LANDMATE PFT land cover dataset for North America 2015 (Version 1.1)

Abstract

The LANDMATE PFT dataset provides a land cover map for North America for the year 2015 in 0.1° (~10 km). The dataset is based on land cover data of the ESA Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI, native resolution: 300 m) which is translated into 16 plant functional types (PFTs) and non-vegetated classes employing the cross-walking procedure introduced by Reinhart et al. (2022), which was modified for North America. The translation is done under consideration of the Holdridge Life Zones (HLZs), a system that classifies land areas based on bioclimatic properties. Through the HLZs, regional distinction of the individual PFT distribution can be achieved. The land cover information is given as fractions per grid cell where each fraction represents the area covered by the respective land cover within each grid cell (0-1). The LANDMATE PFT dataset (0.1° resolution) serves as base map for the historical and future land use and land cover dataset LUCAS LUC developed by Hoffmann et al. (2023).