New vegetation dataset from NILS opens a window onto Sweden’s changing landscapes

A new dataset from the National Inventories of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS) is now available through GBIF Sweden, offering a uniquely detailed look at how vegetation and habitats are distributed across the country. The dataset, “National Inventories of Landscapes in Sweden: Presence-absence Vegetation data”, brings nearly two decades of systematic field observations into the global pool of open biodiversity data.

NILS is one of Sweden’s most comprehensive landscape monitoring programs. Led by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), it combines field observations, transects and aerial-photo interpretation to track how forests, farmland, wetlands, mountains, urban areas and other environments evolve over time. Because the same locations are revisited in repeating cycles, NILS provides rare long-term insight into how habitats and species respond to land-use change, policy measures and climate impacts.

The newly published dataset contains presence-absence information on plant species from the NILS basic inventory. These observations come from hundreds of carefully selected 5 × 5 km landscape squares that together represent the full diversity of Swedish environments. By making these data openly available through GBIF, NILS enables researchers, conservation practitioners and students to explore broad questions: How are vegetation communities shifting? Where do certain species thrive or decline? What landscape features seem to support biodiversity resilience?

For Sweden, the dataset strengthens the bridge between national environmental monitoring and international biodiversity research. For the global community, it offers a well-designed, long-term resource from a high-latitude country where climate and land-use changes are particularly dynamic.

The dataset can be explored and downloaded at https://doi.org/10.15468/jxusk2. More information about the NILS program is available from SLU’s website: https://www.slu.se/om-slu/organisation/institutioner/skoglig-resurshushallning/miljoanalys/NILS/.