maintainer: Anita Risch

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

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)

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).

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- 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

en: Ecosystem coupling and multifunctionality - exclosure experiment


maintainer: Achille Capelli

en: gnss liquid-water-content lwc swe snow gps snow-water-equivalent

state: active

type: dataset

media_type: text/csv

en: Snow profiles data for the site Weissfluhjoch at 2540 m a.s.l (46°49’47’’ N, 9°48’34’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

format: CSV

mimetype: text/csv

en: Profile data for Laret at 1510 m a.s.l. (46°50’2’’N, 9°52’17’’E) for the two winter 2018-2020.

en: GNSS derived SWE, HS, and LWC for the site Weissfluhjoch at 2540 m a.s.l (46°49’47’’ N, 9°48’34’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Daily observer data from Küblis at 820 m a.s.l. (46°54’48’’N, 9°46’54’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Daily data from Klosters (1210 m a.s.l. ,46°51’49’’N, 9°53’17’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020. These data were processed to daily values from the other data files.

en: GNSS derived SWE, LWC and HS from Klosters (1210 m a.s.l. ,46°51’49’’N, 9°53’17’’E) for the two winters 2018-20

en: Snow profiles data from Küblis at 820 m a.s.l. (46°54’48’’N, 9°46’54’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Daily data for Laret at 1510 m a.s.l. (46°50’2’’N, 9°52’17’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020. These data were processed to daily values from the other data files.

en: Daily observer data from automatic sensors from Klosters (1210 m a.s.l. ,46°51’49’’N, 9°53’17’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Manual profiles

en: Data of the traditional manual profiles for the locations Weissfluhjoch, Klosters and Küblis. For the location of Küblis there are no traditional manual profile data. We provided the data as both PDF and .CAAML format (See https://niviz.org/ or http://caaml.org/Schemas/V5.0/Profiles/SnowProfileIACS/CAAMLv5_SnowProfileIACS.pdf). Moreover, we added LWC and density profiles when available (all locations).

format: SERVICE

en: Snow profiles data from Klosters (1210 m a.s.l. ,46°51’49’’N, 9°53’17’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Daily data from Küblis at 820 m a.s.l. (46°54’48’’N, 9°46’54’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020. These data were processed to daily values from the other data files.

en: Snow and meteo data from automatic sensors for Laret at 1510 m a.s.l. (46°50’2’’N, 9°52’17’’E) for the two winter 2018-2020.

en: Daily data for the site Weissfluhjoch at 2540 m a.s.l (46°49’47’’ N, 9°48’34’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020. These data were processed to daily values from the other data files.

en: Daily observer data for the site Weissfluhjoch at 2540 m a.s.l (46°49’47’’ N, 9°48’34’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: GNSS derived data for Laret at 1510 m a.s.l. (46°50’2’’N, 9°52’17’’E) for the two winter 2018-2020.

en: GNSS derived SWE, LWC and HS from Küblis at 820 m a.s.l. (46°54’48’’N, 9°46’54’’E) for the two winters 2018-20

en: Snow and meteo data from automatic sensors for the site Weissfluhjoch at 2540 m a.s.l (46°49’47’’ N, 9°48’34’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Snow and meteo data from automatic sensors from Küblis at 820 m a.s.l. (46°54’48’’N, 9°46’54’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: Webcam images

media_type: application/zip

en: Webcam images showing some typical differences in the snow conditions at the four sites (Küblis, Klosters, Laret and Weissfluhjoch) for two time periods (14-18.3.2019 and 27.1-11.2.2020). Both time periods included a precipitation event with partial rain-on–snow occurring at the lower locations.

format: ZIP

en: Snow and meteo data from automatic sensors from Klosters (1210 m a.s.l. ,46°51’49’’N, 9°53’17’’E) for the two winters 2018-2020.

en: This database contains GNSS derived snow water equivalent (SWE), liquid water content (LWC), and snow height (HS) and reference data collected during the two winter 2018-2020 at 4 sites Weissfluhjoch (2540 m asl, 46°49’47’’ N, 9°48’34’’E), Laret (1515 m asl, . 46°50’2’’N, 9°52’17’’E), Klosters (1200 m asl, 46°51’49’’N, 9°53’17’’E), and Küblis (815 m asl, 46°54’48’’N, 9°46’54’’E).

gnss

display_name: gnss

gps

display_name: gps

liquid-water-content

display_name: liquid-water-content

lwc

display_name: lwc

snow

display_name: snow

snow-water-equivalent

display_name: snow-water-equivalent

envidat

fr: EnviDat: le portail de données environnementales

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.

en: Snow water equivalent measurements with low-cost GNSS receivers along a steep elevation gradient in the East-ern Swiss Alps


maintainer: EnviDat Support

en: ecological-indicator-values landolt soil-ph ecological-maps switzerland soil-mapping plants soil-moisture

en: Predictors

en: Predictors generated and used in Descombes et al. (2020)

mimetype: application/zip

en: Description

en: Description of the predictors provided in this dataset

format: XLS

en:
Ecologically meaningful predictors are often neglected in plant distribution studies, resulting in incomplete niche quantification and low predictive power of species distribution models (SDMs). Because environmental data are rare and expensive to collect, and because their relationship with local climatic and topographic conditions are complex, mapping them over large geographic extents and at high spatial resolution remains a major challenge. Here, we derived environmental data layers by mapping ecological indicator values (EIVs) in space by using a large set of environmental predictors in Switzerland.

This dataset contains the predictors (raster layers) generated and used in the following publication (Descombes et al. 2020). Only predictors for which we have the rights to share them are provided. Other datasets and predictors can be accessed via the original data provider. Details on the predictors and sources are fully described in the publication. The predictors are provided as GeoTIFF files, at 93 m spatial resolution and Mercator projection ("+proj=merc +lon_0=0 +k=1 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=WGS84 +towgs84=0,0,0,0,0,0,0 +units=m +no_defs"). The excel file (xlsx) provides a short description of the raster layers.

