Spatial occurrence of major tree species groups in Europe derived from multiple data sources

Pan-European distribution maps have been compiled for six main species groups in Europe. The aim was to combine detailed tree species information from plot data of the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) with other existing spatial and statistical information on forests. The applied method involves the interpolation of the plot data using the geo-statistical interpolation method kriging and a scaling and calibration procedure which makes the maps correspond both to the Forest map of Europe on pixel level and to national forest inventory statistics at regional or national level. Output is a set of European-wide maps with a resolution of 1 km, showing the proportion of the main tree species groups as a percent of the total land area. The maps are considered to be potentially valuable input for various applications in the forestry and biodiversity field at a pan-European scale. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.