects snails sdms urbanization diversity arthropods spiders urban-ecology species-abundance-distributions birds

en: Ecological properties of urban ecosystems. Biodiversity dataset of Zurich

en: contains the raw data to perform the species richness models of the hypercommon species

en: contains the raw data to perform the species richness models of all species

en: contains the raw data to perform species distribution models, only for common species

en: abundance and occurrence data of the 1446 species studied, used to investigate species-abundance distributions and species-occurrence distributions

en: contains the raw data to perform the species richness models of the rare species

en:
Richness, site occurrence and abundance data of bees, beetles, birds, hoverflies, net-wingeds, true bugs, snails, spiders, milipides, wasps collected in the city of Zurich using different sampling techniques, and the environmental variables for each sampling site.
Data are provided on request to contact person against bilateral agreement.

arthropods

display_name: arthropods

birds

display_name: birds

diversity

display_name: diversity

insects

display_name: insects

sdms

display_name: sdms

snails

display_name: snails

species-abundance-distributions

display_name: species-abundance-distributions

species-richness-models

display_name: species-richness-models

spiders

display_name: spiders

urban-ecology

display_name: urban-ecology

urbanization

display_name: urbanization


en: landuse cryowrf topography wrf antarctica

en: REMA topography and AntarcticaLC2000 for WRF

en: WPSinput

en: Input files to run the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) preprocessing system WPS with REMA topography and AntarcticaLC2000 landuse data (see Documentation for details).

en: Scripts

en: Scripts to run the preprocessing to produce WRF binary tiles from REMA and AntarcticaLC2000 for topography and landuse (see Documentation for procedure).

en: Documentation

media_type: application/pdf

en: Documentation about how the provided dataset was produced including details to reproduce the dataset.

mimetype: application/pdf

en:
Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) topography and AntarcticaLC2000 landuse data
are now available as static data input for the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF). Topography
and landuse are made available at a spatial resolution of 1 km. This documentation describes the methods
applied to convert REMA and AntarcticaLC2000 to WRF readable format and shows how this improves
the representation of the Antarctic topography and landuse categories over coastal Antarctic regions.

antarctica

display_name: antarctica

cryowrf

display_name: cryowrf

landuse

display_name: landuse

topography

display_name: topography

wrf

display_name: wrf


en: lee-side-flow-field alpine3d lidar preferential-deposition tls

en: DISCHMEX - Observations and simulations of the close-ridge small-scale atmospheric flow field and snow accumulation at Sattelhorn, Dischma valley, Davos, Switzerland.

en: Dataset

media_type: ZIP

en:
The data presented here corresponds to the publication "A Close-Ridge Small-Scale Atmospheric Flow Field and its Influence on Snow Accumulation" (Gerber et al., 2017), which investigates an eddy-like structure in the vicinity of the Sattelhorn in the Dischma valley (Davos Switzerland) and its influence on snow accumulation. The dataset contains:

* Alpine3D: Alpine3D snow depth grids (25 m resolution) for two simulations with and without snow redistribution.
* ARPS: 10 ARPS simulations (25 m horizontal resolution) with different model setups (wind direction, wind speed, stability).
* LiDAR: Processed LiDAR PPI (D2_PPI_1h) and RHI (D2_cross_1h) across the valley with a hourly resolution for the period 27 October 2015 01:00 - 29 October 2015c 21:00 (spatial resolution: 25 m).
* meteostations-dischma: Meteorological station data of two meteorological stations in the Dischma valley with 10 minute resolution for the period 28 October 2015 - 30 October 2015.
* TLS: Snow depth change data (m) between 28 October 2015 and 30 October 2015 based on terrestrial laser scans.

For more details about the simulation and observation data, see Gerber et al., 2017.

Publication: Gerber et al., 2017: A Close-Ridge Small-Scale Atmospheric Flow Field and its Influence on Snow Accumulation, submitted to JGR - Atmospheres.

lee-side-flow-field

display_name: lee-side-flow-field

lidar

display_name: lidar

preferential-deposition

display_name: preferential-deposition

tls

display_name: tls

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

envidat

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

en: EnviDat is the WSL data portal providing unified and managed access to environmental monitoring and research data. The portal has the capability to host and publish data sets. Through the sharing of unique and high-value data sets worldwide, EnviDat fosters research and contributes to advancing environmental science.


maintainer: Lisa Hülsmann

en: inventory-data forest-reserves tree-growth empirical-mortality-models tree-mortality

en: Calibration data for empirical mortality models of 18 European tree species

en: Calibration data

en:
A set of three consecutive inventories was used to generate records for the calibration of mortality models based on trees that were alive in the first and second inventory and either dead or alive in the third inventory.

