Evidence for recurrent trait syndromes beyond the level of single organs has been rare, restricted geographically or taxonomically, and often contradictory. They determine how plants as primary producers capture, process and store resources, how they respond to their abiotic and biotic environment and disturbances, and how they affect other trophic levels and the fluxes of water, carbon and energy through ecosystems 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.ĭespite the overwhelming diversity of plant forms and life histories on Earth, single plant organs, such as leaves, stems, or seeds, show comparatively few essential trait combinations 9. Plant traits are the morphological, chemical, physiological or phenological properties of individuals 1. 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. Data quality management is based on a probabilistic approach combined with comprehensive validation against expert knowledge and external information. 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). It provides 92,159 species mean values for the six traits, covering 46,047 species. 2,500 original publications) and additional unpublished data.

1 million trait records received via the TRY database (representing ca. 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. Here we provide the ‘Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset’, containing species mean values for six vascular plant traits. Scientific Data volume 9, Article number: 755 ( 2022)

The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset

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