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ca. 1 million trait records received via the TRY database (representing ca. 2,500 original publications) and additional unpublished data.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.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物形質の大規模再利用可能データセットを構築し、確率的品質管理と外部情報による検証を実施しており、形質データ基盤が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper's core asset is the 'Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset' (species mean values for six plant traits plus categorical traits and references), explicitly deposited publicly under a CC-BY license in the TRY File Archive with DOI 10.17871/TRY.81. This is a paper-specific, publicly actionable trait/