Description
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1,912 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Forest Office of Drama, Giannakoglou K, Michailidis G, Tsiridis A, Aptoglou I, Karatzoglou M, Galanidis A, Giannakopoulos V, Nanos N (2026). Presence/absence of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) in Southern Rhodopes/Greece. Occurrence dataset. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17571125
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Department of Forestry and Natural Environment. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 0daf967c-5e67-43ee-a1e3-f71970900277. Department of Forestry and Natural Environment publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Occurrence; Picea abies; Species Distribution Models; Rear edge populations; Climate change adaptation; Presence-absence data; Observation
External data
The resource data is also available in other formats
| Forest stand polygons (GeoPackage) | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17571125 UTF-8 GeoPackage (GPKG) |
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Contacts
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Associate Professor
- Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment, University Campus
- +30 2310 992702
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4648-0789
- Metadata Provider ●
- Processor
- Researcher
- Xenia B building, University Hill
- Content Provider
- Forester
- Content Provider
- Forester
- Content Provider
- Forester
- Content Provider
- Forester
- Content Provider
- Forester
- Author
- Laboratory Teaching Staff
- Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment, University Campus
- Custodian Steward ●
- Originator
Geographic Coverage
Southern Rhodope Mountains, Northern Greece (Drama Regional Unit), near Greek-Bulgarian border (41.21-41.45°N, 24.45-24.75°E). Covers 110,694 ha across three forest management sections: Western Nestos River (WNR; 67,043 ha, 200-1200 m a.s.l.), North-Eastern BAN (29,313 ha, 800-1600 m a.s.l.), and Trachoni TRC (14,267 ha, 1000-1800 m a.s.l.). Temperate mixed forests within EU Natura 2000 sites, representing the southernmost biogeographic limit of Picea abies in Europe.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [41.21, 24.45], North East [41.45, 24.75] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
No Description available
| Species | Picea abies (L.) H.Karst. (Norway Spruce) |
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Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 1970-01-01 / 2019-12-31 |
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Project Data
This project investigates the distribution patterns of Picea abies at its southernmost European biogeographic limit. By synthesizing five decades of forest management data, the study aims to provide a high-resolution baseline for understanding the persistence of rear-edge populations under climate change and to support Species Distribution Modeling (SDM) within the Rhodope Mountains National Park.
| Title | Exploring the limits of Norway spruce: Presence/Absence data at the species' southernmost edge |
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| Funding | This project was funded by the General Secretariat of Forests, Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy, as part of a broader initiative on forest management of public forests. |
| Study Area Description | The project covers 110,694 hectares of temperate mixed forests in the Southern Rhodope Mountains (Greece), focusing on the southernmost biogeographic limits of Picea abies in Europe. |
| Design Description | The study design involved the systematic harmonization of data from three major forest management sections (Western Nestos River, North-Eastern BAN, and Trachoni). Presence and absence records were extracted from official forest management plans (1970–2019) and integrated into a unified spatial dataset. The design accounts for complex topographic gradients and elevational transitions (160–1,815 m a.s.l.) to ensure representative sampling of the species' ecological niche in the region. |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Content Provider
- Content Provider
- Content Provider
- Author
Sampling Methods
Data were collected through systematic forest inventories conducted between 1970 and 2019 across 1,912 homogeneous forest stands in the Drama Regional Unit. Presence/absence of Picea abies was determined during periodic stand-level assessments following national forest inventory protocols, which combine compartment mapping with stratified visual inspection and plot sampling within stands.
| Study Extent | The study covers 110,694 hectares within the Rhodopes Mountain Range National Park, located in the Drama Regional Unit of North-Eastern Greece. The area encompasses the southernmost edge of the natural distribution of Picea abies in Europe. It is divided into three administrative forest management sections: Western Nestos River (WNR), North-Eastern (BAN), and Trachoni (TRC). The dataset represents a long-term temporal window from 1970 to 2019, capturing the presence/absence of Norway spruce across 1,912 discrete forest stands within an elevational gradient of 160 to 1,815 m asl. |
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| Quality Control | Forest sections (WNR, BAN, TRC) follow administrative management units of the Drama Regional Forest Service. Data underwent recurrent field validation as part of the Forest Management Plan (FMP) cycles. Coordinates were transformed from Greek Grid (EPSG:2100) to WGS84, and geometric consistency of polygons was verified during the calculation of centroid and distance metrics. |
Method step description:
- Step 1 (Delineation): Forest stands represent discrete management units delineated from topographic maps, aerial photography, and recurrent field validation.
- Step 2 (Inventory): Field-level assessment following national forest inventory protocols to determine species presence/absence, involving both stratified visual inspection and plot sampling.
- Step 3 (Digitization & Processing): Stand boundaries were digitized as polygons in an OGC GeoPackage. Geographic centroids (WGS84) were calculated for GBIF occurrence records. Stand attributes including area (ha) and centroid-to-boundary distance metrics (min/max/avg distance from centroid to polygon edge) were computed.
Additional Metadata
The original polygon-based forest stand geometries used to derive the centroid occurrences published in this GBIF dataset are available as an OGC GeoPackage. These polygons provide full spatial representation of the forest management stands and allow users to reproduce spatial analyses, validate centroid extraction, and perform further geospatial work. The GeoPackage is archived at Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17571125).
| Acknowledgements | |
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| Purpose | |
| Alternative Identifiers | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10959759 |
| 0daf967c-5e67-43ee-a1e3-f71970900277 | |
| https://cloud.gbif.org/eca/resource?r=picea-abies-rhodopes |