Paper Citation:

Descombes, P. et al. (2020). Spatial modelling of ecological indicator values improves predictions of plant distributions in complex landscapes. Ecography. (accepted)

ecological-indicator-values

display_name: ecological-indicator-values

ecological-maps

display_name: ecological-maps

landolt

display_name: landolt

plants

display_name: plants

soil-mapping

display_name: soil-mapping

soil-moisture

display_name: soil-moisture

soil-ph

display_name: soil-ph

switzerland

display_name: switzerland

educ

fr: Éducation, culture et sport

de: Bildung, Kultur und Sport

en: Education, culture and sport

it: Istruzione, cultura e sport

de: EnviDat: das Umwelt-Datenportal

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

it: EnviDat: il portale dei dati ambientali

political_level: other

wsl

capacity: public

type: organization

approval_status: approved

key: guid

key: uri

value: Envidat Harvester


maintainer: Yohann Chauvier

en: r-package range-maps hard-limit species-distribution synonyms conservation gbif filtering species-observations occurrence-records ecoregions accepted-name flags large-scale taxonomy landsca

en: GitHub URL

en: wsl.gbif R package version 0.1 (deprecated)

en: Test version, not to be used.

en: gbif.range R package version 0.2 (deprecated)

en: gbif.range R package version 1.1 (current)

en: Although species range may be obtained using expert maps or modeling methods, expert data is often species-limited and statistical models need more technical expertise as well as many species observations. When unavailable, such information may be extracted from the Global Biodiversity Information facility (GBIF), the largest public data repository inventorying georeferenced species observations worldwide. However, retrieving GBIF records at large scale may be tedious if users are unaware of specific tools and functions that need to be employed. Here we present *gbif.range*, an R library that contains automated methods to generate species range maps from scratch using in-house ecoregions shapefiles and an easy-to-use GBIF download wrapper. Finally, this library also offers a set of additional very useful parameters and functions for large GBIF datasets (generate doi, extract GBIF taxonomy, records filtering...). [gbif.range R project](https://github.com/8Ginette8/gbif.range)

accepted-name

display_name: accepted-name

conservation

display_name: conservation

ecoregions

display_name: ecoregions

filtering

display_name: filtering

flags

display_name: flags

gbif

display_name: gbif

hard-limit

display_name: hard-limit

landsca

display_name: landsca

large-scale

display_name: large-scale

occurrence-records

display_name: occurrence-records

r-package

display_name: r-package

range-maps

display_name: range-maps

species-distribution

display_name: species-distribution

species-observations

display_name: species-observations

synonyms

display_name: synonyms

taxonomy

display_name: taxonomy

en: gbif.range - An R package to generate species range maps based on ecoregions and a user-friendly GBIF wrapper


en: food-taste-similarity food-preferences latent-semantic-analysis national-dishes agro-food-trade

en: National dishes, migration data and data for bilateral food trade flows

en:
The data include information on national dishes, migration data and data for bilateral food
trade flows for 5 years as well as importer and exporter GDP, population, distance between
most populated cities, bilateral information on Preferential Trade Agreements, common
official primary langauge, common colonizer post-1945, colonial relationship for overall
171 countries. The final data set contains 145,350 observations (29,070 country pairs for
5 years)

en: dyadic food similarity measures, pairwise similarity and dissimilarity (chord diagram)

en:
The figures show the distribution of two dyadic food tastes similarity measures on the base of
the national dishes: (i) the Manhattan distance and the (ii) latent semantic analysis. The chord diagram
shows the results for country pairs with most and less similarity on basis of the LSA-approach.

en: information on ingredients of national dishes

en: shows information of ingredients of all national dishes of 171 countries and their names

en: The data described in this article were collected daily over the period 4 June 2018 to 23 August 2018 and contains information of several data sources. The database includes information on national recipes and their ingredients for 171 countries, measures for food taste similarities between all 171 countries as well as bilateral migration and agro-food trade data for 5 years. The database can be used for analyzing e.g., the relation between food preferences and international trade or food preferences and health outcomes (e.g., obesity) across countries.

agro-food-trade

display_name: agro-food-trade

food-preferences

display_name: food-preferences

food-taste-similarity

display_name: food-taste-similarity

latent-semantic-analysis

display_name: latent-semantic-analysis

national-dishes

display_name: national-dishes

envidat

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: Data of national dishes, their similarity and trade flows


maintainer: Zhao

en: driving-factors urban-land-use planning land-dynamics austin

en: Potential driving factors of urban transformations of Austin over 25 years

en: In this study, the Austin metropolitan area, Texas, U.S., one of the fastest urban transformations and transformations regions, is selected to test the hypothesis that spatial planning and policies are important factors of urban transformations. Despite ample previous work in understanding the interactions between human and urban form transformation at specific areas, the actual interventions and outcomes of planning and policies (e.g., ‘smart growth’) on urban forms have been poorly measured. In this study, the potential influencing factors of urban transformations of Austin over 25 years were selected and collected.

austin

display_name: austin

driving-factors

display_name: driving-factors

land-dynamics

display_name: land-dynamics

planning

display_name: planning

urban-land-use

display_name: urban-land-use

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal


modeling-snow-failure-with-dem

title_for_slug: modeling-snow-failure-with-dem

en: discrete-element-modelling snow-micro-mechanics snow-avalanche snow-failure snow

en: Read-me

media_type: application/pdf

en: The read-me file contains a description of all the data provided in the zip file.

format: PDF

mimetype: application/pdf

en: Python file

en: Python file to reproduce the figures in Bobillier et al. (2019)

mimetype: text/x-python

en: Dataset

en: The zip file contains the data underlying the figures presented in Bobillier et al. (2019). The figures can be reproduced with the python file, which is also provided.

en: This data set includes the modeling results described in the research article by Bobiller et al. (2020). All the figures in the article can be reproduced with the data provided.

discrete-element-modelling

display_name: discrete-element-modelling

snow

display_name: snow

snow-avalanche

display_name: snow-avalanche

snow-failure

display_name: snow-failure

snow-micro-mechanics

display_name: snow-micro-mechanics

en: Modeling snow failure with DEM


en: cosmo-wrf complex-terrain numerical-simulation wrf grayzone

en:
This dataset contains simulation data for *"Influence of Air Flow Features on Alpine Wind Energy Potential" (Kristianti et al., 2024).*
•	The WRF_dia2702 and WRF_dia1103 folders contain the namelist.wps, namelist.input, and output files from the simulation in the Diablerets region on 27/02/2021 and 11/03/2021, respectively.
•	The WRF_luk2310 and WRF_luk0912 folders contain the namelist.wps, namelist.input, and output files from the simulation in the Lukmanier region on 23/10/2020 and 09/12/2020, respectively.
•	The postprocessing file contains Python codes used to create figures in Kristianti et al. (2024).
**Notes:**
•	Topography input is provided by Gerber et al. (2021).
•	Simulations are run using the COSMO-WRF model developed by Gerber et al. (2018).
•	Visualization by Python code uses wrf-python provided by Ladwig et al. (2017).
*This dataset was produced by the EDGE consortium sponsored by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy's SWEET programme, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF): Grant 179130, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) projects s938, s1115 and s1242.*

complex-terrain

display_name: complex-terrain

cosmo-wrf

display_name: cosmo-wrf

grayzone

display_name: grayzone

numerical-simulation

display_name: numerical-simulation

wrf

display_name: wrf

en: COSMO-WRF Dataset for Swiss Alps Simulations in Gray-Zone Resolution


en: drifting-snow micro-rain-radar antarctica mass-flux turbulence meteorological-data eddy-covariance-measurements blowing-snow large-eddy-simulations

en: Measurement data from Micro Rain Radar (MRR)

en: Remote sensing data of blowing snow from a Micro Rain Radar (MRR).

en: Measurement data from micro-meteorological station

en: Automatic in-situ measurements of micro-meteorology and snow transport

en: Measurement data from snow particle counter at MRR site

en: Near-surface observations of drifting snow from a Snow Particle Counter (SPC) installed at the location of the Micro Rain Radar.

en: Source code of the large-eddy simulations coupled with a Lagrangian stochastic model (LES-LSM), available on GitLab.

en: Readme

media_type: text/plain

en: Meta data

format: TXT

en: Simulation data for a situation with negligible snow transport

en: Results from two LES-LSM simulations called NoDrift_1 and NoDrift_2, which reproduce the conditions observed at the S17 site on 12th January 2019, 05:40 to 05:50 UTC.

en: Simulation data for a situation with significant snow transport

en: Data from two LES-LSM simulations called Drift_1 and Drift_2, which reproduce the conditions observed at the S17 site on 11th January 2019, 00:40 to 00:50 UTC.

en:
This dataset contains measurement and simulation data. The measurements characterize the standard meteorology, turbulence, and snow transport at the S17 site near Syowa Station in East Antarctica during an expedition in austral summer 2018/2019. Large-eddy simulations with sublimating particles provide additional insight into the latent and sensible heat exchange between snow and air in two example situations observed at the S17 site.

A part of the measurement data was recorded by an automatic measurement station from 10th January 2019 to 26th January 2019. This measurement station was equipped with standard meteorological sensors, a three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer, an open-path infrared gas analyzer, a snow particle counter, an infrared radiometer for measurements of the surface temperature, and a sonic ranging sensor measuring changes in snow surface elevation.

At a horizontal distance of approximately 500 m, a Micro Rain Radar (MRR) was installed in a tilted configuration with an elevation angle of 7° for remote sensing of blowing snow between 25th December 2018 and 24th January 2019. In addition, near-surface in-situ measurements of snow transport were performed at the location of the MRR by deploying a snow particle counter from 27th December 2018 to 24th January 2019.

The simulations cover a 18 x 18 x 6 m³ domain and reproduce the steady-state conditions during a 10-min interval with significant snow transport and another 10-min interval with negligible snow transport. We provide the model source code and the post-processed simulation data, i.e., horizontally averaged quantities as a function of height and time.

antarctica

display_name: antarctica

blowing-snow

display_name: blowing-snow

drifting-snow

display_name: drifting-snow

eddy-covariance-measurements

display_name: eddy-covariance-measurements

large-eddy-simulations

display_name: large-eddy-simulations

mass-flux

display_name: mass-flux

meteorological-data

display_name: meteorological-data

micro-rain-radar

display_name: micro-rain-radar

turbulence

display_name: turbulence

envidat

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: Meteorology and snow transport at S17 near Syowa, Antarctica, in austral summer 2018/2019


en: topography antarctica landuse cryowrf 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

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

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.

cryowrf

display_name: cryowrf

landuse

display_name: landuse

topography

display_name: topography

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

en: REMA topography and AntarcticaLC2000 for WRF


photogrammetric-drone-data-schurlialp

maintainer: Yves Bühler

title_for_slug: photogrammetric-drone-data-schurlialp

en: dsm drone-data wingtra orthophoto photogrammetry uav

en: Data Access

en:
- 10 cm DSM
- 10 cm HS
- 3 cm orthophoto
- original RGB images
- Agisoft Metashape Processing Report

All of the products are also available as a cloud optimized geotiff.

en: The data was collected on 16.04.2021 and on 28.05.2021 with a Wingtra Gen II and a Sony RX1 II RGB sensor to obtain snow depth and distribution data. Following the data collection, the data was processed with Agisoft Metashape. A 10cm DSM, a 10cm snow depth raster, a 3mm orthophoto and the original drone images are available for download.

drone-data

display_name: drone-data

dsm

display_name: dsm

orthophoto

display_name: orthophoto

photogrammetry

display_name: photogrammetry

uav

display_name: uav

wingtra

display_name: wingtra

en: Photogrammetric Drone Data Schürlialp


vegetation-height-model-nfi

maintainer: Christian Ginzler

title_for_slug: vegetation-height-model-nfi

en: 3d vegetation-height-model forest photogrammety point-cloud

en: 2016 Vegetation Height Model NFI

en:
Data 'Vegetation Height Model NFI 2016' available on request (christian.ginzler@wsl.ch).

