AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora
Daniel S. Falster, Rachael V. Gallagher, Elizabeth Wenk, Ian J. Wright, Dony Indiarto, Samuel C. Andrew, Caitlan Baxter, James R. Lawson, Stuart Allen, Anne Fuchs, Anna M. Monro, Fonti Kar, Mark A. Adams, Collin W. Ahrens, Matthew Alfonzetti, Tara Angevin, Deborah M. G. Apgaua, Stefan K. Arndt, Owen K. Atkin, Joe Atkinson, Tony D. Auld, Andrew G. Baker, Maria von Balthazar, A. R. Bean, Chris J. Blackman, Keith J. Bloomfield, David M. J. S. Bowman, Jason G. Bragg, Timothy J. Brodribb, Genevieve Buckton, Geoff Burrows, Elizabeth Caldwell, James Camac, Raymond J. Carpenter, Jane A. Catford, Gregory R. Cawthray, Lucas A. Cernusak, Gregory Chandler, Alex R. Chapman, David Cheal, Alexander W. Cheesman, Si-Chong Chen, Brendan Choat, Brook Clinton, Peta L. Clode, Helen G. Coleman, William K. Cornwell, Meredith Cosgrove, Michael D. Crisp, Erika Cross, Kristine Y. Crous, Saul A. Cunningham, Timothy J. Curran, Ellen M. Curtis, Matthew I. Daws, Jane L. DeGabriel, Matthew D. Denton, Ning Dong, Pengzhen Du, Honglang Duan, David H. Duncan, Richard P. Duncan, Marco F. Duretto, John M. Dwyer, C.R. Edwards, Manuel Esperón‐Rodríguez, John R. Evans, Susan E. Everingham, Claire Farrell, Jennifer Firn, Carlos Roberto Fonseca, Ben J. French, Doug Frood, Jennifer L. Funk, Sonya R. Geange, Oula Ghannoum, Sean M. Gleason, Carl R. Gosper, Emma F. Gray, Philip K. Groom, Saskia Grootemaat, C. L. Gross, Greg R. Guerin, Lydia K. Guja, Amy K. Hahs, Matthew Tom Harrison, Patrick E. Hayes, Martin L. Henery, Dieter F. Hochuli, Jocelyn Howell, Guomin Huang, Lesley Hughes, John M. Huisman, Jugoslav Ilic, Ashika Jagdish, Daniel Jin, Gregory J. Jordan, Enrique Jurado, John Kanowski, Sabine Kasel
Abstract
We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge.