Novel maps for forest tree species in Europe

Abstract

Introduction A main input parameter for upscaling/modelling of e.g. carbon balance or biogenic emissions on a European scale is detailed information about the vegetation coverage on a species level. Especially looking at forests, there is only little information. Currently available, mostly remote sensing based, digital land cover maps separate generally three main forest types: broadleaved, coniferous and mixed. For all applications where the subject of interest is related to the properties of individual tree species or tree species groups, this information is insufficient. Facing this lack of data, novel European forest tree species maps were compiled by combining three existing Pan-European data sets.