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Automatic detection of avalanches
This dataset contains the results obtained by an automatic classification using hidden Markov models of a continuous seismic dataset. To avoid long computational times, we reduced the seismic data using pre-processing step. The start and end times of the windows used for the classification are also included in this dataset. Furthermore, an avalanche reference data set is included and the python scripts used to perform the processing steps and the classification.
Calibration data for empirical mortality models of 18 European tree species
The dataset comprises > 90 000 records from inventories in 54 strict forest reserves in [Switzerland](https://www.wsl.ch/de/wald/biodiversitaet-naturschutz-urwald/naturwaldreservate.html) and [Lower Saxony / Germany](http://naturwaelder.de/) along a considerable environmental gradient. It was used to develop parsimonious, species-specific mortality models for 18 European tree species based on tree size and growth as well as additional covariates on stand structure and climate. Inventory data Measurements had been conducted repeatedly on up to 14 permanent plots per reserve for up to 60 years with re-measurement intervals of 4 - 27 years. The permanent plots vary in size between 0.03 and 3.47 ha. The inventories provide diameter measurements at breast height (DBH) and information on the species and status (alive or dead) of trees with DBH ≥ 4 cm for Switzerland and ≥ 7 cm for Germany. Data selection We excluded three permanent plots where at least 80 % of the trees died during an interval of 10 years, and mortality could be clearly assigned to a disturbance agent. Mortality in the remaining stands was rather low, with a mean annual mortality rate of 1.5 % and strong variation between plots from 0 to 6.5 % (assessed for trees of all species with DBH ≥ 7 cm). We only used data from permanent plots with at least 20 trees per species to obtain reliable plot-level mortality rates even for species with low mortality rates (about 5 % during 10 years), and selected tree species occurring on at least 10 plots to cover sufficient ecological gradients. This led to a dataset of 197 permanent plots and 18 tree or shrub species: _Abies alba_ Mill., _Acer campestre_ L., _Acer pseudoplatanus_ L., _Alnus incana_ Moench., _Betula pendula_ Roth, _Carpinus betulus_ L., _Cornus mas_ L., _Corylus avellana_ L., _Fagus sylvatica_ L., _Fraxinus excelsior_ L., _Picea abies_ (L.) Karst, _Pinus mugo_ Turra, _Pinus sylvestris_ L., _Quercus pubescens_ Willd., _Quercus_ spp. (_Q. petraea_ Liebl. and _Q. robur_ L.; not properly differentiated in the Swiss inventories), _Sorbus aria_ Crantz, _Tilia cordata_ Mill. and _Ulmus glabra_ Huds.. Predictors of tree mortality We considered tree size and growth as key indicators for mortality risk. Radial stem growth between the first and second inventory and DBH at the second inventory were used to predict tree status (alive or dead) at the third inventory. To this end, the annual relative basal area increment (relBAI) was calculated as the compound annual growth rate of the trees basal area. Additional covariates on stand structure and climate comprise mean annual precipitation sum (P), mean annual air temperature (mT), the mean and the interquartile range of DBH (mDBH, iqrDBH), basal area (BA) and the number of trees (N) per hectare. Further information For further information, refer to Hülsmann _et al_. (in press) How to kill a tree – Empirical mortality models for eighteen species and their performance in a dynamic forest model. _Ecological Applications_.
Number of avalanche fatalities per calendar year in Switzerland since 1937
Attention: this data is not updated after 2022 anymore. This dataset contains the statistics on the number of avalanche fatalities per **calendar year** in Switzerland. The data collection commences with the beginning of the year 1937. After the completion of a hydrological year, which is the standard way avalanche fatalities are summarized in Switzerland and ends on the 30th of September, the new data is appended to the existing dataset. If you require annual statistics per hydrological year, please download the data from here: [https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/avalanche-fatalities-switzerland-1936] The following information is contained (by column and column title): - year - number of fatalities in the backcountry (=tour) - number of fatalities in terrain close to ski areas (=offpiste, away from open and secured ski runs) - number of fatalities on transportation corridors including ski runs, roads, railway lines (=transportation.corridors) - number of fatalities in or around buildings or in settlements (= buildings) - sum (of all four categories) The definitions for these four categories, as described in the guidelines to the avalanche accident database are: tour: activities include back-country ski, snowboard or snow-shoe touring offpiste: access from ski area, generally from the top of a skilift with short hiking distances transportation.corridors (Techel et al., 2016): people travelling or recreating on open or temporarily closed transportation corridors (e.g. a road user or a skier on a ski run) and people working on open or closed transportation corridors (e.g. maintenance crews on roads, professional rescue teams) buildings (Techel et al., 2016): people inside or just outside buildings, and workers on high alpine building sites
Long-term meteorological station Stillberg, Davos, Switzerland at 2090 m a.s.l.
