Global root traits (GRooT) database

Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ramírez; Liesje Mommer; Grégoire T. Freschet; Colleen M. Iversen; M. Luke McCormack; Jens Kattge; Hendrik Poorter; Fons van der Plas; Joana Bergmann; Thom W. Kuyper; Larry M. York; Helge Bruelheide; Daniel C. Laughlin; Ina C. Meier; Catherine Roumet; Marina Semchenko; Christopher J. Sweeney; Jasper van Ruijven; Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes; Isabelle Aubin; Jane A. Catford; Peter Manning; Adam Martin; Rubén Milla; Vanessa Minden; Juli G. Pausas; Stuart W. Smith; Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia; Christian Ammer; Bradley Butterfield; Joseph Craine; Johannes H.C. Cornelissen; Franciska T. de Vries; Marney E. Isaac; Koen Kramer; Christian König; Eric G. Lamb; Vladimir G. Onipchenko; Josep Peñuelas; Peter B. Reich; Matthias C. Rillig; Lawren Sack; Bill Shipley; Leho Tedersoo; Fernando Valladares; Peter van Bodegom; Patrick Weigelt; Justin P. Wright; Alexandra Weigelt

doi:10.1111/geb.13179

Global root traits (GRooT) database

Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ramírez, Liesje Mommer, Grégoire T. Freschet, Colleen M. Iversen, M. Luke McCormack, Jens Kattge, Hendrik Poorter, Fons van der Plas, Joana Bergmann, Thom W. Kuyper, Larry M. York, Helge Bruelheide, Daniel C. Laughlin, Ina C. Meier, Catherine Roumet, Marina Semchenko, Christopher J. Sweeney, Jasper van Ruijven, Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes, Isabelle AubinJane A. Catford, Peter Manning, Adam Martin, Rubén Milla, Vanessa Minden, Juli G. Pausas, Stuart W. Smith, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Christian Ammer, Bradley Butterfield, Joseph Craine, Johannes H.C. Cornelissen, Franciska T. de Vries, Marney E. Isaac, Koen Kramer, Christian König, Eric G. Lamb, Vladimir G. Onipchenko, Josep Peñuelas, Peter B. Reich, Matthias C. Rillig, Lawren Sack, Bill Shipley, Leho Tedersoo, Fernando Valladares, Peter van Bodegom, Patrick Weigelt, Justin P. Wright, Alexandra Weigelt

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Abstract

Motivation: Trait data are fundamental to the quantitative description of plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processes, they have rarely been included in large-scale comparative studies and global models. For instance, root traits remain absent from nearly all studies that define the global spectrum of plant form and function. Thus, to overcome conceptual and methodological roadblocks preventing a widespread integration of root trait data into large-scale analyses we created the Global Root Trait (GRooT) Database. GRooT provides ready-to-use data by combining the expertise of root ecologists with data mobilization and curation. Specifically, we (a) determined a set of core root traits relevant to the description of plant form and function based on an assessment by experts, (b) maximized species coverage through data standardization within and among traits, and (c) implemented data quality checks. Main types of variables contained: GRooT contains 114,222 trait records on 38 continuous root traits. Spatial location and grain: Global coverage with data from arid, continental, polar, temperate and tropical biomes. Data on root traits were derived from experimental studies and field studies. Time period and grain: Data were recorded between 1911 and 2019. Major taxa and level of measurement: GRooT includes root trait data for which taxonomic information is available. Trait records vary in their taxonomic resolution, with subspecies or varieties being the highest and genera the lowest taxonomic resolution available. It contains information for 184 subspecies or varieties, 6,214 species, 1,967 genera and 254 families. Owing to variation in data sources, trait records in the database include both individual observations and mean values. Software format: GRooT includes two csv files. A GitHub repository contains the csv files and a script in R to query the database.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	25-37
Number of pages	13
Journal	Global Ecology and Biogeography
Volume	30
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13179
State	Published - Sep 9 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This initiative was possible owing to the support of the Synthesis Centre (sDiv) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG FZT 118) in the framework of the sRoot working group. We are grateful to all data contributors and to numerous assistants, technicians and students, who made it possible to have these hard-earned, valuable data in the first place. We thank Owen Atkin, F. Stuart Chapin?III, Brian Enquist, Thomas Hickler, Belinda Medlyn, Quentin Read, Michael White and Christian Wirth for contributing data, Jitka Klimesov? for contributing data and providing comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and A. Shafer Powell for assistance with FRED user guidance and data. We acknowledge the ECOCRAFT data contributors: Ana Rey, Craig Barton, Gail Jackson, Bernard Saugier, Franz Badeck, Eric Dufr?ne, Rodolphe Liozon, Dieter Overdieck, Manfred Forstreuter, Joern Strassemeyer, Andrew Friend, Maureen Murray, Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza, Giorgio Matteuci, Paolo de Angelis, Mark Broadmeadow, Tim Randle, Eric Laitat, Bruno Portier, Bruno Chermanne, Reinhart Ceulemans, David de Pury, Ewa Jach, Ivan Janssens, Sune Linder, Johan Bergh, Sabine Philippot, Peter Roberntz, Jan Stockfors, Seppo Kellomaki, Kaisa Laitinen, Kaiyun Wang, Michal Marek and Breta Regner. Colleen M. Iversen and the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED) are supported by the Biological and Environmental Research program in the Department of Energy?s Office of Science, and Joana Bergmann was supported by DFG grants RU-1815/20-1 and RI 1815/22-1. Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ram?rez thanks the Dorothea Schl?zer Postdoctoral Programme of the Georg-August-Universit?t Goettingen for their support; Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia thanks vidi grant 016.161.318 issued by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research; and Vladimir G. Onipchenko thanks RSF for financial support (#16-14-10208). The study has been supported by the TRY initiative on plant traits (http://www.try-db.org). The TRY initiative and database are hosted, developed and maintained at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. TRY is currently supported by DIVERSITAS/Future Earth and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Keywords

