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

La expresión oral y escrita, objetivo fundamental de calidad de la enseñanza

Convocatoria de Proyectos de innovación de Extremadura 2017/2018Se describe un proyecto llevado a cabo en el IES Miguel Durán (Azuaga, Badajoz) desarrollado dentro del Sistema de Gestión de Calidad del centro, que tenía como objetivo principal que los alumnos adquirieran las competencias necesarias para una correcta expresión oral y escrita (mejora de la competencia informacional y las competencias comunicativa e idiomática). Para conseguir el objetivo se organizaron distintas actividades promovidas por el Grupo de Trabajo de la Biblioteca del centro: fomento de la lectura, feria del libro, Día de la poesía, diversas actividades de lectura en la biblioteca, club de lectura con libros digitales, etc., así como la realización de otras actividades y la elaboración de materiales por parte de los distintos departamentos del instituto como: exposiciones de los alumnos ante el aula, lectura en distintos soportes, realización de trabajos de investigación, actividades de enriquecimiento del vocabulario, etc.ExtremaduraES