Soil respiration - exclosure experiment

Location of data collection The Swiss National Park (SNP) is located in the southeastern part of Switzerland, and covers an area of 170 km2, 50 km2 of which is forested, 33 km2 is occupied by alpine and 3 km2 by subalpine grasslands. Elevations range from 1350 to 3170 m a.s.l., and mean annual precipitation and temperature are 871 mm and 0.6°C measured at the Park’s weather station in Buffalora (1980 m a.s.l.) between 1960 and 2009 (MeteoSchweiz 2011). Founded in 1914, the SNP received minimal human disturbance for almost 100 years (no hunting, fishing, or camping, visitors are not allowed to leave the trails). Large (- 1 ha) homogeneous patches of short- and tall-grass vegetation characterize the subalpine grasslands. The average vegetation height of short-grass vegetation is 2 to 5 cm. Red fescue (Festuca rubra L.), quaking grass (Briza media L.) and common bent grass (Agrostis tenuis Sipthrob) are the predominating plant species in this vegetation type. Tussocks of evergreen sedge (Carex sempervirens Vill.) and mat grass (Nardus stricta L.) are predominant in the tall-grass vegetation, which averages 20 cm in vegetation height (Schütz and others 2006). Short-grass vegetation dev