Dr. Ionut Iosifescu Enescu

Durch den fortschreitenden Lebensraumverlust verringert sich die genetische Vielfalt und somit die Anpassungsfähigkeit der Arten. Im Rahmen der Biodiversitätskonvention hat sich die Schweiz verpflichtet, diesen Verlust der genetischen Vielfalt zu bewerten, zu überwachen und letztendlich zu stoppen. Es gibt jedoch (noch) keine systematische Erfassung innerartlicher genetischer Daten, die diesen Prozess unterstützen könnte und auf die Bedürfnisse der Naturschutzpraxis zugeschnitten ist. Mit einer schweizweiten Datenbank zur innerartlichen genetischen Vielfalt soll sich dies nun ändern.

La perte progressive d’habitats a un impact négatif sur la diversité génétique, qui est la clé de la capacité d’adaptation des espèces. En signant la Convention sur la diversité biologique, la Suisse s’est engagée à évaluer, surveiller et, à terme, enrayer cette érosion de la diversité des gènes. Or, il n’existe à ce jour aucun recueil systématique de données adapté aux besoins de la pratique de la conservation qui puisse faciliter ce processus. Un projet de banque de données nationale sur la diversité génétique intraspécifique se propose de combler ce vide.

The Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) consists of 31 automatic weather stations (AWSs) at 30 sites across the Greenland Ice Sheet. The first site was initiated in 1990, and the project has operated almost continuously since 1995 under the leadership of the late Konrad Steffen. The GC-Net AWS measured air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, downward and reflected shortwave irradiance, net radiation, and ice and firn temperatures. The majority of the GC-Net sites were located in the ice sheet accumulation area (17 AWSs), while 11 AWSs were located in the ablation area, and two sites (three AWSs) were located close to the equilibrium line altitude. Additionally, three AWSs of similar design to the GC-Net AWS were installed by Konrad Steffen's team on the Larsen C ice shelf, Antarctica. After more than 3 decades of operation, the GC-Net AWSs are being decommissioned and replaced by new AWSs operated by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). Therefore, making a reassessment of the historical GC-Net AWS data is necessary. We present a full reprocessing of the historical GC-Net AWS dataset with increased attention to the filtering of erroneous measurements, data correction and derivation of additional variables: continuous surface height, instrument heights, surface albedo, turbulent heat fluxes, and 10 m ice and firn temperatures. This new augmented GC-Net level-1 (L1) AWS dataset is now available at https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/VVXGUT (Steffen et al., 2023) and will continue to be refined. The processing scripts, latest data and a data user forum are available at https://github.com/GEUS-Glaciology-and-Climate/GC-Net-level-1-data-processing (last access: 30 November 2023). In addition to the AWS data, a comprehensive compilation of valuable metadata is provided: maintenance reports, yearly pictures of the stations and the station positions through time. This unique dataset provides more than 320 station years of high-quality atmospheric data and is available following FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data and code practices.

The Swiss Federal Institute WSL strives to increasethe fraction of environmental data that is easily available for reuse. With the Environmental Data portal EnviDat, WSL facilitates the publication of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and high-quality environmental research datasets by providing: A) a formal data publication process for the data producers, B) a technical workflow for improving data-quality with automatic validation, interactive quality checks, and iterative improvement of (meta-)data quality in support of the formal publication process and C) a DataCRediT mechanism for declaration of data authorship roles.

The Environmental Data Portal EnviDat aims to fuse data publication repository functionalities with next-generation web-based environmental geospatial information systems (web-EGIS) and Earth Observation (EO) data cube functionalities. User requirements related to mapping and visualization represent a major challenge for current environmental data portals. The new Cloud Optimized Raster Encoding (CORE) format enables an efficient storage and management of gridded data by applying video encoding algorithms. Inspired by the cloud optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format, the design of CORE is based on the same principles that enable efficient workflows on the cloud, addressing web-EGIS visualization challenges for large environmental time series in geosciences. CORE is a web-native streamable format that can compactly contain raster imagery as a data hypercube. It enables simultaneous exchange, preservation, and fast visualization of time series raster data in environmental repositories. The CORE format specifications are open source and can be used by other platforms to manage and visualize large environmental time series.

Support for open science is a highly relevant user requirement for the environmental data portal EnviDat. EnviDat, the institutional data portal and publication data repository of the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, actively implements the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) principles and provides a range of services in the area of research data management. Open science, with its requirements for improved knowledge sharing and reproducibility, is driving the adoption of free and open source software for geospatial (FOSS4G) in academic research. Open source software can play a key role in the proper documentation of data sets, processes and methodologies, because it supports the transparency of methods and the precise documentation of all steps needed to achieve the published results. EnviDat actively supports these activities to enhance its support for open science. With EnviDat, WSL contributes to the ongoing cultural evolution in research towards open science and opportunities for distant collaboration.

EnviDat is the institutional research data portal of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL. The portal is designed to provide solutions for efficient, unified and managed access to the WSL’s comprehensive reservoir of monitoring and research data, in accordance with the WSL data policy. Through EnviDat, WSL is fostering open science, making curated, quality-controlled, publication-ready research data accessible. Data producers can document author contributions for a particular data set through the EnviDat-DataCRediT taxonomy. The publication of research data sets can be complemented with additional digital resources, such as, e.g., supplementary documentation, processing software or detailed descriptions of code (i.e. as Jupyter Notebooks). The EnviDat Team is working towards generic solutions for enhancing open science, in line with WSL’s commitment to accessible research data.

EnviDat is the environmental data portal developed by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. The strategic initiative EnviDat highlights the importance WSL lays on Research Data Management (RDM) at the institutional level and demonstrates the commitment to accessible research data in order to advance environmental science.
EnviDat focuses on registering and publishing environmental data sets and provides unified and efficient access to the WSL’s comprehensive reservoir of environmental monitoring and research data. Research data management is organized in a decentralized manner where the responsibility to curate research data remains with the experts and the original data providers.
EnviDat supports data producers and data users in registration, documentation, storage, publication, search and retrieval of a wide range of heterogeneous data sets from the environmental domain. Innovative features include (i) a flexible, three-layer metadata schema, (ii) an additive data discovery model that considers spatial data and (iii) a DataCRediT mechanism designed for specifying data authorship. In addition, the overall user-friendly appearance in EnviDat provides an important opportunity for showcasing WSL research activities and results. The EnviDat portal builds on a conceptual system consisting of a core system, a set of guiding principles and a number of key services. Its development closely follows the conceptual framework, being guided by principles towards the ultimate goal of providing useful services for researchers.