Climate exposure metrics for Europe under different SSP-RCP scenarios

This dataset contains raster files that represent three climate change metrics at 1 km resolution (ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (ETRS_LAEA) projection): local, gradient-based, climate velocity (Loarie et al. 2009); distance, analogue-based, climate velocity (Hamann et al. 2015; Brito-Morales et al. 2018); climate change magnitude (Williams & Jackson 2007; Williams et al. 2007). The dataset covers a study area which comprehends the territories of EU 46 extended from Greenland in the west to the Urals in the east, including Turkey and parts of North African countries to cover the entire Mediterranean shoreline.

For each metric, we compiled climate change data based on nine combinations of three climate scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0, SSP5-8.5) and three Earth System Models (ESMs): GFDL-ESM4, UKESM1-0-LL, and MPI-ESM1-2-HR. We used annual precipitation (pr, bio12) and mean annual temperature (tas, bio1) to represent overall climatic risk. Climatic variables were retrieved from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017, 2021).

The dataset is divided into subfolders for each metric. Each folder contains results for each ESM and their ensemble results for each SSP-RCP scenario. For more information on the methodology and original data please see the accompanying preprint entitled "The accelerating exposure of European protected areas to climate change" (Cimatti et al., 2024, bioRxiv).