CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Plant traits?the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical andphenological characteristics of plants?determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties andtheir benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for avast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functionalecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, theTRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedenteddata coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait databaseused by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of datagaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support thisdevelopment, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRYand analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits?almost complete coverage for ?plantgrowth form?. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modellingare characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait?environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respectiveenvironment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack ofcompleteness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects.We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY databaseremains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilizationand trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with otherinitiatives

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