 Meta data
Reserve: Name of the forest reserve

Plot: Permanent plot number

 Tree data
Species: Latin species name (or species group, cf. _Quercus_ spp.)

y: Status of the tree with 0 = alive and 1 = dead

dt: Length of the mortality period (years)

DBH: Diameter at breast height (mm) of the second inventory

relBAI: Annual relative basal area increment (-) calculated based on the first and the second DBH measurement as the compound annual growth rate of the trees basal area

 Stand data
_All stand variables were calculated for the second inventory._

mDBH: Mean diameter at breast height (mm)

iqrDBH: Interquartile range of diameter at breast height (mm)

BA: Basal area per hectare (m2 ha-1)

N: Number of trees per hectare (ha-1)

 Climate data
_Both climate variables were calculated for the period between the second and the third inventory._

P: Mean annual precipitation sum (mm)

mT: Mean annual air temperature (°C)

en:
The dataset comprises > 90 000 records from inventories in 54 strict forest reserves in [Switzerland](https://www.wsl.ch/de/wald/biodiversitaet-naturschutz-urwald/naturwaldreservate.html) and [Lower Saxony / Germany](http://naturwaelder.de/) along a considerable environmental gradient. It was used to develop parsimonious, species-specific mortality models for 18 European tree species based on tree size and growth as well as additional covariates on stand structure and climate.

 Inventory data
Measurements had been conducted repeatedly on up to 14 permanent plots per reserve for up to 60 years with re-measurement intervals of 4 - 27 years. The permanent plots vary in size between 0.03 and 3.47 ha. The inventories provide diameter measurements at breast height (DBH) and information on the species and status (alive or dead) of trees with DBH ≥ 4 cm for Switzerland and ≥ 7 cm for Germany.

 Data selection
We excluded three permanent plots where at least 80 % of the trees died during an interval of 10 years, and mortality could be clearly assigned to a disturbance agent. Mortality in the remaining stands was rather low, with a mean annual mortality rate of 1.5 % and strong variation between plots from 0 to 6.5 % (assessed for trees of all species with DBH ≥ 7 cm).
We only used data from permanent plots with at least 20 trees per species to obtain reliable plot-level mortality rates even for species with low mortality rates (about 5 % during 10 years), and selected tree species occurring on at least 10 plots to cover sufficient ecological gradients. This led to a dataset of 197 permanent plots and 18 tree or shrub species: _Abies alba_ Mill., _Acer campestre_ L., _Acer pseudoplatanus_ L., _Alnus incana_ Moench., _Betula pendula_ Roth, _Carpinus betulus_ L., _Cornus mas_ L., _Corylus avellana_ L., _Fagus sylvatica_ L., _Fraxinus excelsior_ L., _Picea abies_ (L.) Karst, _Pinus mugo_ Turra, _Pinus sylvestris_ L., _Quercus pubescens_ Willd., _Quercus_ spp. (_Q. petraea_ Liebl. and _Q. robur_ L.; not properly differentiated in the Swiss inventories), _Sorbus aria_ Crantz, _Tilia cordata_ Mill. and _Ulmus glabra_ Huds..

 Predictors of tree mortality
We considered tree size and growth as key indicators for mortality risk. Radial stem growth between the first and second inventory and DBH at the second inventory were used to predict tree status (alive or dead) at the third inventory. To this end, the annual relative basal area increment (relBAI) was calculated as the compound annual growth rate of the trees basal area. Additional covariates on stand structure and climate comprise mean annual precipitation sum (P), mean annual air temperature (mT), the mean and the interquartile range of DBH (mDBH, iqrDBH), basal area (BA) and the number of trees (N) per hectare.

