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

Impact of the water-compatible periphery on the dynamic and structural properties of benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide based amphiphiles

The consequences of using saccharides versus tetra(ethyleneglycol) chains as water-compatible moieties on the morphology and dynamics of supramolecular polymers in aqueous solutions are investigated. The saccharides form many H-bonds with other saccharides within the polymer and with water, increasing the hydration of the fiber and changing its dynamics

Variation in peak growing season net ecosystem production across the Canadian arctic

Tundra ecosystems store vast amounts of soil organic carbon, which may be sensitive to climatic change. Net ecosystem production, NEP, is the net exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) between landscapes and the atmosphere, and represents the balance between CO2 uptake by photosynthesis and release by decomposition and autotrophic respiration. Here we examine CO 2 exchange across seven sites in the Canadian low and high Arctic during the peak growing season (July) in summer 2008. All sites were net sinks for atmospheric CO2 (NEP ranged from 5 to 67 g C m-2), with low Arctic sites being substantially larger CO2 sinks. The spatial difference in NEP between low and high Arctic sites was determined more by CO2 uptake via gross ecosystem production than by CO2 release via ecosystem respiration. Maximum gross ecosystem production at the low Arctic sites (average 8.6 μmol m-2 s-1) was about 4 times larger than for high Arctic sites (average 2.4 μmol m-2 s-1). NEP decreased with increasing temperature at all low Arctic sites, driven largely by the ecosystem respiration response. No consistent temperature response was found for the high Arctic sites. The results of this study clearly indicate there are large differences in tundra CO2 exchange between high and low Arctic environments and this difference should be a central consideration in studies of Arctic carbon balance and climate change