A high-resolution pan-European tree occurrence dataset

EU-Forest greatly extends the publicly available information on the distribution of European tree species by adding almost half a million of tree occurrences derived from National Forest Inventories for 21 countries in Europe. The improvement is not only concerning the number of occurrences but also the taxonomy including more than 200 tree species. The reliability of the dataset is ensured by the fact that all surveys have been carried out by trained professional staff using standard protocols. Nevertheless, we performed a technical validation aimed at detecting potential outliers, and we evaluated the overall biogeographical consistency with well established knowledge . Although, this dataset was originally designed to provide European decision-makers with high-quality forest data, we believe that the great improvement in forest occurrences, taxonomy and spatial coverage will most likely benefit several disciplines including forestry, biodiversity conservation, palaeoecology, plant ecology, the bioeconomy, and pest management.