DOI: 10.16904/envidat.166
title: 'Latent reserves' within the Swiss NFI

description: The files refer to the data used in Portier et al. "‘Latent reserves’: a hidden treasure in National Forest Inventories" (2020) *Journal of Ecology*.
 
**'Latent reserves'** are defined as plots in National Forest Inventories (NFI) that have been free of human influence for -40 to -70 years. They can be used to investigate and acquire a deeper understanding of attributes and processes of near-natural forests using existing long-term data. To determine which NFI sample plots could be considered ‘latent reserves’, criteria were defined based on the information available in the Swiss NFI database: 
 
* Shrub forests were excluded.
* Plots must have been free of any kind of management, including salvage logging or sanitary cuts, for a minimum amount of time. Thresholds of 40, 50, 60 and 70 years without intervention were tested.
* To ensure that species composition was not influenced by past management, plots where potential vegetation was classified as deciduous by Ellenberg & Klötzli (1972) had to have an observed proportion of deciduous trees matching the theoretical proportion expected in a natural deciduous forest, as defined by Kienast, Brzeziecki, & Wildi (1994).
* Plots had to originate from natural regeneration. 
* Intensive livestock grazing must never have occurred on the plots.
 
The tables stored here were derived from the first, second and third campaigns of the Swiss NFI. The raw data from the Swiss NFI can be provided free of charge within the scope of a contractual agreement (http://www.lfi.ch/dienstleist/daten-en.php).
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The files 'Data figure 2' to 'Data figure 8' are publicly available and contain the data used to produce the figures published in the paper. 
The files 'Plot-level data for characterisation of 'latent reserves' and 'Tree-level data for characterisation of 'latent reserves' contain all the data required to reproduce the section of the article concerning the characterisation of 'latent reserves' and the comparison to managed forests. The file 'Data for mortality analyses' contains the data required to reproduce the section of the article concerning tree mortality in 'latent reserves'. The access to these three files is restricted as they contain some raw data from the Swiss NFI, submitted to the Swiss law and only accessible upon contractual agreement.
description: Resource Title: Data figure 2
 Size: 10362 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/d40bae83-10d7-4545-80f0-29d6d138571e/download/d_fig2.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 2: 
 
- "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention) 
- "ELEV_VEG_ZONE" refers to the elevation vegetation zone (colline and submontane, montane or subalpine) 
- "SPECIES_GROUP" refers to all the trees of a given species group (spruce, fir, pine, larch, stone pine, other conifers, beech, maple, ash, oak, chestnut, other broadleaves) 
- "DENSITY" refers to the proportion of trees (corrected for the inclusion probability of each tree) within each combination of forest type, elevation vegetation zone and species group. 
 
Young-growth trees are not included in the density calculation.
description: Resource Title: Data figure 3
 Size: 5508 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/744ed206-605b-43a0-a560-bd0f27777735/download/d_fig3.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 3: 
 
- "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention) 
- "ELEV_VEG_ZONE" refers to the elevation vegetation zone (colline and submontane, montane or subalpine) 
- "VARIABLE" refers to the indicators described in the figure: Ellenberg indicators for light, temperature and moisture, as well as species richness. 
- "mean" refers to the mean value of each indicator for each combination of forest type and elevation vegetation zone (corrected for the inclusion probability of each tree). 
- "se" corresponds to the standard error.

For these calculations, site index was constrained to the range observed in 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without intervention.
description: Resource Title: Data figure 4
 Size: 198106 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/c9ce4b0e-a00a-4a96-811c-99dd23d2f9a5/download/d_fig4.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 4: 
 
- "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention) 
- "ELEV_VEG_ZONE" refers to the elevation vegetation zone (colline and submontane, montane or subalpine) 
- "SPECIES_GROUP" refers to all the trees of a given species group (spruce, fir, pine, larch, stone pine, other conifers, beech, maple, ash, oak, chestnut, other broadleaves) 
- "DBH_CL" refers to the DBH (diameter at breast height) class to which a tree belongs to, in centimetres. 
- "DENSITY" refers to the proportion of trees (corrected for the inclusion probability of each tree) within each combination of forest type, elevation vegetation zone, species group and DBH class. 
 
The inclusion probability of each tree was accounted for in the density calculation.
description: Resource Title: Data figure 5
 Size: 16424 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/322cf1b9-04b6-4c9f-8060-83341a2719cf/download/d_fig5.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 5: 
 
- "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention) 
- "DOMINANT_SPECIES" refers to the dominant species in a given plot (spruce, fir, other conifers, beech, other broadleaves) 
- "VARIABLE" refers to the attributes described in the figure: basal area in squared meters per hectare, median DBH in cm, stand density in number of stems per hectare, deadwood in tons per hectare, site index in tons per hectare per year. Basal area, median DBH and stand density are given both with and without including young-growth trees. 
- "mean" refers to the mean value of each attribute for each combination of forest type and dominant species (corrected for the inclusion probability of each tree). 
- "se" corresponds to the standard error. 
 
For these calculations, site index was constrained to the range observed in ‘latent reserves’ with at least 40 years without intervention. Additionally, only NFI sample plots from the montane and subalpine zones were used as colline and submontane NFI plots from ‘latent reserves’ and managed forests are located in different geographical regions.
description: Resource Title: Data figure 6
 Size: 5834 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/c01ebb60-0184-4392-a562-4c3555e901fb/download/d_fig6.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 6: 
 
- "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention) 
- "SPECIES_GROUP" refers to all the trees of a given species group (spruce, fir, pine, larch, stone pine, other conifers, beech, maple, ash, oak, chestnut, other broadleaves) 
- "MORTALITY_RATE" refers to the mean annual mortality rate of each species group calculated according to Sheil and May (1996) 
- "LOWER_CI" and "UPPER_CI" refer to the lower and upper confidence intervals on the mortality rates, calculated according to Sheil and May (1996). 

Reference 
Sheil, D., & May, R. M. (1996). Mortality and recruitment rate evaluations in heterogeneous tropical forests. Journal of Ecology, 84(1), 91–100. doi: 10.2307/2261703
description: Resource Title: Data figure 7
 Size: 62372 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/4adfbe81-302b-4654-a07c-87827098b257/download/d_fig7.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 7: 
 
- "SPECIES_GROUP" refers to the species groups used in the mortality analyses (spruce, fir, pine, larch, stone pine, beech, maple and ash, oak, chestnut, other broadleaves) 
- "VARIABLE" refers to the explanatory variables used in the model and presented in the figure: DBH (diameter at breast height) and relBAI (relative basal area increment). 
- "VALUE" refers to the the values of the variables for which predictions were made. 
- "PRED_MORTALITY_PROB" refers to the predicted mortality probability for a given species group and value of either DBH or relBAI.
description: Resource Title: Data figure 8
 Size: 2258862 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/24e1a8c9-6380-432a-8a0b-ca979da75b2d/download/d_fig8.csv
 Description: This file contains the data required to reproduce Figure 8: 
 
* "SPECIES_GROUP" refers to the species groups used in the mortality analyses (spruce, fir, pine, larch, stone pine, beech, maple and ash, oak, chestnut, other broadleaves) 
* "BASAL_AREA" refers to the values of the basal area in squared meters per hectare for which predictions were made 
* "STAND_DENSITY" refers to the values of stand density in number of stems per hectare for which predictions were made 
* "NORM_PRED_MORTALITY_PROB" refers to the normalised predicted mortality probability corresponding to a given species group and values of basal area and stand density.
description: Resource Title: Plot-level data for characterisation of 'latent reserves'
 Size: 1535133 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/3ce25df8-138f-4abd-a2da-4afea2df26c1/download/d_plotlevel.csv
 Description: This table contains the plot-level information required to reproduce the charaterisation of 'latent reserves' and comparison to managed forests: 
 
