Integrate Network Marteloscopes - Large scale insights into the growing database.

Marteloscope sites are a key tool of the Integrate Network. They are usually 1-hectare large, rectangular forest sites where all trees are numbered, mapped and recorded. In combination with software running on mobile devices, marteloscopes are used for silvicultural training. Such outdoor learning sites can help in better understanding forest management decisions and foster discussion and knowledge exchange amongst training participants. Starting with around 40 marteloscope sites in the initial phase of 2016 to 2018, the Network has since grown to more than 270 plots in 27 European countries.

This report used the data which materialized in the course of setting up marteloscopes following a standard data collection protocol. Approximately 100,000 individual tree records from 26 countries, representing at the time 249 plots, were used for this analysis, compromising various parameters like diameter at breast height or tree related microhabitats for offering insights on this extensive data set. The processing of single tree records has been conducted through a series of steps, culminating in the establishment of a geospatial database to facilitate analysis and visualization. The analysis yielded several key insights concerning the distribution of diameter classes and tree species at different spatial scales. The occurrence of tree related microhabitats, and their corresponding habitat values, offer insights into biodiversity within the plot while estimates of individual tree quality classes linked to wood prices information give indication on economic values. Such information provides the opportunity for discourse on forest management and the integration of nature conservation in the course of training events in marteloscope sites. The marteloscope data set is continuously updated once new sites are established and shared through the Integrate Network.