We developed the first global maps of natural geological CH₄ flux and isotopic values which can be used for new atmospheric CH₄ modelling. The maps, based on updated, measured and theoretically estimated data, show that the highest geo-CH4 emissions are located in the Northern Hemisphere (N. America, Caspian region, Europe, Siberian Arctic Shelf), and that geo-CH₄ is less ¹³C-enriched than what has been assumed so far in other studies. Other CH₄ sources can now be estimated with higher accuracy.

We recorded hourly temperature and relative humidity in a dense meteorological network in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains over the period 2005–2010. The observations reveal spatial patterns of specific and relative humidity, their relation with the terrain, seasonal cycles in the humidity patterns, and humidity characteristics of different weather systems. The results provide guidance to ecological and hydrological models that require downscaled weather data in mountain terrain.

Large earthquakes cause major disturbances to mountain landscapes. They trigger many landslides that can form deposits of debris on steep slopes and channels. Rainfall can remobilise these deposits and generate large and destructive flow-like landslides and floods. We release two datasets that track a decade of landsliding following the 2008 7.9 magnitude Wenchuan earthquake in China. These data are useful for quantifying the role of major earthquakes in shaping mountain landscapes.

The paper introduces a meteorological and blowing snow data set from Col du Lac Blanc (2720 m a.s.l., French Alps) allowing physical parameterizations and numerical models of blowing snow to be developed and evaluated. In situ winter season data consist of wind, snow depth, air temperature measurements and a database of blowing snow occurrence (2000–2016) complemented by measurements of blowing snow fluxes (2010–2016). Atmospheric data from a meteorological reanalysis and a DEM are also provided.

This paper introduces and provides access to a daily (1960–2017) and an hourly (1993–2017) dataset of snow and meteorological data measured at the Col de Porte site, 1325 m a.s.l, Charteuse, France. The daily dataset can be used to quantify the effect of climate change at this site, with a reduction of the mean snow depth of 39 cm from 1960–1990 to 1990–2017. The daily and hourly datasets are useful and appropriate for driving and evaluating a snowpack model over such a long period.

A set of hydrometeorological data including daily precipitation, hourly air temperature, humidity, wind, solar and net radiation, soil temperature, soil moisture, snow depth and snow water equivalent, streamflow and water level in a groundwater well, and geographical information system data are presented in this paper. This dataset was recorded at different elevation bands in Wolf Creek Research Basin, near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

This paper summarizes climate, snow, and soil moisture data for the Tuolumne and Merced river watersheds in California, USA, for water years 2010–2014. Climate data include hourly air temperature and relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation. Snow depth and soil moisture at three–six points per site are available at four locations. Snow depth and water content are available from instrumented snow pillow sites and manual snow survey locations.

This paper presents an extensive hydrological and meteorological dataset from the Lake O'Hara alpine hydrological observatory within the Rocky Mountains. These data have supported many hydrological investigations and have provided insight into the key role of groundwater within alpine regions. We believe this dataset will be useful for the future study of alpine regions, where substantial and long-term datasets are scarce.

This paper presents a description of the original database of blooms of the calcifying phytoplankton in sub-Arctic and Arctic seas, their spatio-temporal features and associated environmental influences. This type of phytoplankton is efficient in decreasing the ability of the ocean to intake external carbon dioxide and hence amplifies the greenhouse effect. The published database can be used by a large community of users involved in studies of both aquatic ecology and carbon cycles.

The AlborEX (the Alboran Sea Experiment) consisted of an experiment in the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean Sea) that took place between 25 and 31 May 2014, and use a wide range of oceanographic sensors. The dataset provides information on mesoscale and sub-mesoscale processes taking place in a frontal area. This paper presents the measurements obtained from these sensors and describes their particularities: scale, spatial and temporal resolutions, measured variables, etc.

We present data collected from the first three glider surveys in the Algerian Basin conducted during the ABACUS project. After collection, data passed a quality control procedure and were then made available through an unrestricted repository. The main objective of our project is monitoring the basin circulation of the Mediterranean Sea. Temperature and salinity data collected in the first 975 m of the water column allowed us to identify the main water masses and describe their characteristics.

This atlas is a compendium of geospatial online and open-access data describing biodiversity conservation in the Coral Triangle of the Indo-Pacific biogeographic realm. It consists of three sets of interlinked digital maps: (1) biodiversity features; (2) areas of importance for biodiversity conservation; and (3) recommended priorities for Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network Expansion. These maps provide the most comprehensive biodiversity datasets available to date for the region.