 Further information
For further information, refer to Hülsmann _et al_. (in press) How to kill a tree – Empirical mortality models for eighteen species and their performance in a dynamic forest model. _Ecological Applications_.

empirical-mortality-models

display_name: empirical-mortality-models

forest-reserves

display_name: forest-reserves

inventory-data

display_name: inventory-data

tree-growth

display_name: tree-growth

tree-mortality

display_name: tree-mortality


maintainer: Dirk Nikolaus Karger

en: random-forests mammals generalized-linear-models iucn amphibians interannual-climate-variability sdm species-distribution-models reptiles climate-variablity range-maps chelsa niche-models generalized-additive-models

en: Global species distributions for mammals, reptiles, and amphibians

en: Reptiles

en: Species distribution models based on different climate predictor groups

en: Mammals

en: File containing the record dimension, genus, and species of the respective netcdf files

en: Readme file containing the file naming convention, file dimensions, and variable names

en: Amphibians

media_type: .zip

en: File containing the climate predictors as SAGA grid files (.sgrd)

en: We modelled the global distribution of 730 amphibian, 1276 reptile, and 1961 mammal species globally as a function of current climate at a 0.5° spatial resolution using four different predictor groups composed of different combinations of input variables: mean climatic conditions, spatial climatic variability, and temporal (interannual) climatic variability.

amphibians

display_name: amphibians

chelsa

display_name: chelsa

climate-variablity

display_name: climate-variablity

generalized-additive-models

display_name: generalized-additive-models

generalized-linear-models

display_name: generalized-linear-models

interannual-climate-variability

display_name: interannual-climate-variability

iucn

display_name: iucn

mammals

display_name: mammals

niche-models

display_name: niche-models

random-forests

display_name: random-forests

range-maps

display_name: range-maps

reptiles

display_name: reptiles

sdm

display_name: sdm

species-distribution-models

display_name: species-distribution-models


en: photovoltaic winter-energy-production albedo snow shortwave-radiation

en: Data, Code Link and Metadata on Forward Scattering of Snow at Totalp

en: Data Forward Scattering

en: GROUNDEYE model for multiple forward scattering in snow-covered terrain. Meteorological and topographical input data set for the Meierhofertäli near Davos, Switzerland, September 2017 - August 2018. Output data for September 2017 - August 2018 at hourly resolution and every pixel. Post-processing scripts for plotting and analysis.

en:
 Overview
We present GROUNDEYE, a new model of radiative transfer over mountainous terrain, which considers for the first time the forward scattering properties of snow.
Embedded in the surface process model Alpine3D, the new terrain radiation model GROUNDEYE receives interpolated real weather data with diffuse and direct broadband shortwave radiation for each pixel as well as a spatially variable plane albedo from the module SNOWPACK.

 Format
The GROUNDEYE model is written in c++, as is the entire environment of Alpine3d. The input and output data sets are .xlsx or .txt format, pre- and postprocessing including the generation of all figures is in .R format.

 Structure
In Data_Forward_Scattering.zip you will find all necessary data and model details to
reproduce the results of the JGR publication "How forward-scattering snow and terrain change the Alpine radiation balance with application to solar panels"

 - 	Model Input Data contains the meteorological and topographic input data sets, the BRDF, and preprocessing scripts.
 - Model Code contains the full model Alpine3d including the radiative transfer module GROUNDEYE.
 - Model Output Data contains the results of the simulation of terrain irradiance and irradiance of solar panels; hourly resolution, 1. Sptember 2017 - 31. August 2018.
 - Measurements Solar Testsite contains information and measurements of the solar testsite at the Totalp near Davos, Switzerland.
 - Postprocessing contains all R-Scripts used for the analysis and
plotting of the corresponding data.

In each of these folders you will find detailed information in
the file 'About this Folder.txt'.

albedo

display_name: albedo

photovoltaic

display_name: photovoltaic

shortwave-radiation

display_name: shortwave-radiation

snow

display_name: snow

winter-energy-production

display_name: winter-energy-production

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

envidat

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal


en: land-use-change strategic-projects urban-transformations land-use-transformations strategic-spatial-planning europe spatial-planning large-scale-urban-development-projects

en: lsUDPS Large-scale urban development projects in European urban regions

en: QCA data set large-scale urban development projects

en: Please refer to the sections: 3. The data set lsUDPs: 3.1 Selection of cases and data collection; 3.2 Data management and operationalization in the Metadata for further details on this resource.

mimetype: text/plain

en: QCA R script large-scale urban development projects Europe

media_type: R

en:
For the set up of this R script, we used the “QCA” (Duşa, 2019) and “SetMethods” (Oana and Schneider, 2018) R packages.

The following further resources were also used:
Dusa, A. (2019). QCA with R: A comprehensive resource. Springer: Berlin.
Schneider, C. Q., & Wagemann, C. (2012). Set-theoretic methods for the social sciences. A guide to qualitative comparative analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomann, E., Oana, I.-E., & Wittwer, S. (2018). Performing fuzzy- and crisp set QCA with R. A user-oriented beginner's guide. Retrieved from http://www.evathomann.com/links/qca-r-manual

en:
Table of Content: 1. General context of the data set "lsUDPs" ; 2. Background and aims of the study using the data set lsUDPs; 3. The data set lsUDPs: 3.1 Selection of cases and data collection; 3.2 Data management and operationalisation

1. General context of the data set "lsUDPs"
The data set "lsUDPs" has been generated as part of the CONCUR research project (https://www.wsl.ch/en/projects/concur.html) led by Dr. Anna M. Hersperger and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (ERC TBS Consolidator Grant (ID: BSCGIO 157789) for the period 2016-2020. The CONCUR research project is interdisciplinary and aims to develop a scientific basis for adequately integrating spatial policies (in this case, strategic spatial plans) into quantitative land-change modelling approaches at the urban regional level. The first stage (2016-2017) of the CONCUR project focussed on 21 urban regions in Western Europe. The urban regions were selected through a multi-stage strategy for empirical research (see Hersperger, A. M., Grădinaru, S., Oliveira, E., Pagliarin, S., & Palka, G. (2019). Understanding strategic spatial planning to effectively guide development of urban regions. Cities, 94, 96–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.032 ).

2. Background and aims of the study using the data set lsUDPs
As part of the CONCUR project, a specific task was to examine the relationship between strategic spatial plans and the formulation and implementation (i.e. urban land change) of large-scale urban development projects in Western Europe.
Strategic urban projects are typically large-scale, prominent urban transformations implemented locally with the aim to stimulate urban growth, for instance in the form of urban renewals of deprived neighborhoods, waterfront renewals and transport infrastructures. While strategic urban projects are referred to in the literature with multiple terms, in the CONCOR project we call them large-scale urban development projects (lsUDPs).
Previous studies acknowledged both local and supra-local (or structural) factors impacting the context-specific implementation of lsUDPs. Local governance factors, such as institutional capacity, coordination among public and private actors and political leadership, intertwine with supra-local conditions, such as state re-scaling processes and devolution of state competencies in spatial planning, de-industrialisation and increasing social inequality. Hence, in implementing lsUDPs, multi-scalar factors act in combination.
Because the formulation and implementation of lsUDPs require multi-scalar coordination among coalitions of public and private actors over an extended period of time, they are generally linked to strategic spatial plans (SSPs). Strategic spatial plans convey collective visions and horizons of action negotiated among public and private actors at the local and/or regional level to steer future urban development, and can contain legally binding dispositions, but also indicative guidelines.
The key question remains as to what extent large-scale urban development projects and strategic spatial plans can be regarded as aligned. By alignment, or “concordance”, we mean that strategic projects are formulated and implemented as part of the strategic planning process (“high concordance”), or that the strategic role of projects is reconfirmed in (subsequent) strategic plans (“moderate concordance”). Lack of concordance is found when lsUDPs have been limitedly (or not at all) acknowledged in strategic spatial plans.
We assume that certain local and supra-local factors, characterising the development of the projects, foster (but not strictly “cause”) the degree of alignment between lsUPDs and SSPs. In this study, we empirically examine how, and to what extent, the concordance between 38 European large-scale urban development projects and strategic plans (outcome: CONCOR) has been enabled by five multi-scalar factors (or conditions): (i) the role of the national state (STATE), (ii) the role of (inter)national private actors (PRIVATE), (iii) the occurrence of supra-regional external events (EVENTS), (iv) the degree of transport connectivity (TRANSP), and (v) local resistance from civil society (RESIST). We adopted a (multi-data) case-based qualitative strategy for empirical research and applied the formalised procedure of within- and cross-case comparison offered by fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis appropriate for the goal of this study. Based on set theory, QCA formally integrates contextual sensitivity to case specificities (within-case knowledge) with systematic comparative analysis (across-case knowledge).
The research question the data set has been created to reply to is the following: which conditions, and combinations of conditions, enable the concordance between large-scale urban development projects and strategic spatial plans?
The conditions (“independent variables”) considered are. STATE: the set of large-scale urban projects characterized by a high degree of state intervention and support in their formulation and implementation, PRIVATE: the set of large-scale urban projects characterized by a high degree of involvement of (inter)national private actors in their formulation and implementation, EVENTS: the set of large-scale strategic projects whose formulation and implementation have been strongly affected by unforeseen international events and/or global trends, TRANSP: the set of large-scale strategic projects with a high degree of road and/or transit connectivity, and RESIST: set of large-scale strategic projects whose realization has been characterized by resistances that have substantially delayed or modified the project implementation.
The outcome (“dependent variable”) under analysis is CONCOR: the set of large-scale urban projects having a high degree of concordance/alignment/integration with strategic spatial plans

