SDMapCH: a Comprehensive database of >7,500 modelled species habitat suitability maps for Switzerland

Conserving natural ecosystems requires consistent and standardized biodiversity data to advance scientific research and ecological understanding. Despite several national initiatives to develop databases of species habitat suitability maps, even well-studied countries often lack comprehensive, standardized databases that cover a wide range of taxonomic groups modelled using a consistent framework. Using Switzerland as a case study, we demonstrate how these gaps can be addressed by introducing SDMapCH (v1.3), a nationwide raster database of species habitat suitability maps at 25-meter resolution. SDMapCH provides maps for about 7,500 species under both present conditions and future climate scenarios. SDMapCH was developed using the N-SDM software, an end-to-end platform based on a spatially-nested hierarchical framework. N-SDM allows multi-level integration of species and covariate data, helping to address niche truncation. SDMapCH outputs were evaluated using a state-of-the-art cross-validation procedure, and all layers passed a systematic data integrity check. By providing standardized, high-resolution habitat suitability maps for diverse species across various taxonomic and functional groups, SDMapCH stands as a key resource for scientific research and biodiversity assessments.