Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges

Bamboo and its Role as a Key Modulator of the Structure and Functioning of Andean and Amazonian Forest

Bamboos have been consistently excluded from ecological studies and monitoring efforts, particularly in the Neotropics. However, the extreme abundance, diversity and unique physiology of bamboos make them strong competitors, with potential to influence the structure and functioning of surrounding trees and forests. In my dissertation, I combined multiple approaches to increase our understanding of bamboo-tree interaction. I did this across a range of critical ecosystems from the Amazon to the high elevation puna in the Peruvian Andes.I first developed a monitoring protocol with guidelines to facilitate and promote bamboo data collection. I used this protocol to carry out a bamboo census in seven permanent plots in the Andes. I found a negative association between bamboo abundance and tree basal area, driven by reduced tree density. To study the effect of bamboo on forest functioning along an entire bamboo lifecycle, I used remote sensing proxies of productivity and water content from a time-series of Landsat images (1989-2017). I found a strong influence of bamboo phenology and life-stage in the long-term and seasonal functioning of Amazonian bamboo-dominated forests. In particular, bamboo exerts strong control over local water availability.To further understand bamboo physiology, I collected data on leaf functional traits and climatic tolerances of 22 woody bamboo species along the Amazon-Andes transect. I found that bamboos maintain an acquisitive strategy throughout the gradient. Low elevation species show low tolerance to drought and high tolerance to temperature, and the opposite in high elevation species. Climatic tolerances are better predicted by climate than by the combination of leaf traits. Finally, I described two new species of Chusquea.</p

Bamboo climatic tolerances are decoupled from leaf functional traits across an Andean elevation gradient

Widespread changes in temperature and precipitation patterns present plant species with new and combined stresses that affect their performance and distribution. Functional traits are indicators of plant resource use-acquisition strategies and thus they are commonly used to understand the geographic distributions of plant species and species' potential responses to climate change. To date, most studies have targeted a few easy-to-measure leaf traits even though other traits, such as climatic tolerances, could provide valuable information directly related with species' current and future distributions. Here, we measured both leaf functional traits and indices of physiological tolerance to heat (T-50) and drought (cell membrane stability) in 28 woody bamboo populations from 22 narrow-ranged species along a > 3000 m elevation gradient in the southern Peruvian Andes. We found that bamboo leaf functional traits remain fairly constant with a combination indicative of an acquisitive strategy (low leaf mass area and high nitrogen per mass) along the elevation gradient, despite drastic changes in environment and fast species turnover. Heat and drought tolerances of bamboos varied widely along the gradient and were negatively correlated to each other. Drought tolerance of bamboo populations was positively related with elevation and with precipitation seasonality while heat tolerance decreased at higher, colder elevations. When analyzed for individuals within each species or for individuals within each elevation, the two metrics of climatic tolerances did not show a consistent relationship, contrasting with the expectation of a potential tradeoff between heat and drought tolerance. We also found that the measured leaf functional traits were not good predictors of climatic tolerances. Our results illustrate the diversity and complexity of the relationships between functional strategies and environmental gradients and highlight the limitations of using basic (i.e. 'soft') leaf traits to understand plant distributions and climatic tolerances

Reduced tree density and basal area in Andean forests are associated with bamboo dominance

