TRY database for plant traits has released more than a billion records
Cluster analysis of keywords from 190 peer‐reviewed publications using plant trait data via TRY. The size of the circles and letters indicates the frequency of the keywords, colours indicate the eight clusters around the central keywords. (Picture: Global Change Biology, First published: 31 December 2019, DOI: (10.1111/gcb.14904))
On February 29, the number of 1 billion trait records delivered by iDiv’s research platform TRY was cracked. Founded in 2007 this open-access database has become the primary resource of plant traits used by the research community worldwide. A recent publication in Global Change Biology with more than 700 authors summarizes the main achievements of the 13 years of operation and the contribution to research. As of today, TRY comprises 657 datasets from 991 data contributors. The database contributed to 290 publications in 83 scientific journals.
The most frequent keywords in these publications are biodiversity, climate change, plant traits and functional diversity. Besides advancing basic science, the research relying on TRY data is instrumental in devising strategies to combat the biodiversity crisis and to develop strategies for a sustainable use of our planet’s biodiversity (e.g. Newbold et al. 2015, Nature), thus supporting the work of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). TRY is a network of vegetation scientists headed by Future Earth and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. The TRY database is coordinated by Jens Kattge, Gerhard Bönisch and Christian Wirth.
Original publication:
Jens Kattge et al. (2020) TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access. Global Change Biology 26,1, Pages 119-188.DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14904
Contact:
Dr Jens Kattge
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
Phone: +49 3641 576226
Email: jkattge(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
Web: www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/functionalbiogeography/index.php/People/JensKattge
