DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10829503
title: Identification of an altitudinal migration pattern of Abies pinsapo in the Baetic Mountains through the presence of its life stages

description: This data set is used to explore the altitudinal shift of Abies pinsapo Boiss. in the Baetic System. We analysed the potential distribution of the realised and reproductive niches of A. pinsapo populations in the Ronda Mountains (Southern Spain) by using species distribution models (SDMs) for two life stages within the current populations. The realised and reproductive niches of A. pinsapo are different to one another, which may indicate a displacement in its altitudinal distribution.
description: Observations of Presence

The presence of Abies pinsapo in the Baetic Mountain Range was verified in sampling campaigns that took place in 2012 and 2013. A total of 141 stands of natural origin were sampled, in wich the presence of the different life stages was recorded. Three datasets were arranged for a SDM analysis, based on the presence of the life stages of interest. Two of those groups consisted of stands including individuals at either extreme of the age distribution (i.e., "sapling" and "mature"), while the third included all of the stands recorded (i.e., "whole"); these were defined as follows:



Sapling: stands that included the presence of young individuals whose height did not exceed 40 cm (n = 41).

Mature: stands that included the presence of individuals whose diameter at 130 cm above the ground (dbh) exceeded 20 cm (n = 134).

Whole: included all of the stands of natural origin, regardless of the life stages they included (n = 141).


Predictor Variables

As predictors, three climate variables defined the habitat of A. pinsapo according to previous studies: the growing degree days (GDD, °C·day), whose values decrease with altitude and is a good predictor for species that live in high mountains; annual precipitation (AP, mm), which allows assessing the species' affinity for humid bioclimates; and the warmest quarter precipitation (WQP, mm), and the precipitation of the warmest quarter (WQP, mm), which allows characterizing the Mediterranean character of the species. These variables were calculated using the monthly values available at a resolution of 100 m from the Andalusian Environmental Information Network (REDIAM, 2012).



GDD = Σ d · max [0 °C, Tm - 5 °C]

AP = Σ Pm

WQP = Pmx +Pmx+1 + Pmx+2 | max [(Tmx + Tmx+1 + Tmx+2),...]


where d is the number of days in the month m; Tm is the average temperature for the month m in degrees Celsius; Pm is the monthly precipitation for the month m in millimetres; Pmx is the precipitation for the month mx; and mx, mx+1, and mx+2 denote three consecutive months.
description: The file LeanPatternOccurrences.csv contains the species occurrence records with the following fields:



POINT: Code that designates the stand with verified presence of Abies pinsapo in the Baetic Mountain Range.

LON: Longitude expressed in decimal degrees (Datum WGS84).

LAT: Latitude expressed in decimal degrees (Datum WGS84).

X: X coordinate in UTM (zone 30S).

Y: Y coordinate in UTM (zone 30S).

WHO: Presence (1) or absence (0) of Abies pinsapo in the record.

MAT: Presence (1) or absence (0) of mature individuals of Abies pinsapo in the record.

SAP: Presence (1) or absence (0) of Abies pinsapo saplings in the record.


Files GDD_rediam.asc, AP_rediam.asc and WQP_rediam.asc are raster files for the climatic predictor variables.

variable_maps.png represents the distribution of the three climatic variables in the study area.
description: This publication is part of the project I + D + i TED2021-132631B-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by NextGenerationEU/PRTR.