Data availability on European biodiversity, drivers and protected areas and gap analysis for European tetrapods

This report presents an overview of data identification and documentation related to biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the associated drivers, pressures, and response mechanisms. While neither systematic nor exhaustive, our effort of data identification and documentation allowed us to describe 137 datasets and databases on European biodiversity (mostly datasets), ecosystem services, the drivers and pressures affecting them, and the mechanisms put in place to address these. These datasets represent nearly 2000 variables and metrics that can be used directly by researchers, land managers and decision-makers, for example for spatial planning in conservation or for further integration into biodiversity and ecosystem services models. Moreover, we also evaluate the completeness of biodiversity data (occurrence, trait and biotic interactions) in Europe across four terrestrial vertebrate classes, and assess potential drivers of data completeness.

We found that freshwater systems, data on ecosystem functions and population abundances are overall still under-represented in large-scale biodiversity data repositories and catalogues such as the ones that we consulted to build the metadatabase. In contrast, most of the metrics identified can be classified as species traits (both functional and life-history traits), with measurements that are rarely repeated in time. By design, most of the datasets are openly available and easily accessible. Nevertheless, they also vary greatly in formats and standardization efforts which would impair a smooth integration into open workflows that could support the wider adoption of the tools that projects such as NaturaConnect could develop.

Despite Europe being one of the richest continents for biodiversity data globally, there are substantial data gaps in species distribution, trait, and species interactions that are unevenly distributed, both spatially and taxonomically. We found a longitudinal trend in data availability with Eastern Europe being particularly poor in data compared to Western Europe, and a latitudinal trend with southern Europe being poorer in data than Northern Europe; results suggest that this heterogeneity in data availability is strongly associated with socioeconomic factors. Furthermore, amphibian and reptile data are strongly under-sampled compared to mammals and birds considering the species distribution (Wallacean shortfall), biological traits (Raunkiæran shortfall), and trophic interactions data (Eltonian shortfall).

Some general recommendations in view of these results are:

i) there is a need to promote the publication of open protocols that describe in a standardized way the inputs and outputs of models used for decision-making and research in biodiversity conservation and that would limit the risk for redundancy, overestimations and circularity when integrating several datasets from various sources and disciplines; and

ii) priority areas for data collection are located in southern and eastern Europe, which are strongly under-sampled compared to central and northern Europe (e.g., France, United Kingdom). Addressing these issues is crucial for advancing biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service management across Europe.

Continue Reading