* "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention)
* "ELEV_VEG_ZONE" refers to the elevation vegetation zone (colline and submontane, montane or subalpine) 
* "DOMINANT_SPECIES" refers to the dominant species in a given plot (spruce, fir, other conifers, beech, other broadleaves) 
* "TIME_SINCE_INTERVENTION" refers to the numbers of years since the last human intervention on the plot. This variable should be used to set the threshold of time since last intervention one wants to use to define 'latent reserves'.
* "VEGYEAR" refers to the number of vegetation years between the measurements of a plot for NFI2 and NFI3.
* "BA" provides the basal area in squared meters per hectare of a plot calculated from trees having a DBH of at least 12 cm.
* "BA_WITH_YG" provides the basal area in squared meters per hectare of a plot calculated from trees having a DBH of at least 12 cm as well as young growth trees. 
* "STAND_DENSITY" provides the stand density in number of stems per hectare of a plot calculated from trees having a DBH of at least 12 cm.
* "STAND_DENSITY_WITH_YG" provides the stand density in number of stems per hectare of a plot calculated from trees having a DBH of at least 12 cm as well as young growth trees. 
* "SITE_INDEX" refers to the site index of a plot, i.e. the total biomass productivity calculated according to Keller (1976).
* "DEADWOOD" refers to the amount of deadwood of a plot in tons per hectare. 

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Reference
Keller, W. (1976). Einfacher ertragskundlicher Bonitätsschlüssel für Waldbestände in der Schweiz. Zurich, Switzerland: ETH Zurich.
description: Resource Title: Tree-level data for characterisation of 'latent reserves'
 Size: 7664896 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/1bb1a8e4-0581-451e-b9bf-1dbbac120f4a/download/d_treelevel.csv
 Description: This table contains the tree-level information required to reproduce the charaterisation of 'latent reserves' and comparison to managed forests: 
 
* "FOREST_TYPE" states whether a row corresponds to managed forests or to 'latent reserves' with a given number of years without human intervention (for example, 'LATENT_RESERVE40' are the 'latent reserves' with at least 40 years without human intervention)
* "SOURCE" differentiate inventoried trees ("W", DBH greater or equal to 12 cm) and young-growth trees measured on subplots ("JW"). 
* "SPECIES" refers to the species code of the Swiss NFI. 
* "SPECIES_GROUP" refers to which species group a tree belongs to (spruce, fir, pine, larch, stone pine, other conifers, beech, maple, ash, oak, chestnut, other broadleaves)
* "ALIVE_NFI2" takes the value '1' when the tree was alive at the previous inventory (NFI2). Trees with no value (NA) were not measured at NFI2. This variable should be used to calculate mortality rates, as only trees that were present at NFI2 can be used to calculate the mortality rate between NFI2 and NFI3. 
* "DEAD" takes the value '1& when a tree was observed dead at NFI3, and the value '0' when it was observed alive. 
* "INCLUSION_PROB" represents the inclusion probability of a tree i.e. the number of trees that a given tree represents per hectare. This number depends on the DBH of the tree and on whether the plot area was reduced by a boundary (e.g. a forest edge). This variable should be used to weight the trees in some calculations. 
* "DBH" is the diameter at breast height of a tree in centimeters. 
* "LIGHT", "TEMPERATURE", "MOISTURE" refer to the value of the Ellenberg indicators for light, temperature and moisture that are species-specific. 'NA' is attributed when the value of an indicator is not available for a given species.
description: Resource Title: Data for mortality analyses
 Size: 851216 bytes
 Format: text/csv
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/702645a2-8965-40df-ae9d-8b81df220bd1/resource/5e3cd66f-bc2f-49ce-b300-0468eeee420c/download/d_mortality.csv
 Description: This table contains the tree- and plot-level data necessary to conduct the tree mortality analyses: 
 
* "DEAD" takes the value '0' when the tree was alive at NFI3 and '1' when it was observed dead
* "SPECIES" refers to which species group the tree belongs to
* "relBAL" is the relative basal area of larger trees
* "DBH" is the diameter at breast height
* "relBAI" is the relative basal area increment of the tree
* "BA" is the basal area in squared meters per hectare (stand-level)
* "STAND_DENSITY_LOG" is the logarithm of the stand density in number of stems per hectare
* "BEERS_ASPECT_CORR" is the Beers aspect corrected for slope of the plot
* "SLOPE_SQRT" is the squared root of the slope of the plot in percentage
* "ELEVATION" is the elevation of the plot in meters above sea level
* "AWC" is the available soil water-holding capacity in millimeters
* "VEGYEAR" is the number of vegetation years between the measurements of the plots at NFI2 and NFI3.