Habitat Suitability of European Land Systems for Terrestrial Vertebrates

Motivation

Accurate estimates of species distributions are crucial for biogeography, spatial conservation, and for assessing the impacts of human activities on species. However, existing approaches to estimate species distributions have typically neglected the influence of land use intensity, potentially overlooking the negative impacts of high-intensity land uses on biodiversity. Here, we build a dataset documenting the habitat suitability of European land systems for terrestrial vertebrate species, based on a novel land system map of Europe that factors in land use intensity. Our database offers refined and up-to-date information on terrestrial vertebrate distributions in Europe by explicitly considering land use intensity.

Main Types of Variables Contained

We created a table defining the suitability of land use classes as habitats for each species. We then built Area of Habitat (AOH) maps for each species by filtering out unsuitable habitat from the latest available estimates of species ranges. AOH maps were then compared with occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Processed datasets and R scripts are publicly available online, facilitating the use of our approach to refine expert-based distributions for other taxa, land system classifications and regions worldwide.

Spatial Location and Grain

The AOH maps cover the spatial extent of the European Union (EU) with the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, and the Western Balkans. The AOH maps are at a 1 km² resolution.

Time Period and Grain

The dataset uses information published during the last 10 years.

Major Taxa and Level of Measurement

Habitat suitability was documented for 1155 terrestrial vertebrate species known to occur in Europe: 279 mammals, 520 birds, 251 reptiles and 104 amphibians.

Software Format

We provide the habitat suitability table in a comma-separated values (csv) format. The AOH maps are available as raster files. R scripts are publicly accessible on GitHub.