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Soil microbial diversity and multifunctionality across European biomes
The diversity and network complexity of prokaryotic and fungal communities and their relationships with soil multifunctionality (SMF) – an integrative index for C-, N- and P-cycling functions – was investigated along a 3,000-km latitudinal transect across Europe (37° to 62°N), spanning biomes from Mediterranean drylands, temperate to boreal forests.
Case study applications demonstrating the use and potential of the TreeMig framework v1
The TreeMig framework allows for an easy application of the forest landscape model TreeMig for simulating forest dynamics in space under changing environmental and land use conditions. Here, case study examples in Switzerland are given that simulate the dynamics and spatial spread of competing tree species in a region in Switzerland, the invasion of a hypothetical invasive tree species, and the control of this species via a management model coupled to TreeMig. The datasets consist of the installation- and GUI starting-script, example environmental input data for Switzerland, the simulation environment, and further R-scripts for running the simulations and plotting the simulation results directly from R and for coupling TreeMig to the forest management model.
Restwasser-Datenbank
(in English below) Der erweiterte Ausbau der Wasserkraftproduktion steht im Spannungsfeld mit der Sicherstellung ökologischer Funktionen von Fliessgewässern. Die neu entwickelte Restwasser-Datenbank bietet eine öffentlich zugängliche Grundlage zu den Restwasserbestimmungen der Schweizer Wasserkraftanlagen (WKA). Sie umfasst 252 WKA mit einer installierten Leistung von mindestens 3 MW, darunter 160 Laufwasserkraftwerke, 75 Speicherkraftwerke, 16 Pumpspeicherkraftwerke und ein Umwälzkraftwerk. Die erwartete jährliche Stromproduktion dieser Anlagen (ohne Umwälzbetrieb) beträgt 31’540 GWh, was rund 76 % der gesamten schweizerischen Wasserkraftproduktion entspricht. Die Datenbank umfasst rechtliche, hydrologische und technische Attribute und erlaubt dank ihrer kraftwerksspezifischen Struktur eine einfache Verknüpfung mit der schweizerischen Wasserkraftstatistik (WASTA). Dadurch wird die effiziente Bearbeitung hydro-energetischer Fragestellungen ermöglicht. Eine öffentlich zugängliche Datengrundlage ist insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund des Klimawandels relevant, da dieser die hydrologischen Verhältnisse verändert und Nutzungskonflikte um Wasserressourcen verschärft. Gleichzeitig steigt der Druck auf aquatische Lebensräume, unter anderem infolge steigender Wassertemperaturen. Die Restwasser-Thematik betrifft nicht nur das Spannungsfeld zwischen Energieproduktion und Gewässerökologie, sondern auch Aspekte der Wasserqualität sowie weitere Nutzungen wie Trinkwasserversorgung, landwirtschaftliche Bewässerung, Kühlung und den Betrieb von Abwasserreinigungsanlagen (ARAs). Für eine nachhaltige Wasserwirtschaft ist die Etablierung öffentlicher und belastbarer Datengrundlagen unerlässlich, da sie eine Quantifizierung und Abwägung divergierender Interessen ermöglicht. Nur auf dieser Basis lässt sich die bislang emotional geführte Debatte versachlichen und können Entscheidungsprozesse evidenzbasiert unterstützt werden, die eine zukunftsfähige und nachhaltige Wasserwirtschaft fördern. The planned expansion of hydropower in Switzerland conflicts with the need to preserve the ecological functions of rivers. To support informed decision-making, a publicly accessible database on environmental flows has been developed. It documents the environmental flow requirements for 252 hydropower plants with an installed capacity of ≥ 3 MW, including 160 run-of-river plants, 75 storage plants, 16 pumped-storage plants, and one closed-loop pumped-storage plant. Together, these plants have an expected annual electricity production of 31’540 GWh—around 76% of Switzerland’s total hydropower generation. The database contains legal, hydrological, and technical attributes and can be easily linked to the national hydropower statistics (WASTA), enabling efficient analysis of hydroelectric issues. In the context of climate change, such an open database is crucial, as shifting hydrological conditions intensify competing water uses and increase pressure on aquatic ecosystems. Environmental flow requirements involve not only the trade-off between energy production and river ecology but also water quality and other uses such as drinking water supply, irrigation, cooling, and wastewater treatment. Robust, publicly available data are essential for quantifying and balancing these competing interests and for supporting evidence-based decisions in sustainable water resources management.
Snow depth, canopy structure and meterorological datasets from the Davos area, Switzerland, Winters 2012/13-2014/15, used for high-resolution forest snow modelling
This dataset contains all snow, canopy and meteorological data presented and used in the publication: Mazzotti, G., Essery, R., Moeser, D. & Jonas T. (2020) 'Resolving spatial variability of forest snow using an energy-balance model with a 1-layer canopy'. Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026129. This publication must be cited when using this dataset.
