Welcome to the trophiCH database!
Our interactive tool brings to life a comprehensive food web of animals and vascular plants in Switzerland, using a metaweb approach. A metaweb aggregates all potential interactions between all species that may co-occur in a region.
On the top left of this website, you will see the option to choose different datasets. If you choose Empirical Metaweb, then you will be working with trophic interactions that has been empirically observed. If you choose Metaweb, you can add some more interactions that were inferred based on that empirical data, which was not resolved to the species-species level. We used information on the species associations in habitats and vertical strata within those habitats, to infer species-species level interactions. Depending on the dataset that you choose, the data in the tabs on the left will change.
In the Metaweb tab, you'll find information about the whole network, and a nice visualisation on what kind of interactions are present here.
In the Species section, you can look at each species individually. We've made it possible for you to visualise and download information on the predators and prey of each species. At the bottom of the page, we also provide information on their habitat-associations, IUCN Red List classification within Switzerland (where available).
You can check out the Custom Food Web page to select your favourite species and build a food web. The food web, along with some network metrics for the species, can be directly downloaded.
Please make sure to read The Data section so you understand how this data was collected. You can also download the full metadata set with information on all our sources.
On this page, you can see some basic network metrics and some information on the type of interactions present. Try to choose between the different datasets (from the top left dropdown menu) and see how these food web properties change!
In this page, you can explore the information by taxon (most are species, but you will also find information on big groups like Fungi). You will find information on their habitat associations, their endangerment status and the number of interactions they partake in.
Only a limited number of species are shown. Keep typing to search.
Select taxa:
Only a limited number of species are shown. Keep typing to search.
Trophic Structure
Figure 1. Overview of the data collection process, as published in the data paper Reji Chacko et al. (2025), Scientific Data. Icon attribution: Flaticon.com.
Checklist of Species: We created a checklist of various animal groups and plants within Switzerland using national and continental checklists. This comprehensive list includes 23,151 species, focusing on well-documented ones, though it's not exhaustive for all families.(Figure 1a)
Literature-based Data Search and Extraction: Through systematic searches in Google Scholar, Google Dataset Search, and the Lib4Ri library, we compiled species interactions data, focusing on taxonomic names and ecological terms related to Switzerland and neighbouring countries. This data, gathered between January 2021 and October 2023, was then digitally processed and manually inputted from various sources, capturing detailed information about species' diets and interactions. (Figure 1b)
Taxonomic Inference: To enhance the taxonomic resolution of our metaweb, we inferred species interactions, especially for generalist predators. This process involved expanding prey items to include all species within certain taxonomic levels and adjusting interactions based on habitat and vertical stratum co-occurrence (Figure 1c).
Habitat and Stratum-Associations: We classified each species habitat associations using the TypoCH habitat classifications and the Habitat Map of Switzerland, differentiating between habitat generalists and specialists. Additionally, we defined each species' vertical stratification in their habitats, using a combination of collected data and inferred information for missing data points (Figure 1c).
Red List: Information on the red list classification was compiled from lists here.
For a full summary of how the information was collected and processed, please see the associated data paper.
To access the dataset directly, please visit the EnviDat repository.
Resource Types
Top 10 Citations
Metaweb: A metaweb is a conceptual network that maps all potential feeding
interactions (who eats whom) among species in a defined region (Dunne 2006).
Links: In the context of ecological networks, links represent
the interactions between species. For example, in a food web, a link would indicate
a feeding relationship between a predator and its prey.
Trophic Level: A trophic level refers to the position an organism
occupies in a food chain. It's a step in the nutritional hierarchy, from producers
(like plants) at the bottom to apex predators at the top.
Global Clustering Coefficient: This coefficient measures the degree
to which nodes in a network tend to cluster together. It indicates how interconnected
the network is, showing the likelihood that two species connected to a common species
are also connected to each other (Watts and Strogatz 1997).
Connectance: A measure of the proportion of possible links in a network
that are actually realised (Dunne et al. 2002).
Degree: The degree of a node (species) in a network is the number of links
it has to other nodes. In a food web, it would be the sum of its predators and prey.
Diameter: The diameter of a network is the longest of all the shortest
paths between any two nodes in the network. It essentially measures the 'size' of the
network in terms of the distance between its farthest nodes (Lin et al. 2022).
IUCN Red List: A global conservation status system maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which classifies species into categories such as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), Vulnerable (VU), Near Threatened (NT), Least Concern (LC), and Data Deficient (DD).
References
Dunne, J.A., 2006. The network structure of food webs, in: Pascual, M., Dunne, J. (Eds.), Ecological Networks: Linking Structure to Dynamics in Food Webs. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 25–76.
