Vegetation development in the Swiss National Park from 1917 to 2012MartinSchuetzSwiss Federal Institute for forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL)Zuercherstrasse, 111Birmensdorf8903SwitzerlandMartinSchuetzassociatedPartyAnitaRischCo-owner2013-01-18The Swiss National Park was founded in 1914 by scientists from the universities of Basel and Zurich. The purpose of the foundation was - beside the conservation and the re-establishment of a wilderness area - the study of the processes starting with the protection of the area and with the cessation of any human impact. For this purpose, numerous permanent vegetation plots were set up from 1917 to monitor the development of the vegetation. The survey has been conducted without gaps in 5 to 10 year intervals till today. Data was sampled consistently over time, i.e. each species growing in a plot was identified and its abundance recorded in all the survey campaigns. Example of a data file from a single permanent plot. Data matrix consists of cover data (%) of each species growing on the plot. Obtain permission from data set owner(s)Swiss Alps, subalpine and alpine vegetation belt, grasslands and coniferous forests.10.210310.210346.664246.66421917358 speciesKingdomPlantaeMartinSchuetzSwiss Federal Institute for forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL)Zuercherstrasse, 111Birmensdorf8903Switzerlandmartin.schuetz@wsl.ch
Vegetation releves
85 main permanent plots, sometimes including nested subplots, overall several hundred releves (sampling units), consistent data sampling over the whole time period (Braun-Blanquet J., Brunies S., Campell E., Frey E., Jenny H., Meylan C., Pallmann H., 1931: Vegetationsentwicklung im Schweizer Nationalapark. Jahresber. Naturf. Ges. Graubündens 69, 3-82).
timeseries
other
Variable, but always several (5-10) years between two surveys.
Data available for all taxa such as e.g. heat requirement.
Morphological traits, life history traits, dispersal type, nutrient, heat, and water requirement, etc.
Climate data from climate station are available for the whole time period. Land use by man was completely stopped in 1914, i.e. shortly before monitoring has been started. However, wild herbivores re-immigrated into the area after abandonment causing shifts in biomass consumption.