A dataset with complete geographic distributions of eight zonal monospecific forest types in mainland Spain

Distribution area and surface are both parameters of paramount importance for habitat management, monitoring and conservation. Here we present the distribution of eight zonal forest types of mainland Spain that are consistent with the Habitat Types (HT) listed in Annex I of the European Union Habitats Directive 92/43 EC. Their dominant species and HT codes are Fagus sylvatica (9120, 9130 and 9150), Quercus robur and Q. pyrenaica (9230), Q. suber (9330), Pinus uncinata (9430), P. nigra ssp. salzmannii (9530) and P. pinea (subset of 9540). These distributions are based on tesserae from the 1:50,000 Spanish Forest Map and are the result of sorting assisted by supplementary databases. The distributions are presented as vector coverages, and provide three information levels of increasing detail: geographic distribution, basic forest type and structural forest patch. Two R scripts are also included with the dataset. They implement a segmented regression approach to investigate forest fragmentation on these or other patch-like data.