10 years of intra-annual carbon isotopes in tree rings from 3 conifer species
The data consists of a collection of environmental data, tree-ring width and intra-annual δ13C measurements of tree rings of three conifer species (Pinus sylvestris, Picea abies, Abies alba), and the R scripts that were used to analyse the data. Data was collected at two pairs of north and south exposed sites in Switzerland, in the Eastern Grisons (Surava North and Surava South) and Central Valais (Buthan and Lens). Intra-annual δ13C measurements were obtained using the laser ablation technique, which involved 10 sequential shots per ring. Shot 1 represents the δ13C value at the start of the ring, while Shot 10 corresponds to the δ13C value at the end of the ring's formation. Overall, the datasets consist of 400 profiles and 4000 isotope measurements. Environmental data was collected at each site over decade, from 2012 to 2023. Key environmental variables include temperature, vapour pressure deficit (VPD), and soil water potential (SWP). Precipitation data was obtained from the EOBS v29.0e dataset (https://www.ecad.eu/download/ensembles/download.php) from the closest grid point. All data was aggregated on an hourly to daily scale. In addition to environmental data, dendrometer data was used to derive the onset days, beginning of growth for each site (Onset_days.Rds). The data captures the dynamic relationship between environmental factors, such as soil and air moisture, and tree physiological responses, as reflected in δ13C variation. This dataset provides insights into the intra-seasonal interactions between environmental conditions and tree physiology. We provide the scripts for the main analyses performed in the Vitali, V. et al. 2025 article listed below, including the correlation of the isotope intra-annual time series with environmental variables. This dataset contains all data on which the publication listed below is based. Please cite this paper together with the citation for the datafile.
Seilaplan Tutorial: Merge DTM tiles
In order to use the QGIS plugin ‘Seilaplan’ for digital cable line planning, a digital terrain model (DTM) is required. In this tutorial video, we show how to merge multiple DTM raster tiles into one file, using the QGIS tool ‘Virtual Raster’. This simplifies the digital planning of a cable line using the QGIS plugin ‘Seilaplan’. Please note that the tutorial language is German! Link to Seilaplan website: https://seilaplan.wsl.ch *************************** Für die Verwendung des QGIS Plugins Seilaplan zur digitalen Seillinienplanung ist ein digitales Höhenmodell (DHM) nötig. In diesem Tutorialvideo zeigen wir, wie man mit dem QGIS-Plugin Virtuelles Raster mehrere DHM-Kacheln zu einem einzigen Rasterfile zusammenfügen und abspeichern kann. Für die Seillinienplanung mit Seilaplan muss nun nur noch eine Datei, mein neues virtuelles Raster, ausgewählt werden. Link zur Seilaplan-Website: https://seilaplan.wsl.ch
Present Weather Sensor Klosters
A present weather sensor (Vaisala PWD22) was deployed in Klosters (LON: 9.880413, LAT: 46.869019) for weather observation, combining the functions of a forwardscatter visibility meter and a present weather sensor. Besides measuring ambient light, it detects the intensity as well as the amount of both liquid and solid precipitation. More information can be found in the [User's Manual](ftp://ftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/aerosol/doc/manuals/PWD22_Manual.pdf).
Data supplement to Hyper-resolution large-scale hydrological modelling benefits from improved process representation in mountain regions
This data supplement contains the data associated with the manuscript: "Hyper-resolution large-scale hydrological modelling benefits from improved process representation in mountain regions" (Janzing et al., 2025). It contains the data to create the figures in the paper and consists of model output from **PCRaster Global Water Balance Model (PCR-GLOBWB) 2.0** model over the larger Alpine region at 30 arcsec resolution. As the full model output takes up very high memory space, we here mostly provide time series for the different measurement stations used for evaluation and some additional maps needed to recreate the figures in the manuscript.
Hydro-CH2018 reservoirs
The dataset Hydro-CH2018 reservoirs provides estimates of current and future water supply, water demand, and storage volumes for 307 medium-sized catchments in Switzerland. Water supply for current (1981-2010) and future (2070-2099) climate conditions was simulated using the hydrological model PREVAH. For modeling current water supply, observed meteorological time series were used as input, while simulated meteorological time series derived from 39 model chains of the CH2018 initiative were used as an input for simulating future climate conditions. Water demand was estimated for six categories: - 1) Drinking water (households and tourism), - 2) industry (second and third sector), - 3) artificial snow production, - 4) agriculture (irrigation and livestock feeding), - 5) ecology (residual flows), and - 6) hydropower. Future estimates consider changes in demand related to population growth and changes in the hydrological conditions. Storage volumes are provided for natural lakes (storage capacities and usable volumes), artificial reservoirs, reservoirs for artificial snow production, and drinking reservoirs. A detailed description of the simulation and estimation procedures can be found in * Brunner, M.I., Björnsen Gurung, A., Zappa, M., Zekollari, H., Farinotti, D., Stähli, M., 2019. Present and future water scarcity in Switzerland: Potential for alleviation through reservoirs and lakes. Sci. Total Environ. 666, 1033–1047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.169. This dataset contains the following information: 1. Shapefile with the 307 medium-sized Swiss catchments. 2. Textfiles with the water supply simulations for the control run and the 39 climate model chains (one file per chain) at daily resolution for the 307 catchments. 3. Textfiles with the current and future demand estimates per category at monthly resolution for the 307 catchments. 4. Textfiles with the storage volumes per category and catchment.
Starter Kit for the TreeMig framework v1 for easy simulation of spatio-temporal forest dynamics
Starter kit for the TreeMig framework that allows for an easy application of the forest landscape model TreeMig for simulating forest dynamics in space under changing environmental and land use conditions. The starter kit consists of a set of climate, land-use, topography and soil property input data for Switzerland, a script for installing the framework and running the GUI of the framework with the link to the input data, a tutorial covering a range of simulation examples for Switzerland and a transect through Europe, and an associated example simulation environment containing the model executables and other model inputs.