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European primary forest database v2.0

  • Primary forests, defined here as forests where the signs of human impacts, if any, are strongly blurred due to decades without forest management, are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear. Despite these losses, we know little about where these forests occur. Here, we present a comprehensive geodatabase and map of Europe’s known primary forests. Our geodatabase harmonizes 48 different, mostly field-based datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. When available, we provide information on each patch (name, location, naturalness, extent and dominant tree species) and the surrounding landscape (biogeographical regions, protection status, potential natural vegetation, current forest extent). Using Landsat satellite-image time series (1985–2018) we checked each patch for possible disturbance events since primary forests were identified, resulting in 94% of patches free of significant disturbances in the last 30 years. Although knowledge gaps remain, ours is the mostPrimary forests, defined here as forests where the signs of human impacts, if any, are strongly blurred due to decades without forest management, are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear. Despite these losses, we know little about where these forests occur. Here, we present a comprehensive geodatabase and map of Europe’s known primary forests. Our geodatabase harmonizes 48 different, mostly field-based datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. When available, we provide information on each patch (name, location, naturalness, extent and dominant tree species) and the surrounding landscape (biogeographical regions, protection status, potential natural vegetation, current forest extent). Using Landsat satellite-image time series (1985–2018) we checked each patch for possible disturbance events since primary forests were identified, resulting in 94% of patches free of significant disturbances in the last 30 years. Although knowledge gaps remain, ours is the most comprehensive dataset on primary forests in Europe, and will be useful for ecological studies, and conservation planning to safeguard these unique forests.show moreshow less

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Author:Francesco Maria Sabatini, Hendrik Bluhm, Zoltan Kun, Dmitry Aksenov, José A. Atauri, Erik Buchwald, Sabina Burrascano, Eugénie Cateau, Abdulla Diku, Inês Marques Duarte, Ángel B. Fernández López, Matteo Garbarino, Nikolaos Grigoriadis, Ferenc Horváth, Srđan Keren, Mara Kitenberga, Alen Kiš, Ann Kraut, Pierre L. IbischORCiDGND, Laurent Larrieu, Fabio Lombardi, Bratislav Matovic, Radu Nicolae Melu, Peter Meyer, Rein Midteng, Stjepan Mikac, Martin Mikoláš, Gintautas Mozgeris, Momchil Panayotov, Rok Pisek, Leónia Nunes, Alejandro Ruete, Matthias Schickhofer, Bojan Simovski, Jonas Stillhard, Dejan Stojanovic, Jerzy Szwagrzyk, Olli-Pekka Tikkanen, Elvin Toromani, Roman Volosyanchuk, Tomáš Vrška, Marcus Waldherr, Maxim Yermokhin, Tzvetan Zlatanov, Asiya Zagidullina, Tobias Kuemmerle
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-4173
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00988-7
ISSN:2052-4463
Parent Title (English):Scientific Data
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group UK
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2021
Date of first Publication:2021/08/17
Publishing Institution:Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde
Release Date:2023/10/04
Tag:Biodiversity; Conservation biology; Forest ecology
Volume:8
Article Number:220
Page Number:14
Institutions / Departments:Fachbereich Wald und Umwelt
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
University Bibliography:University Bibliography
Zweitveröffentlichung
Peer-Review / Referiert
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International
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