Abstract
We present a new database providing spatial data to support plant ecological research and conservation throughout mainland Spain. It integrates high-resolution spatial data of four main categories: (I) plant occurrence data, (II) environmental variables, (III) species distribution models, and (IV) thematic maps for conservation and management. The occurrence dataset includes georeferenced records for 81 tree and 101 shrub native species, and atlas data for 6,456 vascular plants and 1,252 bryophytes. Environmental variables include climatic, edaphic, hydrological, and solar, factors influencing plant distribution. Species distribution models are available for all the trees and shrubs (182 species). Thematic maps include species richness for woody and protected plants, distribution of vegetation types, and forest connectivity. All climatic variables, models, and thematic maps are projected under current and four future climate scenarios (2070–2100). The database is openly available on Zenodo.
Data availability
The database is hosted on the geoSABINA ZENODO community (https://zenodo.org/communities/geosabinadatabase) and sorted in six structured repositories: Species occurrences (https://zenodo.org/records/14738870)51, Environmental variables (https://zenodo.org/records/14583868)52, SDMs of tree species (https://zenodo.org/records/14606557)53, SDMs of shrub species with names from A to T (https://zenodo.org/records/14679933)54, SDMs of shrub species with names from U to Z (https://zenodo.org/records/14725791)55, and Thematic conservation maps (https://zenodo.org/records/14603023)56. Additional details on the dataset contents are described in the Data Records section.
Code availability
The R-code allowing to reproduce the bryophytes occurrence records selection and filtering, the species data and environmental variables download, the SDMs, the thematic maps, and the technical validation are openly available on the geoSABINA GitHub repository https://github.com/geoSABINA/database.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all institutions and contributors who made the input data freely available. We thank the Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITECO) for providing the occurrence data of protected species. This study was supported through the Connect2restore project (TED2021-129589B-I00) funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and “Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR” and the NextDive Project (PID2021-124187NB-I00) funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and “FEDER A way to make Europe”.
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R.G.M., J.M.B. and T.G. developed the idea and contributed to the overall study conception and design. A.G., J.A.C., J.C.M., J.I.G.V., M.A.R. and T.G. contributed to the species presence occurrence collecting and curation. I.R.G. and A.V.P.L. developed the bryophyte atlas. A.A., A.G., O.B., J.M.B., R.G.M. and T.G. contributed to the environmental variables collection and design of the species distribution models, while H.L. and R.G.M. performed the species distribution models for shrubs and trees, and A.A. and T.G. for protected species. A.G., J.I.G.V. and M.J.A.-F. conceived and evaluated the classification of the vegetation types. M.J.A.-F. performed the models for the classification of the vegetation types, while T.G. conducted the connectivity analyses. J.M.B. performed the data standardization and checks, and T.G. uploaded it to Zenodo. The first draft of the manuscript was written by R.G.M. and T.G., and it was reviewed by the rest of the authors. Funding for the study was secured by J.C.M., M.A.R. and R.G.M., who obtained the necessary financial support to conduct and complete the research. All authors thoroughly read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Goicolea, T., Morales-Barbero, J., García-Viñas, J.I. et al. A unified plant ecology database for Spain. Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06757-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06757-8
