Dataset Information

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space.

ABSTRACT: The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; "CESTES". Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology.

SUBMITTER: Jeliazkov A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6949231 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space.

Jeliazkov Alienor A Mijatovic Darko D Chantepie Stéphane S Andrew Nigel N Arlettaz Raphaël R Barbaro Luc L Barsoum Nadia N Bartonova Alena A Belskaya Elena E Bonada Núria N Brind'Amour Anik A Carvalho Rodrigo R Castro Helena H Chmura Damian D Choler Philippe P Chong-Seng Karen K Cleary Daniel D Cormont Anouk A Cornwell William W de Campos Ramiro R de Voogd Nicole N Doledec Sylvain S Drew Joshua J Dziock Frank F Eallonardo Anthony A Edgar Melanie J MJ Farneda Fábio F Hernandez Domingo Flores DF Frenette-Dussault Cédric C Fried Guillaume G Gallardo Belinda B Gibb Heloise H Gonçalves-Souza Thiago T Higuti Janet J Humbert Jean-Yves JY Krasnov Boris R BR Saux Eric Le EL Lindo Zoe Z Lopez-Baucells Adria A Lowe Elizabeth E Marteinsdottir Bryndis B Martens Koen K Meffert Peter P Mellado-Díaz Andres A Menz Myles H M MHM Meyer Christoph F J CFJ Miranda Julia Ramos JR Mouillot David D Ossola Alessandro A Pakeman Robin R Pavoine Sandrine S Pekin Burak B Pino Joan J Pocheville Arnaud A Pomati Francesco F Poschlod Peter P Prentice Honor C HC Purschke Oliver O Raevel Valerie V Reitalu Triin T Renema Willem W Ribera Ignacio I Robinson Natalie N Robroek Bjorn B Rocha Ricardo R Shieh Sen-Her SH Spake Rebecca R Staniaszek-Kik Monika M Stanko Michal M Tejerina-Garro Francisco Leonardo FL Braak Cajo Ter CT Urban Mark C MC Klink Roel van RV Villéger Sébastien S Wegman Ruut R Westgate Martin J MJ Wolff Jonas J Żarnowiec Jan J Zolotarev Maxim M Chase Jonathan M JM

Scientific data 20200108 1

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based st ...[more]

PMID: 31913312

Similar Datasets

Project description:Plant traits – the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants and their organs – determine how primary producers respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, influence ecosystem processes and services and provide a link from species richness to ecosystem functional diversity. Trait data thus represent the raw material for a wide range of research from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology to biogeography. Here we present the global database initiative named TRY, which has united a wide range of the plant trait research community worldwide and gained an unprecedented buy-in of trait data: so far 93 trait databases have been contributed. The data repository currently contains almost three million trait entries for 69 000 out of the world's 300 000 plant species, with a focus on 52 groups of traits characterizing the vegetative and regeneration stages of the plant life cycle, including growth, dispersal, establishment and persistence. A first data analysis shows that most plant traits are approximately log-normally distributed, with widely differing ranges of variation across traits. Most trait variation is between species (interspecific), but significant intraspecific variation is also documented, up to 40% of the overall variation. Plant functional types (PFTs), as commonly used in vegetation models, capture a substantial fraction of the observed variation – but for several traits most variation occurs within PFTs, up to 75% of the overall variation. In the context of vegetation models these traits would better be represented by state variables rather than fixed parameter values. The improved availability of plant trait data in the unified global database is expected to support a paradigm shift from species to trait-based ecology, offer new opportunities for synthetic plant trait research and enable a more realistic and empirically grounded representation of terrestrial vegetation in Earth system models.

Dataset Information

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space.

Publications

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets