Speaker
Description
Plant traits - encompassing morphological, anatomical, biochemical, physiological, or phenological features measurable at the individual level - serve to link species richness with ecosystem functional diversity. Emphasizing traits and trait syndromes is regarded as a promising foundation for adopting a more quantitative and predictive approach in biodiversity, ecology, and global change science. Although the compilation of plant traits has been ongoing for many years, a comprehensive database was previously absent.
In 2007, the IGBP and DIVERSITAS initiative, titled ‘Refining Plant Functional Classifications,’ commissioned the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry to develop a global plant trait database aimed at supporting research in biodiversity, functional biogeography, and vegetation modeling. This initiative was named TRY. With contributions from numerous original datasets and the most extensive integrated datasets available at that time, the TRY Database immediately achieved unprecedented coverage. Since 2015, dataset owners have been permitted to publicly share datasets via TRY, and since 2019, data in the database have been freely accessible by default under a CC-BY license. To date, the database has received approximately 50,000 requests. In conclusion, TRY has established itself as a central hub for plant trait data globally.
The forthcoming version of the TRY database, version 7.0, is anticipated to be released in the summer of 2026. It will be constructed upon 907 datasets and will encompass approximately 23.4 million trait records spanning 3,317 traits. This represents an approximate 50% increase in trait records compared to the current TRY version 6. For the first time, taxonomy is aligned with the GBIF taxonomy.
| Status Group | Senior Scientist |
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