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Plant traits databases

July 23rd, 2011 No comments

Some time ago we complied an extensive database on plant traits for species of the Meditrranean Basin (the BROT database [1]). Simulatneously, there were other researches compiling similar databases for other regions. Now we have put all these databases together and obtained the world largest database on plant traits (the TRY database [2]). TRY combines 93 databases from 198 scientists, to produce a global database that contains 3 million trait records for about 69000 plant species. This compilation makes global trait data available to the scientific community and it is really stimulating research; currently there are about 50 research projects using the data.

References
[1] Paula S, Arianoutsou M, Kazanis D, Tavsanoglu Ç, Lloret F, Buhk C, Ojeda F, Luna B, Moreno JM, Rodrigo A, Espelta JM, Palacio S, Fernández-Santos B, Fernandes PM, and Pausas JG. 2009. Fire-related traits for plant species of the Mediterranean Basin. Ecology 90: 1420. [doi | BROT web]

[2] Kattge et al. (2011) TRY – a global database of plant traits. Global Change Biology  17: 2905–2935. [doi | TRY web]