Vertical structure is an important parameter not only for assessment of the naturalness of a forest and several functional parameters, such as biodiversity or protection from avalanches or rockfall, but also for estimating biomass/carbon content. This study analyses the options for assessing vertical forest structure by using airborne (ALS) and spaceborne LiDAR data (GEDI) in a mountainous near-natural forest in the Austrian Alps. Use of the GEDI waveform data (L1B) is still heavily underexploited for vertical forest structure assessments. Two indicators for explaining forest vertical structure are investigated in this study: foliage height diversity (FHD) and number of layers (NoL). For estimation of NoL, two different approaches were tested: break-detection algorithm (BDA) and expert-based assessment (EBA). The results showed that FHD can be used to separate three structural classes; separability is only slightly better for ALS than for GEDI data on a 25 m diameter plot level. For NoL, EBA clearly outperformed BDA in terms of overall accuracy (OA) by almost 20%. A better OA for NoL was achieved using ALS (49.5%) rather than GEDI data (44.2%). In general, OA is limited by difficult terrain and near-natural forests with high vertical structure. The usability of waveform-based structure parameters is, nonetheless, promising and should be further tested on larger areas, including managed forests and simpler stands.

The case of a 56-year-old patient with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) and fulminant gastrointestinal bleeding is reported. The patient was admitted to hospital because of palpable purpura on both legs, painful joints and diffuse abdominal pain. Suspected HSP was histologically proven and treated with prednisolone. Despite recovery, acute gastrointestinal bleeding, with melena and a drop in hemoglobin concentration from 11.2 to 4.2 g/dl, occurred 30 days after medication was started. Immediate endoscopic examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract showed no signs of bleeding whereas colonoscopy showed fresh blood and blood clots in the terminal ileum and the colon. Since the bleeding source could not be detected endoscopically, mesenteric angiography was performed, demonstrating active bleeding from a jejunal artery. Thereafter the bleeding source was located by intraoperative peroral enteroscopy and treated by resection of a short segment of jejunum.

This paper gives an overview over all currently available data sets for the European Long-term Ecosystem Research (eLTER) monitoring site Gesäuse-Johnsbachtal. The site is part of the LTSER platform Eisenwurzen in the Alps of the province of Styria, Austria. It contains both protected (National Park Gesäuse) and non-protected areas (Johnsbachtal). Although the main research focus of the eLTER monitoring site Gesäuse-Johnsbachtal is on inland surface running waters, forests and other wooded land, the eLTER whole system (WAILS) approach was followed in regard to the data selection, systematically screening all available data in regard to its suitability as eLTER’s Standard Observations (SOs). Thus, data from all system strata was included, incorporating Geosphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere and Sociosphere. In the WAILS approach these SOs are key data for a whole system approach towards long term ecosystem research. Altogether, 54 data sets have been collected for the eLTER monitoring site Gesäuse-Johnsbachtal and included in the Dynamical Ecological Information Management System – Site and Data Registry (DEIMS-SDR), which is the eLTER data platform. The presented work provides all these data sets through dedicated data repositories for FAIR use. This paper gives an overview on all compiled data sets and their main properties. Additionally, the available data are evaluated in a concluding gap analysis with regard to the needed observation data according to WAILS, followed by an outlook on how to fill these gaps.

This paper gives an overview over all currently available data sets for the European Long-term Ecosystem Research (eLTER) monitoring site Gesäuse-Johnsbachtal. The site is part of the eLTSER platform Eisenwurzen in the Alps of the province of Styria, Austria. It contains both protected (National Park Gesäuse) and non-protected areas (Johnsbachtal). Although the main research focus of the eLTER monitoring site Gesäuse-Johnsbachtal is on inland surface running waters, forests and other wooded land, the eLTER whole system (WAILS) approach was followed in regard to the data selection, systematically screening all available data in regard to its suitability as eLTER’s Standard Observations (SOs). Thus, data from all system strata was included, incorporating Geosphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere and Sociosphere. In the WAILS approach these SOs are key data for a whole system approach towards long term ecosystem research. Altogether, 54 data sets have been collected for the eLTER monitoring site Gesäuse-Johnsbachtal and included in the Dynamical Ecological Information Management System – Site and Data Registry (DEIMS-SDR), which is the eLTER data platform. The presented work provides all these data sets through dedicated data repositories for FAIR use. This paper gives an overview on all compiled data sets and their main properties. Additionally, the available data is evaluated in a concluding gap analysis with regard to the needed observation data according to WAILS, followed by an outlook on how to fill these gaps.