A spatially-explicit database of tree-related microhabitats in Europe and beyond

Tree to tree interactions are important structuring mechanisms for forest community dynamics. Forest management takes advantage of competition effects on tree growth by removing or retaining trees to achieve management goals. Both competition and silviculture have, thus, a strong effect on density and distribution of tree related microhabitats which are key features for forest taxa at the stand scale. In particular, spatially-explicit data to understand patterns and mechanisms of tree-related microhabitats formation in forest stands are rare. To train and eventually improve decision-making capacities related to the integration of biodiversity aspects into forest management plot of one hectare, so called marteloscopes were established in the frame of the 'European Integrate Network'. In each plot, a set of data is collected at the individual tree level and stored in a database, the 'I+ repository'. The 'I+ repository' is a centralised online database which serves for maintaining the data of all marteloscope plots. A subset of this repository was made publicly available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, based on a data-sharing policy. Data included are tree location in plot, tree species, forest mensuration data (diameter at breast height [cm], tree height [m]), tree status (living or standing dead) and tree-related microhabitats. Further, a visual assessment of timber quality classes is performed in order to provide an estimate of the economic value (market price) for each tree. This information is not part of the GBIF dataset.

Currently 42,078 individual tree observations from 111 plots are made available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). As the network of plots continues to expand, so does the database of tree-related microhabitats. Therefore, the database will undergo a regular update. The current version has a temporal coverage from March 2014 to December 2020. The innovation of this unique dataset is that it is based on a commonly agreed catalogue of tree microhabitats as a field reference list when assessing assessment protocol. The reference list is available in 17 languages and, thus, helps to guarantee compatibility of tree-related microhabitat assessments across countries and plots.