A national vegetation height model was calculated for Switzerland using digital aerial images. We used the stereo aerial images acquired by the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo using the ADS80 sensor to first calculate a digital surface model (DSM) with a very high spatial resolution (1 × 1 m). The DSM was then normalized to obtain the actual vegetation heights using the digital terrain model (DTM) SwissAlti3D based on airborne laser data. Buildings are masked out using the NDVI information of the aerial images to produce a vegetation height model, and to produce a vegetation height model (VHM). Such a model will be calculated in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) with consistent methods and a very high level of detail. For covering the whole of Switzerland, we used summer aerial images from 2011 to 2016.

format: GeoTIFF

en: Countrywide Stereo-Image Matching for Updating Digital Surface Models in the Framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory

en: 2015 Vegetation Height Model NFI

en:
Data 'Vegetation Height Model NFI 2015' available on request (christian.ginzler@wsl.ch).

A national vegetation height model was calculated for Switzerland using digital aerial images. We used the stereo aerial images acquired by the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo using the ADS80 sensor to first calculate a digital surface model (DSM) with a very high spatial resolution (1 × 1 m). The DSM was then normalized to obtain the actual vegetation heights using the digital terrain model (DTM) SwissAlti3D based on airborne laser data. Buildings are masked out using the NDVI information of the aerial images to produce a vegetation height model, and to produce a vegetation height model (VHM). Such a model will be calculated in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) with consistent methods and a very high level of detail. For covering the whole of Switzerland, we used summer aerial images from 2010 to 2015.

en: 2019 Vegetation Height Model NFI (current)

en:
Data 'Vegetation Height Model NFI 2019' available on request (christian.ginzler@wsl.ch).

A national vegetation height model was calculated for Switzerland using digital aerial images. We used the stereo aerial images acquired by the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo using the ADS80 sensor to first calculate a digital surface model (DSM) with a very high spatial resolution (1 × 1 m). The DSM was then normalized to obtain the actual vegetation heights using the digital terrain model (DTM) SwissAlti3D based on airborne laser data. Buildings are masked out using the NDVI information of the aerial images to produce a vegetation height model, and to produce a vegetation height model (VHM). Such a model will be calculated in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) with consistent methods and a very high level of detail. For covering the whole of Switzerland, we used summer aerial images from 2013 to 2019.

en: 2012 Vegetation Height Model NFI

en:
Data 'Vegetation Height Model NFI 2012' available on request (christian.ginzler@wsl.ch).

A national vegetation height model was calculated for Switzerland using digital aerial images. We used the stereo aerial images acquired by the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo using the ADS80 sensor to first calculate a digital surface model (DSM) with a very high spatial resolution (1 × 1 m). The DSM was then normalized to obtain the actual vegetation heights using the digital terrain model (DTM) SwissAlti3D based on airborne laser data. Buildings are masked out using the NDVI information of the aerial images to produce a vegetation height model, and to produce a vegetation height model (VHM). Such a model will be calculated in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) with consistent methods and a very high level of detail. For covering the whole of Switzerland, we used summer aerial images from 2007 to 2012.

en: Thumbnail

mimetype: image/jpeg

en:
A national vegetation height model was calculated for Switzerland using digital aerial images.
We used the stereo aerial images acquired by the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo using the ADS80 sensor to first calculate a digital surface model (DSM) with a very high spatial resolution
(1 × 1 m and 0.5 x 0.5 m). The DSM was then normalized to obtain the actual
vegetation heights using a digital terrain model (DTM)
based on laser data with the buildings masked out, and to
produce a vegetation height model (VHM). Such a model
will be calculated in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) with consistent methods and a very
high level of detail. For covering the whole of Switzerland,
we use summer aerial images from six years.

Latest version is from 2019.

forest

display_name: forest

photogrammety

display_name: photogrammety

point-cloud

display_name: point-cloud

vegetation-height-model

display_name: vegetation-height-model

envidat

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: Vegetation Height Model NFI


maintainer: Maria Elvira Murazzi

en: nanoplastic forest-trees 13c-labelling uptake polystyrene

en: Nanoplastic in forests experiment

en:
Data embargoed until August 2022, and it will be provided upon request

-  excel file containing: two working sheets (leaf supply and root supply experiment) with a table with the values 13C-nanopolystyrene in the different tissues of the two forest tree species; graph showing the differences between controls and treatments of 13C-nanopolystyrene enrichment for each tissue of each forest tree species; ANOVA table showing significant values after having exposed the tree species to 13C-nanopolystyrene

en:
The fate of plastic in the environment is of global concern, because its production recently has
increased strongly and it accumulates in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Although some knowledge on
its role in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems was gained in the recent decade, hitherto very little is known
about the impact of micro and nanoplastics in forest ecosystems.

The aim of this pioneering project was to explore if nanoplastics are taken up by forest trees species
through leaves or roots. In greenhouse experiments, we exposed leaves or roots of seedling of two forest
trees species to solutions with highly 13C-labelled polystyrene nanoparticles (13C-nPS, 99 atom%) and
examined if they were incorporated in different above- and belowground tissues.

Treated part of the trees for both species showed significant 13C-enrichment, indicating that trees take up nanoparticles. However, the overall 13C signal strength in tissues that were not exposed to the 13C label remained low (Δδ13C<1‰) and was confined to a few seedlings, leaving it ambiguous whether nanoplastic transport occurs or not.

We acknowledge that the new method developed might be not sensitive enough to unequivocally detect
mechanisms of nanoplastic uptake and transport at environmentally realistic concentrations.

forest-trees

display_name: forest-trees

nanoplastic

display_name: nanoplastic

polystyrene

display_name: polystyrene

uptake

display_name: uptake

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

envidat

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

en: Nanoplastics in forests: Exploring the effects of nanoplastics on forest soils and tree physiology (NanoPlast)


data-interactive-avalanche-segmentation

title_for_slug: data-interactive-avalanche-segmentation

en: snow avalanche interactive deep-learning segmentation

en:
Images and corresponding avalanche annotations used for interactive avalanche segmentation:
SLF train, vali and test
WebNew
GroundPic
UserPic
UIBK dataset: List of images used
Pictures are from SLF (mostly from the Dischma Cams) if not otherwise indicated. If used, the data needs to be properly cited!

avalanche

display_name: avalanche

deep-learning

display_name: deep-learning

interactive

display_name: interactive

segmentation

display_name: segmentation

snow

display_name: snow

en: Data interactive avalanche segmentation


maintainer: Alexandre Buttler

en: biogeochemisty climate-change silvopastoral-systems soil transplantation-experiment

en: Dataset

en: Zip archive of all datasets detailed in study.

en:
Silvopastoral systems are highly productive and combine long-term wood production with annual provision of forage for livestock. In the Swiss Jura Mountains these systems are a key component of the landscape. As in other cold biomes, climate change can potentially accelerate landscape change within these historically sustainable systems.

