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

Área de distribuição e uso econômico causam lacunas de conhecimento sobre atributos funcionais de espécies da Mata Atlântica

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Marcos B. CarlucciCoorientadora: Profa. Dra. Márcia Cristina M. MarquesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação. Defesa : Curitiba, 06/03/2020Inclui referências: p. 36-42Resumo: Lacunas de conhecimento da biodiversidade existem para diferentes domínios biológicos e são resultado de amostragens desiguais no tempo e no espaço, geralmente influenciadas por uma variedade de interesses humanos. As lacunas de atributos funcionais das espécies podem gerar incerteza nos parâmetros de diversidade funcional e dificultar a inferência das funções e serviços ecossistêmicos, dos quais o conhecimento pode ser útil nas práticas de conservação e restauração ecológica. Optamos por trabalhar com a Mata Atlântica, um bioma historicamente degradado e fragmentado, para preencher lacunas de atributos e entender onde e por que elas existem. Quantificamos as lacunas de atributos para quatro atributos funcionais de 2335 plantas lenhosas e avaliamos quais fatores determinam as lacunas de atributos na escala de espécies e na escala geográfica. Na escala de espécie, encontramos menores lacunas de atributos quanto maior o uso econômico da madeira e maior o tamanho da área de distribuição das espécies. Na escala geográfica, descobrimos que as lacunas são maiores na costa leste da Mata Atlântica. As lacunas foram menores próximo de centros urbanos e quanto maiores as médias de área de distribuição e uso econômico da madeira das espécies. No entanto, as lacunas foram maiores próximo a unidades de conservação. Os esforços para reduzir as lacunas em espécies de baixa distribuição geográfica e sem uso econômico da madeira podem avançar ainda mais os estudos orientados pela teoria e auxiliar a cumprir metas em prol do aumento de conhecimento disponível sobre a biodiversidade. Palavras-chave: Atributos funcionais; Biodiversidade-funcionamento do ecossistema; Dados ausentes; Dispersão funcional; Dominância funcional; Lacunas de biodiversidade.Abstract: Biodiversity shortfalls are knowledge gaps that exist for different biological domains and are a result of unevenly sampling through time and space, usually biased by a variety of human interests. Gaps in species functional traits could add uncertainty in functional diversity parameters and hinder inference of ecosystem function and services processes, which knowledge can be useful in conservation and restoration practices. In order to fill trait gaps and understand where and why they exist, we chose to work with the Atlantic Forest, a historically degraded and fragmented biome. We quantified trait gaps for four functional traits of 2335 trees and evaluated which factors drive trait gap at the species and at the geographical level. At the species level, we found smaller trait gaps for wide-ranged and economically used species. At the geographical level, we found larger gaps at the eastern Atlantic Forest. Trait gaps were smaller near urban centers, and among species with higher mean range size and higher mean economical use of wood, and larger near protected areas. Efforts on reducing small-ranged and economically used species trait gaps can further advance theory-driven studies and improve knowledge coverage Keywords: Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning; Biodiversity shortfall; Functional dispersion; Functional dominance; Functional traits; Missing data; Raunkiaeran shortfall

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

10.1111/gcb.14904GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY261119-18