We provide three gridded datasets of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer and manure N inputs in global pastures and rangelands at a resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° for the period 1860–2016 (i.e., annual manure N deposition (by grazing animals) rate, synthetic N fertilizer use rate and manure N application rate). These three datasets could fill data gaps of N inputs in global and regional grasslands and serve as input drivers for earth system models.

The role of wetlands at regional and global scales depends on their distribution and extent, which is highly uncertain in the literature. We developed comprehensive wetland maps using satellite imagery products and ground water modeling. These high-resolution maps encompass regularly flooded to non-flooded groundwater wetlands, covering more than 21 % of the land surface area, which is among the highest estimates. Wetlands are particularly concentrated over the tropics and northern cold zones.

We present a multi-annual time series of land–atmosphere carbon dioxide fluxes measured in situ with the eddy covariance technique in the Siberian Arctic. In arctic permafrost regions, climate–carbon feedbacks are amplified. Therefore, increased efforts to better represent these regions in global climate models have been made in recent years. Up to now, the available database of in situ measurements from the Arctic was biased towards Alaska and records from the Eurasian Arctic were scarce.

SCOPE Climate is a 25-member ensemble of 142-year daily high-resolution reconstructions of precipitation, temperature, and Penman–Monteith reference evapotranspiration over France. It is the first century-long gridded high-resolution homogeneous dataset available over France. It thus paves the way for studying local historical meteorological events and for assessing the local climate variability from the end of the 19th century.

Long-term observational data are available from the Samoylov research site in northern Siberia, where meteorological parameters, energy balance, and subsurface observations have been recorded since 1998. This paper presents the temporal data set produced between 2002 and 2017, explaining the instrumentation, calibration, processing, and data quality control. Furthermore, we present a merged dataset of the parameters, which were measured from 1998 onwards.

Trait-based approaches (such that consider the life history, morphological, physiological and behavioral characteristics of species) promise new insights in ecology. To facilitate these approaches also in polar regions, we provide the free and easily accessible Arctic Traits Database to the scientific community. Trait information was collected from literature and via communication with experts. At present the database holds trait information for more than 1900 arctic taxa.

Seawater temperature has a major impact on human comfort and safety during swimming, surfing and snorkeling activities and the marine ecosystems. The authors deployed marine buoys to collect meteo-oceanographic data for the government and found the temperature always dropped significantly after typhoon passages. Presentation of the dataset gives a first understanding and can help to validate the numerical model in order to study the mechanism.

Radiointerferometry on very long baselines (VLBI) is an important technique for detailed studies of Earth rotation variations. However, radio waves undergo significant delay in the atmosphere. In order to provide an optimal database for the analysis of the last continuous VLBI campaign between 28 Nov. and 12 Dec. 2017, all available meteorological observations and model data were compiled, forming an outstanding data set of the atmospheric conditions around the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell.

We report results from an intercomparison exercise on the analysis of nutrients at sea. Two independent teams (Marine Institute, Ireland and Dalhousie University Canada) carried out an analysis of a GO-SHIP hydrographic section. The cruise provided a unique opportunity to assess the likely comparability of nutrient data collected following GO-SHIP protocols. Datasets were high quality and compared well but highlighted a number of issues relevant to the comparability of global nutrient data.

The speed of ice sheet flow is largely controlled by the strength of the ice–bed interface. We present three datasets on the geological properties of regions in North America, Greenland and Iceland that were covered by Quaternary ice sheets. These include the grain size of glacial sediments, the continuity of sediment cover and bedrock geology. Simple ice modelling experiments show that altering the basal strength of the ice sheet on the basis of these datasets impacts ice thickness.

This work presents the Guadalfeo Monitoring Network in the Sierra Nevada (Spain), a snow monitoring network in the Guadalfeo Experimental Catchment, a semiarid area in southern Europe representative of snowpacks with highly variable dynamics on both annual and seasonal scales and significant topographic gradients. The network includes weather stations and time-lapse cameras to capture the variability of the ablation phases on different spatial scales.

Aufeis is formed through a complex interconnection between river water and groundwater. The dynamics of aufeis assessed by the analysis of remote sensing data can be viewed as an indicator of groundwater changes in warming climate which are otherwise difficult to be observed naturally in remote arctic areas. The spatial geodatabase developed shows that aufeis formation conditions may have changed between the mid-20th century and the present in the Indigirka River basin.

Long-term observations are critical records for distinguishing natural cycles from climate change. We present a data set of 40 surface ocean CO₂ and pH time series that suggests the time length necessary to detect a trend in seawater CO₂ due to uptake of atmospheric CO₂ varies from 8 years in the least variable ocean regions to 41 years in the most variable coastal regions. This data set provides a tool to evaluate natural cycles of ocean CO₂, with long-term trends emerging as records lengthen.