A dataset on the structural diversity of European forests

Girardello, Marco; Oton, Gonzalo; Piccardo, Matteo; Pickering, Mark; Elia, Agata; Ceccherini, Guido; Garcia, Mariano; Migliavacca, Mirco; Cescatti, Alessandro

doi:10.5194/essd-18-2667-2026

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2667-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2667-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

Data description article

|

16 Apr 2026

Data description article |

| 16 Apr 2026

A dataset on the structural diversity of European forests

Marco Girardello, Gonzalo Oton, Matteo Piccardo, Mark Pickering, Agata Elia, Guido Ceccherini, Mariano Garcia, Mirco Migliavacca, and Alessandro Cescatti

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2667-2026-supplement

Data sets

A dataset on the structural diversity of European forests Marco Girardello et al. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26058868.v1

Download

Article (6724 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

Our research addresses the challenge of assessing forest structural diversity over large spatial scales, which is essential for understanding links between canopy structure, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. The advent of spaceborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors such as the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) has revolutionised the ability to measure forest structure. We provide a spatially explicit dataset of eight forest structural diversity metrics.