Chorological maps for the main European woody species

A novel chorological data compilation for the main European tree and shrub species is presented. This dataset was produced by combining numerous and heterogeneous data collected from 20th century atlas monographs providing complete species distribution maps, and from more recent national to regional atlases, occurrence geodatabases and scientific literature. The dataset is composed of numerous species distribution maps available in geographical information system (GIS) format, created by compiling, evaluating and synthesizing data of all collected sources. The geometry of the individual datasets describes contiguous large areas of occupancy of each species as polygons and fragmented or isolated occurrences as points. Since this geodatabase is intended to provide a synthetic continental-scale overview of the species ranges, the maps represent the species’ general chorology and the presence/absence information should not be considered absolute in terms of geolocation. Errors and imprecisions arising from the interpretation and digitalization processes are likely to occur, especially in those areas where detailed information is scarce. As new information sources become available, these will be used to address current data gaps, implement corrections and updates of the chorology dataset as well as expanding it to comprise additional species.