Dunne, J.A., Williams, R.J., Martinez, N.D., 2002. Food-web structure and network theory: The role of connectance and size. PNAS 99, 12917–12922. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.192407699
Lin, W., Lai, S., Davis, A.J., Liu, W., Jordán, F., 2022. A network-based measure of functional diversity in food webs. Biology Letters 18, 20220183. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0183
Watts, D.J., Strogatz, S.H., 1998. Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks. Nature 393, 440–442. https://doi.org/10.1038/30918
The Project
Global changes have been well-documented to lead to the modification of species distributions. However, species in nature are not independent units but interact with each other to form complex ecological networks. Global change drivers like climate and land-use changes can lead to cascading effects on ecosystem functioning because of the trophic interactions in which species – especially keystone species – participate. Mapping the structure of these networks in space and time can help monitor and anticipate the consequences of global changes on biodiversity. However, to date, an understanding of how animal species interact with each other is lacking in Switzerland.
With this project, we have generated the metaweb, a network of all possible interactions between species from a regional pool. Local interaction networks then serve as distinct subsets of the regional metaweb, similar to how local communities can be thought of as subsets of a regional species pool. Using this approach, the robustness of local networks to global changes can be quantified, and novel biodiversity change indicators can be developed to function alongside ongoing monitoring programmes.
The PeopleThis project is led by Merin Reji Chacko, and co-supervised by Florian Altermatt and Loïc Pellissier. This project is funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). This web application was developed by Fadri Campell and Merin Reji Chacko.
AcknowledgementsWe thank Carlos Signer, Jannick Sicher, and Fabian Lachmann for their support in extracting raw data from the original data sources. We thank Elisa Barreto, Carlos Alberto Martínez Muñoz, Françoise Duchenne and Luca Pegoraro for their insightful discussions. We additionally thank Matthias Borer for validating our checklist of Chrysomelidae, André Mégroz for supporting us in our collection of the Miridae host datasets and Christoph Vorburger for support with the validation of the checklist of aphid parasitoids in Switzerland.
Associated Papers
Reji Chacko, M., Albouy, C., Altermatt, F., Campell, F., Casanelles Abella, J., Ellis, W.N., Fopp, F., Ho, H.-C., Joss, A., Kipf, P., Petrović, A., Prié, V., Tomanović, Ž., Zimmerli, N., Pellissier, L., 2024. trophiCH - a food web for Switzerland. EnviDat.. https://doi.org/10.16904/ENVIDAT.467
Reji Chacko, M., 2024. Unveiling spatial patterns of multi-trophic biodiversity using the metaweb approach (Doctoral Thesis). ETH Zurich. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000710558
Reji Chacko, M., Albouy, C., Altermatt, F., Brändle, M., Farwig, N., Gossner, M.M., Ho, H.-C., Joss, A., Neff, F., Pellissier, L., 2025. Species loss in key habitats accelerates regional food web disruption. Communications Biology 8(988). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08396-y
Reji Chacko, M., Albouy, C., Altermatt, F., Abella, J.C., Brändle, M., Boussange, V., Campell, F., Ellis, W.N., Fopp, F., Gossner, M., Ho, H.-C., Joss, A., Kipf, P., Neff, F., Petrović, A., Prié, V., Tomanović, Ž., Zimmerli, N., Pellissier, L., 2025. A species-level multi-trophic metaweb for Switzerland. Scientific Data 12(1164). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05487-7
Perrelet, K., Cook, L., Reji Chacko, M., Altermatt, F., Moretti, M., 2025. Urbanization drives the decoupling, simplification, and homogenization of aquatic and terrestrial food webs.Authorea. [Under Review]. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.174559004.40925248/v1
The trophiCH dataset is available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. If you use this dataset, please cite the data and associated paper directly (see below). However, we also recommend citations of the individual resources which made this dataset possible. All accessions for each data point are available in the dataset containing references.
This is an ongoing project and questions, corrections and/or other feedback are much appreciated, both on the data and on the app itself. Feel free to contact us.
Reji Chacko, M., Albouy, C., Altermatt, F., Campell, F., Casanelles Abella, J., Ellis, W.N., Fopp, F., Ho, H.-C., Joss, A., Kipf, P., Petrović, A., Prié, V., Tomanović, Ž., Zimmerli, N., Pellissier, L., 2024. trophiCH v1 - a food web for Switzerland. EnviDat.. https://doi.org/10.16904/ENVIDAT.467
Reji Chacko, M., Albouy, C., Altermatt, F., Abella, J.C., Brändle, M., Boussange, V., Campell, F., Ellis, W.N., Fopp, F., Gossner, M., Ho, H.-C., Joss, A., Kipf, P., Neff, F., Petrović, A., Prié, V., Tomanović, Ž., Zimmerli, N., Pellissier, L., 2025. A species-level multi-trophic metaweb for Switzerland. Scientific Data 12(1164). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05487-7
While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the trophiCH dataset and web application, some errors or omissions may remain. The dataset is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind. The authors and developers accept no liability for any inaccuracies or for any consequences arising from the use of this resource.