•Bamboo dominates large areas of Andean forests but has been excluded from monitoring.•We inventoried bamboo in 7 1-ha forest permanent plots across an elevation gradient.•Areas with more bamboo have fewer trees and a smaller total tree basal area.•Bamboo-dominated Andean forests may have lower potential for tree carbon accumulation. Forest structure and composition play an essential role in determining the carbon storage capacity of tropical forests. Andean forests, with great potential for carbon accumulation, include large expanses of high-density woody bamboo communities. Woody bamboos can potentially alter forest structure, composition and dynamics and thus can affect carbon storage capacity; however, they are commonly excluded from forest monitoring and modelling. With the aim of documenting patterns of bamboo abundance and disentangling its association with forest structure, we carried out a bamboo census in seven 1-ha long-term forest monitoring plots situated across a large elevation gradient (1000–3600 m a.s.l.) in the Peruvian Andes. We determined that bamboo is a dominant plant group in the study area. In every plot, bamboos were the most common genera in terms of number of stems, and in two of the plots bamboo species were among those with the greatest basal area. We used a combination of Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and structural equation modelling (SEM) to hypothesize a causal framework and determine the direction and size of the effects of bamboo abundance (basal area) on number of individual trees, total tree basal area, mean tree basal area, mean tree growth rate and tree mortality rate. We found an overall negative association between bamboo abundance and total tree basal area driven mainly by reduced tree density (directly and indirectly mediated by an increase in tree mortality). However, the decrease in tree density and the increase in tree mortality are also associated with a small increase in tree diameter (mean tree basal area). Overall, the negative association between bamboo abundance and tree basal area suggests a lower biomass accumulation and thus a lower carbon storage capacity of trees in Andean forests where bamboo is dominant. Our results, which show the importance of bamboo in determining forest function, highlight the need for including bamboo in monitoring efforts and modeling studies

Litter decomposition rates across tropical montane and lowland forests are controlled foremost by climate

The “hierarchy of factors” hypothesis states that decomposition rates are controlled primarily by climatic, followed by biological and soil variables. Tropical montane forests (TMF) are globally important ecosystems, yet there have been limited efforts to provide a biome-scale characterization of litter decomposition. We designed a common litter decomposition experiment replicated in 23 tropical montane sites across the Americas, Asia, and Africa and combined these results with a previous study of 23 sites in tropical lowland forests (TLF). Specifically, we investigated (1) spatial heterogeneity in decomposition, (2) the relative importance of biological factors that affect leaf and wood decomposition in TMF, and (3) the role of climate in determining leaf litter decomposition rates within and across the TMF and TLF biomes. Litterbags of two mesh sizes containing Laurus nobilis leaves or birchwood popsicle sticks were spatially dispersed and incubated in TMF sites, for 3 and 7 months on the soil surface and at 10–15 cm depth. The within-site replication demonstrated spatial variability in mass loss. Within TMF, litter type was the predominant biological factor influencing decomposition (leaves > wood), with mesh and burial effects playing a minor role. When comparing across TMF and TLF, climate was the predominant control over decomposition, but the Yasso07 global model (based on mean annual temperature and precipitation) only modestly predicted decomposition rate. Differences in controlling factors between biomes suggest that TMF, with their high rates of carbon storage, must be explicitly considered when developing theory and models to elucidate carbon cycling rates in the tropics.Fil: Ostertag, Rebecca. University of Hawaii at Manoa; Estados UnidosFil: Restrepo, Carla. Universidad de Puerto Rico; Puerto RicoFil: Dalling, James W.. University of Illinois at Urbana; Estados UnidosFil: Martin, Patrick H.. University of Denver.; Estados UnidosFil: Abiem, Iveren. No especifíca;Fil: Aiba, Shinichiro. Hokkaido University; JapónFil: Alvarez Dávila, Esteban. No especifíca;Fil: Aragón, Myriam Roxana. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: Ataroff, Michelle. Universidad de los Andes; ColombiaFil: Chapman, Hazel. University of Canterbury; Nueva ZelandaFil: Cueva Agila, Augusta Y.. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador; EcuadorFil: Fadrique, Belen. University of Leeds; Reino UnidoFil: Fernandez, Romina Daiana. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: González, Grizelle. No especifíca;Fil: Gotsch, Sybil G.. No especifíca;Fil: Poma López, Laura Nohemy. Universidad Nacional de Loja; EcuadorFil: Tobón, Conrado. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Williams, Cameron B.. No especifíca

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges

Publisher Correction: Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

In the version of this Perspective originally published, the first author of reference 39 was incorrectly listed as W. Cornwell and the publication year was incorrect. The reference should have read as follows: “Flores-Moreno, H. et al. fungaltraits aka funfun: a dynamic functional trait database for the world's fungi (GitHub, 2019); https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1216257”. This has now been corrected

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles—open data, open source and open methods—is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges

Publisher Correction: Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper