The Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function: Enhanced Species-Level Trait Dataset

[Abstract] Here we provide the ‘Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset’, containing species mean values for six vascular plant traits. Together, these traits –plant height, stem specific density, leaf area, leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen content per dry mass, and diaspore (seed or spore) mass – define the primary axes of variation in plant form and function. The dataset is based on ca. 1 million trait records received via the TRY database (representing ca. 2,500 original publications) and additional unpublished data. It provides 92,159 species mean values for the six traits, covering 46,047 species. The data are complemented by higher-level taxonomic classification and six categorical traits (woodiness, growth form, succulence, adaptation to terrestrial or aquatic habitats, nutrition type and leaf type). Data quality management is based on a probabilistic approach combined with comprehensive validation against expert knowledge and external information. Intense data acquisition and thorough quality control produced the largest and, to our knowledge, most accurate compilation of empirically observed vascular plant species mean traits to date.

The study has been supported by the TRY initiative on plant traits (https://www.try-db.org). TRY is an initiative of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, bioDISCOVERY/Future Earth (ICSU), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig and Núcleo DiverSus (CONICET- Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina). The Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function study has been supported by the European BACI project (Towards a Biosphere Atmosphere change Index, EU grant ID 640176), and grants to SD by FONCyT, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, and The Newton Fund (NERC UK – CONICET ARG). VO thanks RSF (#19-14-00038p). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL