Abundance data from soil macro- and mesofauna of alpine snowbeds in the European Alps (summer 2017)

• Main Authors: Seeber, Julia, Newesely, Christian, Steinwandter, Michael, Rief, Alexander, Körner, Christian, Tappeiner, Ulrike, Meyer, Erwin
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2021
• Subjects: Acari; Alpine soils; Araneae; Coleoptera; Collembola; Ecosystem_Processes; Long-term Monitoring of Ecosystem Processes Programme of the Austrian National Park Hohe Tauern; Macrofauna; mesofauna; snowmelt; soil fauna; Antarctic and Alpine Research; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.935737; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.935737

This dataset represents abundance data from soil macro- and mesofauna from three alpine sites across the European Alps, sampled in summer 2017. The sites were: (1) Furka Pass, Uri, Switzerland, (2) Matsch Valley, South Tyrol, Italy, (3) Untersulzbach Valley, Salzburg, Austria, (4) Mallnitz, Carinthia, Austria, and (5) Innergschlöss, Tyrol, Austria. On each site we chose 3-6 snowbeds, where litter and soil core samples were taken. Each snowbed was subdivided into three sections: top (early snowmelt), middle, and bottom (late snowmelt). The data was used to evaluate how soil animal communities are responding to life conditions across snowbeds along a west-east transect of the European Alps, and to create a reference inventory for future investigations of climate change effects on snowbed ecosystems.