This dataset contains high frequency sampling of key parameters to ensure the collection of consistent data for the long-term records in four lakes of Sierra Nevada, Spain (Laguna de la Caldera, Laguna de Río Seco, Laguna Larga, and Laguna-embalse de las Yeguas). A feature that makes Sierra Nevada unique is that lakes undergoes high inputs of nutrient-rich aerosols due to their proximity to the Sahara. Sampling was carried out during the ice-free period of 2022 to monitor biological and biochemical impact of an unusual year of intense aerosol inputs from the Sahara that clouded Sierra Nevada’s shallow lakes “chocolate-coloured” at the beginning of the ice-free period. Parameters include water quality (nutrients, major cations and anions), biological (bacteria and zooplankton) and hydrological data collected in periodic sampling using water samplers, sediment traps and plankton nets. Multiparametric probes provided real-time and continuous data on multiple parameters simultaneously.

This dataset comprises the simultaneous monitoring of about 50 high mountain lakes in the Spanish’s Sierra Nevada carried out in collaboration with government agencies and local communities as part of a citizen science campaign. Standard monitoring protocols were used to collect data on various physical (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, water clarity), chemical (nutrients, major cations and anions, chlorophyll a, alkalinity), and biological parameters (bacteria, zooplankton) in two successive years. High mountain lakes are ideal sites to study and understand global change processes. The utilisation of these systems as sentinels of global change can be attributed to various characteristics, such as: modest catchment areas, oligotrophic waters with limited nutrients, remote accessibility, relatively good ecological health, elevated altitudes and harsh environmental conditions, or the presence of relatively uncomplicated biological communities with rapid renewal rates, among others. The involvement of the community in Sierra Nevada Long-Term Monitoring Programs serves as an invaluable complement to scientific endeavours aimed at monitoring environmental changes, as it contributes to alleviate personnel and resource shortcomings (Villar-Argaiz et al. 2022).

Studies on ecological successions have a long tradition and strongly contributed to the understanding of community assembly, niche theory and ecosystem structure and functionality. Reports on ecological successions are however mostly restricted to one or two taxonomical groups, neglecting the mutual influences and dependencies between multiple taxonomic groups that are the building blocks of multidiverse communities. We introduce the Alpine research platform Ödenwinkel to promote observational and experimental research on the emergence of multidiversity and ecosystem complexity. We established n = 140 permanent plots along the successional gradient of the forefield of the Ödenwinkelkees glacier at the end of Stubachvalley in the Hohe Tauern range (National Park Hohe Tauern, Land Salzburg, Austria). In summer 2019 we completed a first full inventory of biotic and abiotic characteristics of these plots covering the diversity and composition of vascular plants, bryophytes, arthropods and other animals, bacteria and fungi as well as some geomorphologic properties. In this paper we introduce the design of the research platform and show first results on the diversity and composition of vascular plants along the successional gradient. The Ödenwinkel platform will be available as long-term ecological research site where researchers from various disciplines can contribute to accumulate knowledge on ecological successions and on how interactions between various taxonomical groups structure ecological complexity in this alpine environment.