In order to anticipate the evolution of subalpine wooded pasture ecosystems under future climate and land-use changes, this project focused on the interplay between soil, vegetation and climate. It was aimed at providing experimental evidence for chief ecosystem processes, with emphasis on the quality of the ecosystem services provided. The main interest was placed on vegetation turf resistance to climate change along an unwooded – sparsely wooded - densely wooded pasture gradient (land-use intensity), where plant productivity, diversity and succession along with rates of carbon cycling and microbial activity provided measures of ecosystem functioning at both plot and landscape level.

Experimental transplantation of monolith soil turfs to lower altitudes allowed to simulate soil warming and reduced annual precipitation. In order to simulate a year-round warmer and drier climate the natural climate variation along an altitudinal gradient was used as a proxy. The aim was to simulate realistic climate change scenarios for the second half of the 21st century predicted by the IPCC report and downscaled for Switzerland providing regionalized interpolated projections integrating therein trends for temperature increase and precipitation decrease. By using permanent meteorological stations within the network of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss), we obtained high resolution regional data on the variation of mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) in relation to altitude in the Swiss Jura Mountains. We observed a general increase of +0.5 K in MAT and a decrease of -20 % MAP for each 100 m decrease in altitude along the SE slope of the Swiss Jura Mountains. These relationships served for the selection of the transplantation sites such that in comparison to a control site at 1350 m a.s.l. (Combe des Amburnex, N 46°54’, E 6°23’) a +2 K MAT and -20 % MAP was achieved at 1010 m a.s.l. (Saint-George, N 46°52’, E 6°26’), a +4 K MAT and -40 % MAP at 570 m a.s.l., (Arboretum d’Aubonne, N 46°51’, E 6°37’), and a +5 K MAT and -50 % MAP at 395 m a.s.l. (Les Bois Chamblard, N 46°47’, E 6°41’). The two stations at 1010 m a.s.l. and 570 m a.s.l. corresponded to the IPCC scenario A1B for a moderate increase in greenhouse gas emissions and to scenario A2 for a high increase in greenhouse gas emissions, respectively. The station at 395 m a.s.l. was chosen to represent an extreme scenario with climate variables lying at the positive tail distribution of model predictions under the A2 scenario.

Soil cores were assembled into rectangular PVC boxes of 60  80 cm2 size and of 35 cm height. All mesocosms were dug down to surface level into previously prepared trenches in the ground thus preventing lateral heat exchange with the atmosphere. Since at each site the mesocosms were placed in a common garden with no light interception, mesocosms with turfs from the two wooded pastures were shaded from direct sun light to simulate the natural light conditions in the corresponding habitats. Each mesocosm was equipped with a drainage system and was connected to a water tank thus representing a zero potential lysimeter collecting soil solution and precipitation/snowmelt runoff. ECH2O EC-TM sensor probes coupled to Em50 data-loggers (Decagon Devices, Inc., USA) recorded soil temperature and volumetric water content in each mesocosm at the top-soil (0 to -3 cm) every minute and data were averaged over one hour intervals. Climate parameters at each transplantation site were monitored continuously throughout the experiment by means of automated weather stations (Sensor Scope Sàrl, Switzerland), measuring rain precipitation (non-heated tipping bucket gauges) and air temperature and humidity 2 m above the ground surface at one minute intervals.

A list of above- and belowground variables were measured to assess the resilience of biogeochemical processes, plant productivity, tree regeneration, and carbon sequestration for each respective land-use practice. Furthermore, the experimental data were used to improve on (parameterization) the existing spatially explicit, dynamic model WoodPaM and refine the modelʼs climatic and land-use variables so that different scenarios of climate change and land use change could be simulated. Natural and management induced disturbance patterns were incorporated into the model.
The data have been made available within the project CCES Mounted. The climate stations Sensorscope are still in use within the project CLIMARBRE (Wald und Klimawandel, WSL/BAFU).

#References

1. Puissant, J., Cécillon, L., Mills, R.T.E., Robroek, B.J.M. Gavazov, K., De Danieli, S., Spiegelberger, T., Buttler, A., Brun, J.J. 2015. Seasonal influence of climate manipulation on microbial community structure and function in mountain soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 80: 296–305.
2. Mills, R., K. Gavazov, T. Spiegelberger, D. Johnson and A. Buttler 2014. Diminished soil functions occur under simulated climate change in a sup-alpine pasture, but heterotrophic temperature sensitivity indicates microbial resilience. Science of the Total Environment, vol. 473–474(0): 465-472.
3. Gavazov, K., Spiegelberger, T. and Buttler, A. 2014. Transplantation of subalpine wood-pasture turfs along a natural climatic gradient reveals lower resistance of unwooded pastures to climate change compared to wooded ones. Oecologia (174) : 1425-1435.
4. Peringer A., Siehoff S., Chételat J., Spiegelberger T., Buttler A. & Gillet F. 2013. Past and future landscape dynamics in pasture-woodlands of the Swiss Jura Mountains under climate change. Ecology and Society, 18, 3: 11. DOI: 10.5751/ES-05600-180311. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss3/art11/
5. Gavazov, K. S., A. Peringer, A. Buttler, F. Gillet and T. Spiegelberger. 2013. Dynamics of Forage Production in Pasture-woodlands of the Swiss Jura Mountains under Projected Climate Change Scenarios. Ecology and Society 18 (1): 38. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss1/art38/

biogeochemisty

display_name: biogeochemisty

climate-change

display_name: climate-change

silvopastoral-systems

display_name: silvopastoral-systems

soil

display_name: soil

transplantation-experiment

display_name: transplantation-experiment

en: Biogeochemical data from a transplantation experiment of monolith soil turfs along an altitudinal gradient to simulate climate change scenarios


maintainer: Loïc Pellissier Pellissier

en: environmental-gradients herbivores-communities elevation functional-traits alps community-indices plant-herbivore-interactions

