Better distribution maps for tree species now available
Distribution maps for various tree species are the most popular resources downloaded from the EUFORGEN website. Last year, to benefit from more accurate and updated resources, the EUFORGEN Steering Committee decided to stop producing its own maps. Instead, EUFORGEN will rely on a new generation of better maps developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Many of those new maps can already be downloaded from the EUFORGEN website, and all will be available soon.
The Joint Research Centre published the European Atlas of Forest Tree Species, which describes more than 80 species, in 2016. The Atlas includes chorology maps, which reflect the currently known distribution of a tree species, some of which build on EUFORGEN’s original maps. It also includes modelled distribution maps developed by the JRC. These modelled maps show where a given species might survive and the probability of it currently occurring there. The JRC chorology maps are more accurate than EUFORGEN’s and include many of the 104 species that EUFORGEN works on. Visitors to the EUFORGEN website can download the maps in a variety of formats, including a shapefile that people can customise further.
EUFORGEN’s distribution maps were originally a by-product of the project to develop a pan-European conservation strategy. One reason they became so popular was that there were no other freely available distribution maps for many of the species.
“I am very proud that the EUFORGEN partners were able to pioneer these distribution maps for tree species,” said Michele Bozzano, Coordinator of the EUFORGEN programme.
Rather than having two groups working on tree maps for Europe, the decision was reached to join forces.
“The Joint Research Centre has dedicated resources and brought its expertise to this important work, to the benefit of the wider scientific community” said Bozzano. “EUFORGEN and the JRC joining their efforts will thus be good for us all, and especially for researchers who want access to the best possible maps.”
The work undertaken by JRC is presented in Caudullo, G., Welk, E., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., 2017. Chorological maps for the main European woody species. Data in Brief 12, 662-666.
And original shapefiles are made available directly on this page
