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

Influencia da adubacao verde na colonizacao micorrizica e na producao de batata-doce.

O presente estudo foi conduzido no campo com o objetivo de avaliar a influencia do pre-cultivo com leguminosas e vegetacao espontanea sobre o potencial de inoculo dos fungos micorrizico-arbusculares (MA) indigenas de uma Planossolo e sobre a producao de batata-doce (Ipomoea batatas). Os tratamentos foram: ausencia de vegetacao, vegetacao espontanea, crotalaria (Crotalaria juncea), feijao-de-porco (Canavalia ensiformes), guandu (Cajanus cajan) e mucuna-preta (Mucuna aterrima). Feijao-de-porco e mucuna-preta apresetaram maiores quantidades de N, P e K acumulados na parte aerea em relacao aos demais pre-cultivos. O pre-cultivo com leguminosas aumentou a produtividade da batata-doce em relacao a vegetacao espontanea. Houve reducao no numero de esporos no solo sem vegetacao, com feijao-de-porco e com guandu, quando comparado ao solo com vegetacao espontanea. O numero de propagulos infectivos foi aumentado por crotalaria, feijao-de-porco e mucuna-preta em relacao ao observado no solo sem vegetacao. A colonizacao das raizes de batata-doce pelos fungos MA indigenas foi aumentada por crotalaria, mucuna-preta e vegetacao espontanea, quando comparada a ausencia de vegetacao. A produtividade da batata-doce correlaciounou-se positivamente com a quantidade de N, P e K acumulada na massa dos adubos verdes.199