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

Cultural Studies in the Writing Center

This chapter explores how writing centers can enact counter-hegemonic work through helping writers gain deeper understandings of contexts: audiences, writing situations, genre expectations, and power relations. It maps the position of writing centers, develops cultural studies for writing center work, and suggests strategies for writing coaches. Drawing theoretically on Stuart Hall, Lawrence Grossberg, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Antonio Gramsci, this chapter shows how coaches and writers can develop understandings of complexity, contingency, and contextuality. It then shows how these understandings can help coaches and writers map meanings; identify binaries, possible third positions, affordances, and constraints; and mapping political, economic, ideological, material, and social forces and structures. These techniques can help writers reflect critically on their use of genre and non-hegemonic codes, as well as recognize deeper complexities of writing situations and writing topics

Growth and maintenance respiration of roots of clonal Eucalyptus cuttings: scaling to stand-level

International audienceRoot respiration consumes an important part of the daily assimilated carbon but the magnitude of this component of forest net ecosystem exchange and its partitioning among the different energy demanding processes in roots are still poorly documented. 5-month old Eucalyptus cuttings were grown in a greenhouse in pot filled with coarse sand. They were fertilized with three different amounts of a slowrelease fertilizer with the doses of 8, 24 and 48 g of nitrogen per plant. Root respiration was measured using an infrared gas analyser by perfusing air through the pot on 9 plants per treatment on three dates 14 days apart. Measure of root respiration of the three treatments over time was made in order to obtain a large range of growth and nutrient uptake. Root respiration normalized at 22°C ranged from 0.09 to 0.23 gC d−1 for the three treatments during all the experiment. It was well predicted with a model that includes root growth rate and root nitrogen content. The nitrogen related maintenance coefficient was negatively correlated to the root nitrogen concentration suggesting a decrease in protein turnover with increasing fertility. Growth rate of fine root in a virtual stand was simulated using age-related allometric equations and further used to estimate root respiration in the field. Simulated root respiration increased over time from 0.39 to 3.14 gC m−2 d−1 between 6 and 126 months assuming a turnover of 2 yr−1 for fine roots. The major fraction of simulated root respiration in the field (78–92%) was used for the maintenance of the existing biomass