A remote sensing-based dataset to characterize the ecosystem functioning and functional diversity in the Biosphere Reserve of Sierra Nevada (SE Spain)

Abstract. Conservation Biology faces the challenge of safeguarding the ecosystem functions and ecological processes (water cycle, nutrients, energy flow, and community dynamics) that sustain the multiple facets of biodiversity. Characterization and evaluation of these processes and functions can be carried out through functional attributes or traits related to the exchanges of matter and energy between vegetation and the atmosphere. Based on this principle, satellite imagery can provide integrative spatiotemporal characterizations of ecosystem functions at local to global scales. Here, we provide a multi-temporal dataset at protected area level, that characterizes the spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of ecosystem functioning in the Biosphere Reserve of Sierra Nevada (Spain), captured through the spectral vegetation index EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index, product MOD13Q1.006 from MODIS sensor) from 2001 to 2018. The database contains, at the annual scale, a synthetic map of Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs) classes from three Ecosystem Functional Attributes (EFAs): i) descriptors of annual primary production, ii) seasonality, and iii) phenology of carbon gains. It also includes two ecosystem functional diversity indices derived from the above datasets: i) EFT richness, and ii) EFT rarity. Finally, it provides inter-annual summaries for all previous variables, i.e., their long-term means and inter-annual variabilities. The datasets are available in two open-source sites (PANGAEA: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.924792 (Cazorla et al., 2020a) and http://obsnev.es/apps/efts_SN.html). This dataset brings to scientists, managers, and the general public, valuable information on the first characterization of ecosystem functional diversity based on primary production developed in Sierra Nevada, a biodiversity hotspot in the Mediterranean basin, and an exceptional natural laboratory for ecological research within the Long-Term Social-Ecological Research (LTSER) network.