TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

The Impact of Sharing Economy on the Diversification of Tourism Products: Implications for Tourist Experience

In sharing economy, product variety and quality options expand quite dramatically, because the new platforms that support P2P business allow society to offer individuals relatively low-risk micro-entrepreneurship and tap into idle abilities and aspirations. This study investigates the impact of sharing economy on the diversification of tourism products. The findings confirm the proposed proposition in that the products available on the P2P websites are more diversified than the ones available on OTAs websites. This study highlights the potential changes of tourist experience due to the use of these P2P websites for travel planning.School of Hotel and Tourism Managemen

Eating in Asia: Understanding food tourism and its perspectives in Asia

This introductory chapter provides the important contextual backgrounds of food tourism in Asia as well as key concepts and perspectives of understanding food tourism in Asia. Food as an experience of otherness, which has been predominantly discussed from a Western perspective, is understood within the Asian context through ethnic diversity and social changes in the region. Two distinctive approaches to food tourism in Asia are developed: food for tourism and tourism for food. The former corresponds to the conventional concept of food as a distinctive tourism resource, while the latter reflects on the contemporary social aspects of Asian countries where there is a strong and influential media presence

A cyclin associated with the CDK-activating kinase MO15

The eukaryotic cell cycle is regulated by the sequential activation of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). CDK activation is dependent on cyclin binding and phosphorylation of a conserved threonine (T161 in Cdc2) mediated by the CDK-activating kinase CAK. A CDK-related kinase, MO15 (ref. 10), has been identified as the catalytic subunit of CAK (refs 11-13). Here we use a yeast two-hybrid screen to show that a new human cyclin (cyclin H) is a MO15-associated protein. Cyclin H is a major MO15 partner in vivo and enhances the kinase activity of MO15 towards Cdk2/cyclin A. These findings demonstrate that a cyclin/kinase complex can function as a regulator of other cyclin/kinase complexes, and suggest that cyclin/kinase cascades may exist