Background information The Stillberg ecological treeline research site is located in the transition zone between the relatively humid climate of the Northern Alps and the continental climate of the Central Alps. In 1975, 92,000 seedlings of the high-elevation conifer species *Larix decidua* Mill. (European larch), *Pinus cembra* L. (Cembran pine), and *Pinus mugo* ssp. *uncinata* (DC.) Domin (mountain pine) were systematically planted across an area of 5 hectares along an elevation gradient of about 150 metres, with the aim to develop ecologically, technically, and economically sustainable afforestation techniques at the treeline to reduce the risk of snow avalanches. In the course of time, additional research aspects gained importance, such as the ecology of the treeline ecotone under global change. Alongside the ecological long-term monitoring of the afforestation, several meteorological stations have recorded local meteorological conditions at the Stillberg research site. Here, we provide the Davos Stillberg meteorological timeseries of five stations from 1975 (01-01-1975), the year of the afforestation establishment, until the end of the year 2022 (31-12-2022). Station description The five meteorological stations were all installed at the same location (46°46′25.015″N 9°52′01.792″E) at 2090 m a.s.l., in the lower part of the afforestation area. In general, the five stations were operated sequentially (Stillberg_meteo_metadata_stations_v1.csv). However, there are some overlapping time periods when more than one station was operated in parallel. The stations have recorded environmental parameters, such as air and soil temperature, dew point temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, wind direction and velocity, radiation, precipitation, and snow depth (Stillberg_meteo_metadata_parameters_v1.csv). The meteorological measurements were recorded hourly from 1975 until 1996 and have been recorded in 10-minute intervals since 1997. Data description We processed the Davos Stillberg meteorological timeseries with the MeteoIO meteorological data pre-processing library (Bavay & Egger, 2014). Data files are provided for each station and quality level separately and named according to the station (see ‘Stillberg_meteo_metadata_stations_v1.csv’). From the raw data in their original formats, we generated three data quality levels: raw standardized (folder ‘raw_standardized’), edited (folder ‘raw_edited’) and filtered (folder ‘filtered’). The processing level is indicated in the headers of the data files. The whole processing protocol is described in a set of human-readable configuration files that are used by MeteoIO to generate the required data quality levels. This improves long-term reproducibility (Bavay et al., 2022), as the data could be regenerated in the future, even using a completely different software, to account for additional data points or to introduce new data corrections. The first quality level (raw standardized) is generated by parsing the original data files and interpreting them in order to convert all data points to a common format and meteorological parameter naming scheme, while excluding unreadable or duplicated data lines. The generated data files are derivatives of CSV files, with a standardised header that contains the metadata that are necessary to interpret and use the data (use metadata) and to populate a data index (search metadata). The latter is a textual implementation of the Attribute Convention for Data Discovery (ACDD) metadata standard (Attribute Convention for Data Discovery 1-3, 2022). The second quality level (edited) builds on the raw data by performing low-level data editing, such as removing some data periods that are known to be unusable (often based on maintenance records or anecdotal evidence) or applying undocumented calibration factors (for example, when there seems to be an obvious offset on a measured parameter for a period between two documented maintenance operations). The third quality level is generated by applying statistical filters on the data (per station and per meteorological parameter) to exclude presumably wrong values. We did not perform gap filling, as no single strategy could be relied upon that would work best for all possible data usage scenarios.
Water-use strategies of temperate tree species
This dataset represents the data shown in the Figures 2 - 7 of Walthert et al. (2024): Coordination between degree of isohydricity and depth of root water uptake in temperate tree species. Science of the Total Environment (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174346). A detailed methodical description of the data can be found in the Methods section of the paper. Abstract In an increasingly dry environment, it is crucial to understand how tree species use soil water and cope with drought. However, there is still a knowledge gap regarding the relationships between species-specific stomatal behaviour, spatial root distribution, and root water uptake (RWU) dynamics. Our study aimed to investigate above- and below-ground aspects of water use during soil drying periods in four temperate tree species that differ in stomatal behaviour: two isohydric tracheid-bearing conifers, Scots pine and Norway spruce, and two more anisohydric deciduous species, the diffuse-porous European beech, and the ring-porous Downy oak. From 2015 to 2020, soil-tree-atmosphere-continuum parameters were measured for each species in monospecific forests where trees had no access to groundwater. The hourly time series included data on air temperature, vapour pressure deficit, soil water potential, soil hydraulic conductivity, and RWU to a depth of 2 m. Analysis of drought responses included data on stem radius, leaf water potential, estimated osmotically active compounds, and drought damage. Our study reveals an inherent coordination between stomatal regulation, fine root distribution and water uptake. Compared to conifers, the more anisohydric water use of oak and beech was associated with less strict stomatal closure, greater investment in deep roots, four times higher maximum RWU, a shift of RWU to deeper soil layers as the topsoil dried, and a more pronounced soil drying below 1 m depth. Soil hydraulic conductivity started to limit RWU when values fell below 10-3 to 10-5 cm/d, depending on the soil. As drought progressed, oak and beech may also have benefited from their leaf osmoregulatory capacity, but at the cost of xylem embolism with around 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity when soil water potential dropped below -1.25 MPa. Consideration of species-specific water use is crucial for forest management and vegetation modelling to improve forest resilience to drought.
Wind crust formation: SnowMicroPen data
This dataset contains the SnowMicroPen (SMP) data from 38 wind tunnel experiments on wind-packing / wind crust formation. These experiments were performed in the winters 2015/16 and 2016/17 and include more than 1000 SMP measurements. The SMPs are organized per experiment. Each experiment subfolder contains the processed SMP profiles and some additional files. Please refer to the README for more details on the data. The processing scripts are available for download as well. The scripts are mainly provided as documentation and would need to be adjusted to be used. This dataset is the basis of the following publication: Sommer C.G., Lehning M., & Fierz C. (2017). Wind tunnel experiments: Saltation is necessary for wind-packing. Journal of Glaciology, 63(242), 950-958. doi:10.1017/jog.2017.53
Field observations of snow instabilities
This data set includes 589 snow profile observations including a rutschblock test, observations of signs of instability and an assessment of the local avalanche danger level, mainly recorded in the region of Davos (eastern Swiss Alps) during the winter seasons 2001-2002 to 2018-2019. These data were analyzed and results published by Schweizer et al. (2021). They characterized the avalanche danger levels based on signs of instability (whumpfs, shooting cracks, recent avalanches), snow stability class and new snow height. The data are provided in a csv file (589 records); the variables are described in the corresponding read-me file. These data are the basis of the following publication: Schweizer, J., Mitterer, C., Reuter, B., and Techel, F.: Avalanche danger level characteristics from field observations of snow instability, Cryosphere, 15, 3293-3315, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3293-2021, 2021. Acknowlegements Many of the data were recorded by SLF observers and staff members, among those Roland Meister, Stephan Harvey, Lukas Dürr, Marcia Phillips, Christine Pielmeier and Thomas Stucki. Their contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
Precipitation Scaling Data Set (Vögeli et al., Frontiers)
Dataset (Model input, snow distribution and validation) for the precipitation scaling paper, which should be cited along with the data set citation. This data is useful for distributed hydrological modelling or other tasks that involve the study of snow distribution and precipitation in the high Alpine. The format of the data is for Alpine3D (models.slf.ch) model runs but other models could be used, too. Please cite: _Vögeli, C., Lehning, M., Wever, N., Bavay M., 2016: Scaling Precipitation Input to Spatially Distributed Hydrological Models by Measured Snow Distribution., Front. Earth Sci. 4: 108. doi: 10.3389/feart.2016.00108._ Dataset is provided as a single zip file. The archive contains two directories, the valuable distributed snow depth maps for the landscape Davos and the simulation input. The archive also contains the file: "ReadMeMetadataDataSetPrecipitationScaling" which explains the data structure.
High resolution monthly precipitation and temperature timeseries for the period 2006-2100
Predicting future climatic conditions at high spatial resolution is essential for many applications in science. Here we present data for monthly time series of precipitation and minimum and maximum temperature for four downscaled global circulation models. We used model output statistics in combination with mechanistic downscaling (the CHELSA algorithm) to calculate mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures, as well as monthly precipitation sums at ~5km spatial resolution globally for the years 1850-2100. We validated the performance of the downscaling algorithm by comparing model output with observed climates for the years 1950-2069. CHELSA_cmip5_ts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license.
Fire Weather Index for Hydrological Bavaria from 1980-2099 derived from the 50 member CRCM5-LE
This dataset contains the Fire Weather Index for Hydrological Bavaria from 1980 - 2099 as stated in the paper "Climate change impacts on regional fire weather in heterogeneous landscapes of Central Europe" published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciens (NHESS) 2023. The dataset contains daily Fire Weather Index values for all 50 members (subfolders of the dataset) of the CRCM5-LE (11 km spatial resolution) from 1980 to 2099 over the domain of Hydrological Bavaria. Please cite this dataset as the publication: Miller, J., Böhnisch, A., Ludwig, R., & Brunner, M. I. (2023). Climate change impacts on regional fire weather in heterogeneous landscapes of Central Europe. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 1-25. doi: 10.5194/nhess-2023-51.