en: Vegetion surveys

en: Species inventories of plants

mimetype: text/plain

en: Plant traits

en: Plant functional traits (SLA, LDMC, carbon and nitrogen content, punch strenght; averaged by species)

en: Orthoptera traits

en: Orthoptera functional traits (incisive mandibular strength averaged by species)

en: Study sites

en: Coordinates and elevation of the study sites

en: Nematode surveys

en: Surveys of soil nematode along elevation

en: Orthoptera surveys

en: Species inventories of Orthoptera

en: Despite the common role of above- and below-ground herbivore communities in mediating ecosystem functioning, our understanding of the variation of species communities along natural gradient is largely strongly biased toward aboveground organisms. This dataset enables to study the variations in assemblages of two dominant groups of herbivores, namely, aboveground orthoptera and belowground nematodes together with their food plants. Herbivores and plant surveys were conducted in 48 natural grasslands along six elevation gradients, selected to span the major macro-climatic and environmental conditions of the Swiss Alps. It compiles herbivores and plant surveys, information on the study sites as well as plant and herbivores functional traits sought to be involved in trophic interactions and to respond to climatic variation along the elevation. Plant functional traits considered are the SLA, the LDMC, the C/N content, the punch strength (i.e. force required to pierce the leave lamina), the mandibular strength for Orthoptera insect. Data were collected during the summer 2016 and 2017.

alps

display_name: alps

community-indices

display_name: community-indices

elevation

display_name: elevation

environmental-gradients

display_name: environmental-gradients

functional-traits

display_name: functional-traits

herbivores-communities

display_name: herbivores-communities

plant-herbivore-interactions

display_name: plant-herbivore-interactions

envidat

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: Above- and below-ground herbivore communities along elevation


en: hazard-indication-mapping release snow avalanche hazard-mapping ramms

en: RAMMS simulations NHESS

en: Simulated maximum pressures for the scenarios frequent and extreme taking the forest layer into account

en: Potential Release  Area  NHESS

en: This folder contains the output of the different investigated algorithms plus the reference dataset, used for training and validation.

en:
This dataset contains the output and reference data published in the paper "Automated snow avalanche release area delineation - validation of existing algorithms and proposition of a new object-based approach for large scale hazard indication mapping" Yves Bühler, Daniel von Rickenbach, Andreas Stoffel, Stefan Margreth, Lukas Stoffel, Marc Christen (2018) Natural Hazards And Earth System Sciences.

Abstract:
Snow avalanche hazard is threatening people and infrastructure in all alpine regions with seasonal or permanent snow cover around the globe. Coping with this hazard is a big challenge and during the past centuries, different strategies were developed. Today, in Switzerland, experienced avalanche engineers produce hazard maps with a very high reliability based on avalanche cadastre information, terrain analysis, climatological datasets and numerical modelling of the flow dynamics for selected avalanche tracks that might affect settlements. However, for regions outside the considered settlement areas such area-wide hazard maps are not available mainly because of the too high cost, in Switzerland and in most mountain regions around the world. Therefore, hazard indication maps, even though they are less reliable and less detailed, are often the only spatial planning tool available. To produce meaningful and cost-effective avalanche hazard indication maps over large regions (regional to national scale), automated release area delineation has to be combined with volume estimations and state-of-the-art numerical avalanche simulations.

In this paper we validate existing potential release area (PRA) delineation algorithms, published in peer-reviewed journals, that are based on digital terrain models and their derivatives such as slope angle, aspect, roughness and curvature. For validation, we apply avalanche cadastre data from three different ski resorts in the vicinity of Davos, Switzerland, where experienced ski-patrol staff mapped most avalanches in detail since many years. After calculating the best fit input parameters for every tested algorithm, we compare their performance based on the reference datasets. Because all tested algorithms do not provide meaningful delineation between individual potential release areas (PRA), we propose a new algorithm based on object-based image analysis (OBIA). In combination with an automatic procedure to estimate the average release depth (d0), defining the avalanche release volume, this algorithm enables the numerical simulation of thousands of avalanches over large regions applying the well-established avalanche dynamics model RAMMS. We demonstrate this for the region of Davos for two hazard scenarios, frequent (10 – 30 years return period) and extreme (100 – 300 years return period). This approach opens the door for large scale avalanche hazard indication mapping in all regions where high quality and resolution digital terrain models and snow data are available.

avalanche

display_name: avalanche

hazard-indication-mapping

display_name: hazard-indication-mapping

hazard-mapping

display_name: hazard-mapping

ramms

display_name: ramms

release

display_name: release

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal

en: Automated Avalanche Release Area (PRA) Delineation Davos


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

en: Dataset

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

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


swiss-fluxnet-site-davos

title_for_slug: swiss-fluxnet-site-davos

en: eddy-covariance forest swiss-fluxnet flux greenhouse-gas swiss-forest-lab icos meteorological-measurements

en: Fluxnet2015 dataset

en: Processed flux and meteo data are also part of the Fluxnet2015 dataset.

en: Data access

en: The flux and meteo data of the Swiss FluxNet site Davos are openly available. Near real-time flux and meteo data are uploaded daily to the ICOS Carbon Portal.

en: Processed data

en: Processed flux and meteo data are available from the European Fluxes Database Cluster.

en: Site description

en:
The Swiss FluxNet Site Davos is a managed subalpine evergreen forest, located on the Seehorn mountain near Davos in the Swiss Alps. The site is dominated by Norway spruce. The tower is owned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).
Ecosystem flux measurements of CO2, H2O (since 1997) as well as CH4 and N2O (since 2016) are performed with the eddy covariance method.
In addition to Swiss FluxNet, the site is part of the National Air Pollution Monitoring Network (NABEL), the Long term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF), the biological drought and growth indicator network (TreeNet) and of ICOS Switzerland (Integrated Carbon Observation System). Since November 2019, the site is an ICOS Class 1 Ecosystem station.