3. The data set lsUDPs

   3.1 Selection of cases and data collection
To generate the current data set on large-scale urban development projects in European urban regions (data set "lsUDPs"), we identified 35 large-scale urban development projects in a sample of the 21 Western urban regions considered in the CONCUR project (see supra, Hersperger et al. 2019): Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lyon, Manchester, Milan, Stockholm, Stuttgart. The criteria we followed to identify the 35 large-scale urban development projects are: geographical location, size (large-scale), site (located either in the city core or in the larger urban region) and urban function (e.g. housing, transportation infrastructures, service and knowledge economic functions). Employing these criteria facilitated the selection of diverse large-scale urban development projects while still ensuring sufficient comparability.
In 2016, we performed 47 in-depth interviews with experts in urban and regional planning and large-scale strategic projects and infrastructure (i.e. academics and practitioners) about the formulation, implementation and development (1990s–2010s) of each project in each of the 9 selected urban regions. On average, each interviewee answered questions on 3.1 large-scale urban development projects. Three cases were subdivided into two cases because a clear differentiation between specific implementation stages was identified by the interviewees (expansion of the Barcelona airport, cases “bcn_airport80-90” and “bcn_airport00-16”; realisation of Lyon Part-Dieu, cases “lyo_partdieu70-90” and “lyo_partdieu00-16”; MediaCityUK, cases “man_salfordquays80-00” and “man_mediacityuk00-16”). Therefore, from the initial 35 cases, the final number of analysed cases in the lsUDPs dataset is 38.

    3.2 The data set lsUDPs: Data management and operationalisation
Interviews were fully transcribed and analysed through MAXQDA (version 12.3, VERBI GmbH, Berlin, Germany), and intercoder agreement was evaluated on a sample of nine interviews. We also compiled “synthetic case descriptions” (SCD) for each case (totalling more than 160 SCDs) to spot potential inconsistencies among interviewees’ accounts and to facilitate completion of the “calibration table” for each case (see below). An online expert survey distributed to the interviewees (response rate 78%) helped systematise the information collected during the interviews. We also consulted both academic and gray literature on the case studies to check for possible ambiguity and inconsistencies in the interview data, and to solve discrepancies between our assigned set membership scores and questionnaire values. Site visits were also carried out to retrieve additional information on the selected cases.
For each case (i.e. each of the 38 selected large-scale urban development projects), we operationalised each condition (i.e. STATE, PRIVATE, EVENTS, TRANSP, RESIST) and the outcome (CONCOR) in terms of sets, for subsequent application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis. This process is called “calibration”; we used a number of indicators for each condition to qualitatively assess each large-scale project across the conditions. The case-based qualitative assessment was then transformed into fuzzy-set membership values. Fuzzy-set membership values range from 0 to 1, and should be conceived as “fundamentally interpretative tools” that “operationalize theoretical concepts in a way that enhances the dialogue between ideas and evidence” (Ragin 2000:162, in “Fuzzy-set Social Science”. Chicago: University Press). We employed a four-value fuzzy-set scale (0, 0.33, 0.67, 1) to “quantify” into set membership scores the individual histories of cases retrieved from interview data. Only the condition TRANSP was calibrated as a crisp-set (0, 1).
The translation of qualitative case-based information into numerical fuzzy-set membership values was iteratively performed by populating a calibration table following standard practices recently emerged in QCA when dealing with qualitative (interview) data.

