Wetlands of the canton of Zürich (Switzerland): Data on species richness and recent and historic area and connectivity of 55 fens

Within each wetland all different vegetation types were covered until no new species were found to get as complete species lists as possible. In the Excel file information on species richness of the following groups is provided: (1) all vascular plant species; (2) wetlands specialists among vascular plants; (3) generalists, which were all non-specialist vascular plant species; (4) short-lived vascular plant specialists; (5) long-lived vascular plant specialists; (6) short-lived vascular plant generalists; (7) long-lived vascular plant generalists; (8) bryophyte species.

Specialist vascular plant species included all characteristic species listed in Appendix 1a of the wetland inventory of Switzerland (BUWAL, 1990). Based on the data of Gimmi et al. (2011), the area of all wetlands in 1850, 1900, 1950 and 2000 were determined as well as the wetland area within buffers 2km in radius with the center of the wetland as starting point. These data are also provided in the Excel sheet.

Moreover, for each wetland mean indicator values according to Landolt et al. (2010) and the standard deviation of these indicator values based on presence-absence data of vascular plants were calculated and are provided in Excel sheet. Indicator values for temperature, light availability, moisture, acidity, nutrients, amount of humus and soil aeration were considered.