Measurements

- Ecosystem flux measurements of CO2, H2O vapour (since 1997) as well a CH4 and N2O (since 2016) are performed with the eddy-covariance method. This method is based on measurements of trace gas mixing ratios, using infrared gas analyzers (for CO2, H2O vapor) and laser spectrometers (for CH4 and N2O), combined with wind speed and wind direction measurements, using 3D sonic anemometers. To resolve the short-term turbulent fluctuations in the atmosphere, very fast measurements are needed: we measure at 10-20 Hz, i.e., 10-20 times per second. To assess the energy budget of each ecosystem, also radiation sensors and soil climate profiles are installed at the site.
- Sub-canopy eddy fluxes (CO2, H2O, since 2023 also CH4).
- Continuous profile concentration and forest floor flux measurement of CO2, H2O, CH4, N2O.
- Auxiliary micrometeorology and soil climate measurements.

Data availability

Near real-time flux and meteo data uploaded daily to the ICOS Carbon Portal. Processed flux and meteo data are also available from the European Fluxes Database Cluster and part of Fluxnet2015 dataset.

Data policy

ICOS data license:
[https://www.icos-cp.eu/data-services/about-data-portal/data-license](https://www.icos-cp.eu/data-services/about-data-portal/data-license)

Detailed site info:
[https://www.swissfluxnet.ethz.ch/index.php/sites/ch-dav-davos/site-info-ch-dav/](https://www.swissfluxnet.ethz.ch/index.php/sites/ch-dav-davos/site-info-ch-dav/)

eddy-covariance

display_name: eddy-covariance

flux

display_name: flux

forest

display_name: forest

greenhouse-gas

display_name: greenhouse-gas

icos

display_name: icos

meteorological-measurements

display_name: meteorological-measurements

swiss-fluxnet

display_name: swiss-fluxnet

swiss-forest-lab

display_name: swiss-forest-lab

en: Swiss FluxNet Site Davos


tree-species-map-of-switzerland

title_for_slug: tree-species-map-of-switzerland

en: tree-species forest map switzerland remote-sensing

media_type: image/png

en: Image of the tree species map

format: PNG

en:
Dominant tree species map of Switzerland
We created a tree species map of Switzerland for the dominant tree species in the forested areas. The spatial resolution of the map is 10 m and the coordinate system is ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe (EPSG 3035). The map comprises Sentinel-2 index time series from the year 2020, a digital elevation model and species reference data from the Swiss National Forest Inventory. The map is available as raster (.tif) or vector dataset (.gpkg).
**Access will be granted upon request.**
In total, the following 15 species were mapped:
*Abies alba*, *Acer pseudoplatanus*, *Alnus glutinosa*, *Alnus incana*, *Betula pendula*, *Castanea sativa*, *Fagus sylvatica*, *Fraxinus excelsior*, *Picea abies*, *Pinus cembra*, *Pinus mugo arborea*, *Pinus sylvestris*, *Quercus petraea*, *Quercus robur*, *Sorbus aucuparia*.

 Approach

 Data
- Swiss National Forest Inventory Data (stand species with > 60 % dominance in upper canopy; on at least more than 9 plots dominant)
- Sentinel-2 time series (2020, Indices: CCI, CIRE, NDMI, EVI, NDVI)
- Digital elevation model (DEM) (swissalti3d, 5 m)
- Biogeographical regions (Federal Office for the Environment FOEN)
- Forest mask 2017 (Approach: Waser et al., 2015)

 Modeling approach
We identified the most meaningful variables that led to separation of the respective groups by using random forest models with a forward feature selection (Meyer et al., 2018; Ververidis & Kotropoulos, 2005). In this approach, the final random forest model is solely built from the selected meaningful variables. By identifying meaningful variables, we can determine which variables might influence the grouping. Further, to avoid overfitting and overly optimistic results, we applied 10-fold spatial cross-validation and put all pixels from a plot in the same spatial fold.
The modeling was realized using the CAST package in R (Meyer et al., 2022), based on the well-known caret package (Kuhn, 2022). We used the ranger package in R (Wright & Ziegler, 2017) to implement the random forest models, due to its short computation time.

 Training data for modeling
- 295 Sentinel-2, DEM & Biogeographical variables
- 10525 tree species pixels

 Selected variables for final model
1. EVI of 2020.05.16
2. NDMI of 2020.03.12
3. CIRE of 2020.04.16
4. NDMI of 2020.07.05
5. CCI of 2020.05.11
6. dem
7. CCI of 2020.08.14
8. NDMI of 2020.08.24
9. CCI of 2020.12.22
10. NDMI of 2020.04.21
11. NDMI of 2020.11.17
12. NDMI of 2020.08.09
13. CIRE of 2020.03.22
14. CIRE of 2020.08.09
14. CCI of 2020.11.02
15. CIRE of 2020.06.10

 Overall Accuracy of final model
- 0.759

 Nationwide prediction
- Predicted throughout forest mask 2017 (Approach: Waser et al., 2015)
- Not applied on incomplete Sentinel-2 time series (own category in final map: incomplete_ts)
- Applied the Area of Applicability (Meyer 2022) to sort out pixels outside of the feature space; basically where the model had not the same values for pixels as in the available training data

 *Be aware that the map is only validated with the training data itself, an independent validation with other data sources remains missing*

 References
- Kuhn, M. (2022). Classification and Regression Training. 6.0-93.
- Meyer, H., Reudenbach, C., Hengl, T., Katurji, M., & Nauss, T. (2018). *Improving performance of spatio-temporal machine learning models using forward feature selection and target-oriented validation*. Environmental Modelling and Software, 101, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.12.001
- Meyer, H., Milà, C., & Ludwig, M. (2022). *CAST: 'caret' Applications for Spatial-Temporal Models*. 0.7.0.
- Ververidis, D., & Kotropoulos, C. (2005). *Sequential forward feature selection with low computational cost*. 2005 13th European Signal Processing Conference.
- Waser, L., Fischer, C.,Wang, Z., & Ginzler, C. (2015). *Wall-to-Wall Forest Mapping Based on Digital Surface Models from Image-Based Point Clouds and a NFI Forest Definition*. Forests, 6, 12, 4510–4528.
- Wright, M. N., & Ziegler, A. (2017). *ranger: A Fast Implementation of Random Forests for High Dimensional Data in C++ and R*. Journal of Statistical Software, 77(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/doi:10.18637/jss.v077.i01