europe

display_name: europe

land-use-change

display_name: land-use-change

land-use-transformations

display_name: land-use-transformations

large-scale-urban-development-projects

display_name: large-scale-urban-development-projects

spatial-planning

display_name: spatial-planning

strategic-projects

display_name: strategic-projects

strategic-spatial-planning

display_name: strategic-spatial-planning

urban-transformations

display_name: urban-transformations

en: EnviDat is the WSL data portal providing unified and managed access to environmental monitoring and research data. The portal has the capability to host and publish data sets. Through the sharing of unique and high-value data sets worldwide, EnviDat fosters research and contributes to advancing environmental science.


maintainer: Athanasios Nenes

en: sigma-w cloud-modeling wolfgangpass cloud-droplets supersaturation raclets

en: Predicted cloud droplet numbers Davos Wolfgang

en: Predicted cloud droplet numbers (kappa=0.25) Weissfluhjoch

en:
In-situ measurements of aerosol size distributions along with updraft velocities collected from a wind Doppler Lidar are coupled with a state-of-the art droplet activation parameterization (Morales and Nenes, 2014) to determine the cloud droplet number and maximum in-cloud supersaturation that can potentially form over the Davos Wolfgang station between February 24 and March 8 2019. For this, as a sensitivity test, a hygroscopicity parameter of 0.25 is assumed, which is the upper limit determined from the analysis carried out for Weissfluhjoch (https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/ccn-hygroscopicity-predicted-cloud-droplet-numbers-weissfluhjoch). The data file contains:

* Date and time (DD/MM/YYYY hh:mm:ss) in UTC
* The wind-lidar derived standard deviation of updraft velocities (sigma-w) in m/s, used to apply the parameterization employing a single characteristic velocity (Morales and Nenes, 2010)
* The maximum predicted cloud parcel supersaturation (Smax%)
* The total in-situ aerosol number concentration (Naer) in cmˉ³, measured by the SMPS
* The predicted cloud droplet numbers (Nd) in cmˉ³
* The activation fraction (%)

en: Predicted cloud droplet numbers (kappa=0.1) Davos Wolfgang

en:
In-situ measurements of aerosol size distributions along with updraft velocities collected from a wind Doppler Lidar are coupled with a state-of-the art droplet activation parameterization (Morales and Nenes, 2014) to determine the cloud droplet number and maximum in-cloud supersaturation that can potentially form over the Davos Wolfgang station between February 24 and March 8 2019. For this, as a sensitivity test, a hygroscopicity parameter of 0.1 is assumed, which is the lower limit determined from the analysis carried out for Weissfluhjoch (https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/ccn-hygroscopicity-predicted-cloud-droplet-numbers-weissfluhjoch). The data file contains:

* Date and time (DD/MM/YYYY hh:mm:ss) in UTC
* The wind-lidar derived standard deviation of updraft velocities (sigma-w) in m/s, used to apply the parameterization employing a single characteristic velocity (Morales and Nenes, 2010)
* The maximum predicted cloud parcel supersaturation (Smax%)
* The total in-situ aerosol number concentration (Naer) in cmˉ³, measured by the SMPS
* The predicted cloud droplet numbers (Nd) in cmˉ³
* The activation fraction (%)

en: Cloud droplet properties were predicted between February 24 and March 8 2019 for the measurement site Davos Wolfgang (1630 m a.s.l., LON: 9.853594, LAT: 46.835577). Droplet calculations are carried out with the physically based aerosol activation parameterization of Morales and Nenes (2014), employing the “characteristic velocity” approach of Morales and Nenes (2010). Aerosol size distribution observations required to predict the cloud droplet numbers and maximum in-cloud supersaturation are obtained from a Scanning Mobility Particle Size Spectrometer (SMPS) instrument deployed at Davos Wolfgang (https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/aerosol-data-davos-wolfgang). The required vertical velocity measurements are derived from the wind Doppler Lidar (https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/lidar-wind-profiler-data) deployed at the same station and are extracted from the first bin of the instrument, being 200 m above ground level. The hygroscopic properties of the particles measured at Davos Wolfgang could not be estimated, owing to a lack of concurrent CCN measurements. As a sensitivity test, droplet calculations are performed assuming two different values of the aerosol hygroscopicity parameter, 0.1 and 0.25, based on the analysis carried out for Weissfluhjoch. Additional information can be found in Section 2.3 [here](https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2020-1036/).

cloud-droplets

display_name: cloud-droplets

cloud-modeling

display_name: cloud-modeling

raclets

display_name: raclets

sigma-w

display_name: sigma-w

supersaturation

display_name: supersaturation

wolfgangpass

display_name: wolfgangpass