A global dataset of current and future tropical and subtropical forage species distributions

This repository contains current and future forage species distribution layers for 198 tropical and subtropical forage species. It includes curated occurrence records, species-level presence/absence maps, species richness layers, auxiliary suitability and binary outputs without land-use restriction, environmental range summaries, model validation tables, summary statistics, and R scripts. Spatial layers are GeoTIFF files at 2.5 arc-minute resolution, approximately 5 km at the equator, in WGS84 geographic coordinates.
Methodology:Occurrence records for 198 priority tropical and subtropical forage species were compiled from multiple global, regional, and project-specific sources, taxonomically standardized using Plants of the World Online, and cleaned through a reproducible workflow that removed spatial duplicates, older records, low-precision coordinates, country mismatches, and urban records. Species distribution models were then fitted with Maxent using 21 environmental predictors (bioclimatic, aridity, soil, and topographic variables), with occurrence records spatially filtered at 10 km, target-group background sampling, and spatial block cross-validation for model tuning. Binary suitability maps were generated for current climate and future scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP3-7.0, 2041–2060), projected separately for five GCMs and combined into consensus maps. Final products were restricted to species-specific 500 km accessible-area domains, non-natural lands, and, for the native product, documented native countries.