Distribution modelling of vegetation types based on area‐frame survey data

Aim: Many countries lack informative and high‐resolution, wall‐to‐wall vegetation or land‐cover maps. Such maps are useful for land‐use and nature management, and for input to regional climate and hydrological models. Land‐cover maps based on remote sensing data typically lack the required ecological information, whereas traditional field‐based mapping is too expensive to be carried out over large areas. In this study, we therefore explore the extent to which distribution modelling (DM) methods are useful for predicting the current distribution of vegetation types (VT) on a national scale. Location: mainland Norway, covering ca. 324 000 km2. Methods: We used presence‐absence data for 31 different VTs, mapped wall‐to‐wall in an area‐frame survey with 1081 rectangular plots of 0.9 km2. Distribution models for each VT were obtained by logistic generalised linear modelling, using stepwise forward selection with an F‐ratio test. A total of 117 explanatory variables, recorded in 100×100‐m gri...