map

display_name: map

remote-sensing

display_name: remote-sensing

switzerland

display_name: switzerland

tree-species

display_name: tree-species

educ

en: Education, culture and sport

envidat

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: Tree species map of Switzerland


en: number-of-caught-persons avalanche-fatalities avalanche-accident-statistics avalanche-accidents number-of-dead-persons

en: Fatal avalanche accidents in Switzerland since 1995-1996

en:
Attention: this data is not updated after 2022 anymore.
This data collection contains information concerning all accidents by snow avalanches causing at least one fatality in Switzerland. The data set commences on 01/10/1995. After the completion of a hydrological year, the new data is added.
The following information is provided:
 * avalanche identifier
 * date of the accident
 * accuracy of the date in range of days before and after
 * canton
 * name of the locality
 * start zone of the avalanche
  * coordinates (Swiss coordinate system, approximately in middle of start zone)
  * accuracy of the coordinates in meters
 * elevation (in meteres above sea level, app. in middle of start zone)
 * slope aspect (main orientation of start zone)
 * slope inclination (in degree, steepest point within start zone)
 * number of dead persons
 * number of caught persons
 * number of fully buried persons
 * forecasted avalanche danger level
 * activity/location of the accident party at the time of the incident

avalanche-accident-statistics

display_name: avalanche-accident-statistics

avalanche-accidents

display_name: avalanche-accidents

avalanche-fatalities

display_name: avalanche-fatalities

number-of-caught-persons

display_name: number-of-caught-persons

number-of-dead-persons

display_name: number-of-dead-persons

envidat

en: EnviDat: the Environmental Data Portal


en: precipitation spatially-distributed-sampling stable-water-isotopes geochemical-solutes stream-water

en: The dataset contains daily measurements of volumes, isotopes and solutes of stream water as well as precipitation measured several locations; meteorological variables are added. Date: 18.07.2019

en:
This dataset contain measurements of solute and stable water isotopes in stream water and precipitation in the Alp catchment and two of its tributaries (between 2015 -2018) . The river Alp is a snow-dominated catchment situated in Central Switzerland characterized by an elevation range from 840 to 1898 m a.s.l. The dataset provides solutes (major anions and cations, trace metals) and stable water isotopes and water fluxes (precipitation rates, discharge) at daily intervals from several sampling locations.
An updated version of the isotope dataset is available here: https://www.doi.org/10.16904/envidat.242

geochemical-solutes

display_name: geochemical-solutes

precipitation

display_name: precipitation

spatially-distributed-sampling

display_name: spatially-distributed-sampling

stable-water-isotopes

display_name: stable-water-isotopes

stream-water

display_name: stream-water

en: Daily data of solute and stable water isotopes in stream water and precipitation in the Alp catchment, Central Switzerland


en: pore-water landslide-testsite landslides pressure-perturbations cces tramm

en: TRAMM Ruedlingen data

en: TRAMM project data from the Ruedlingen site (exp 1 + 2). Measured parameters include soil suction, water level, soil volumetric water content, rain intensity, and soil temperature.

en:
A landslide testsite dataset related to pore water pressure perturbations on the stability of unsaturated silty sand slopes leading to the initiation and propagation of the shear deformations and eventual rapid mass movements. This project was initiated and led by the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering (IGT) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and was incorporated in a Swiss national (TRAMM) and a European Union (SafeLand) multidisciplinary research project. Field site: The experimental slope is 7.5 m wide by 35 m long, located in the Swiss lowlands on an east facing slope over-looking the river Rhine, at an altitude of ~ 350 masl. Originally there were forestry covertures of circa 80%, heights of 5-20 m. Shrubs up to 1-5 m high and a free herb layer covered ~ 50% of the surface. The average gradient was determined to be from 38° to 43° with a slightly concave surface. The underlying rock consists mainly of Molasse, which is formed by alternate layers of sea deposits under the Tethys Sea (Seawater Molasse) and land deposits (Freshwater Molasse). Several augured samples, as well as an outcrop of the bedrock about 20 m above the selected field, revealed horizontal layering of fine grained sand- and marlstone at the test site. The sandstone was later proven to be highly permeable and fissured. Grain-size distributions were determined and the soil was classified as medium-low plasticity silty sand. Site instrumentation:Measurements of soil suction, groundwater level, soil volumetric water content, rain intensity and soil temperature were taken and combined with geophysical monitoring using Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) and investigations into subsurface flow by means of tracer experiments. Deformations were monitored during the experiment, both on the surface via photogrammetrical methods and within the soil mass, using a flexible probe equipped with strain gauges at different points and two axis inclinometers on the top and acoustic sensors. Instruments were installed mainly in three clusters at depths of 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 cm below the ground surface over the slope, including jet-fill tensiometers, TDRs, Decagon TDRs, piezometers, soil temperature sensors, deformation probes, earth pressure cells, acoustic sensors and rain gauges. A ring-net barrier (provided by Geobrugg AG) was set up at the foot of the slope to protect the road. Experiments: A sprinkling experiment was carried out in September 2008 to investigate the hydrological and mechanical response of the slope (Experiment 1), followed by a second one to trigger a landslide in March 2009 (Experiment 2).

Publications

1. Lehmann, P., F. Gambazzi, B. Suski, L. Baron, A. Askarinejad, S. M. Springman, K. Holliger, and D. Or (2013), Evolution of soil wetting patterns preceding a hydrologically induced landslide inferred from electrical resistivity survey and point measurements of volumetric water content and pore water pressure, Water Resour. Res., 49, 7992–8004, doi:[10.1002/2013WR014560](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014560).

2. Springman, S. M., Kienzler, P., Casini, F., & Askarinejad, A. (2009). Landslide triggering experiment in a steep forested slope in Switzerland. In 17th International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Alexandria, Egypt (pp. 1698-1701). doi: [10.3233/978-1-60750-031-5-1698](http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/978-1-60750-031-5-1698)

cces

display_name: cces

landslide-testsite

display_name: landslide-testsite

landslides

display_name: landslides

pore-water

display_name: pore-water

pressure-perturbations

display_name: pressure-perturbations

tramm

display_name: tramm

en: TRAMM project Ruedlingen experimental landslide dataset, Switzerland