Belowground ecology
functional biogeography
macroecological studies
plant form and function
publicly-available database
root traits

Publisher link

10.1111/geb.13179

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Guerrero-Ramírez, N. R., Mommer, L., Freschet, G. T., Iversen, C. M., McCormack, M. L., Kattge, J., Poorter, H., van der Plas, F., Bergmann, J., Kuyper, T. W., York, L. M., Bruelheide, H., Laughlin, D. C., Meier, I. C., Roumet, C., Semchenko, M., Sweeney, C. J., van Ruijven, J., Valverde-Barrantes, O. J., ... Weigelt, A. (2020). Global root traits (GRooT) database. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 30(1), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13179

Guerrero-Ramírez, NR, Mommer, L, Freschet, GT, Iversen, CM, McCormack, ML, Kattge, J, Poorter, H, van der Plas, F, Bergmann, J, Kuyper, TW, York, LM, Bruelheide, H, Laughlin, DC, Meier, IC, Roumet, C, Semchenko, M, Sweeney, CJ, van Ruijven, J, Valverde-Barrantes, OJ, Aubin, I, Catford, JA, Manning, P, Martin, A, Milla, R, Minden, V, Pausas, JG, Smith, SW, Soudzilovskaia, NA, Ammer, C, Butterfield, B, Craine, J, Cornelissen, JHC, de Vries, FT, Isaac, ME, Kramer, K, König, C, Lamb, EG, Onipchenko, VG, Peñuelas, J, Reich, PB, Rillig, MC, Sack, L, Shipley, B, Tedersoo, L, Valladares, F, van Bodegom, P, Weigelt, P, Wright, JP & Weigelt, A 2020, 'Global root traits (GRooT) database', Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13179

@article{c7f8dc52db4e4773b561939877ef63cc,

title = "Global root traits (GRooT) database",

abstract = "Motivation: Trait data are fundamental to the quantitative description of plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processes, they have rarely been included in large-scale comparative studies and global models. For instance, root traits remain absent from nearly all studies that define the global spectrum of plant form and function. Thus, to overcome conceptual and methodological roadblocks preventing a widespread integration of root trait data into large-scale analyses we created the Global Root Trait (GRooT) Database. GRooT provides ready-to-use data by combining the expertise of root ecologists with data mobilization and curation. Specifically, we (a) determined a set of core root traits relevant to the description of plant form and function based on an assessment by experts, (b) maximized species coverage through data standardization within and among traits, and (c) implemented data quality checks. Main types of variables contained: GRooT contains 114,222 trait records on 38 continuous root traits. Spatial location and grain: Global coverage with data from arid, continental, polar, temperate and tropical biomes. Data on root traits were derived from experimental studies and field studies. Time period and grain: Data were recorded between 1911 and 2019. Major taxa and level of measurement: GRooT includes root trait data for which taxonomic information is available. Trait records vary in their taxonomic resolution, with subspecies or varieties being the highest and genera the lowest taxonomic resolution available. It contains information for 184 subspecies or varieties, 6,214 species, 1,967 genera and 254 families. Owing to variation in data sources, trait records in the database include both individual observations and mean values. Software format: GRooT includes two csv files. A GitHub repository contains the csv files and a script in R to query the database.",

keywords = "Belowground ecology, functional biogeography, macroecological studies, plant form and function, publicly-available database, root traits",

author = "Guerrero-Ram{\'i}rez, {Nathaly R.} and Liesje Mommer and Freschet, {Gr{\'e}goire T.} and Iversen, {Colleen M.} and McCormack, {M. Luke} and Jens Kattge and Hendrik Poorter and {van der Plas}, Fons and Joana Bergmann and Kuyper, {Thom W.} and York, {Larry M.} and Helge Bruelheide and Laughlin, {Daniel C.} and Meier, {Ina C.} and Catherine Roumet and Marina Semchenko and Sweeney, {Christopher J.} and {van Ruijven}, Jasper and Valverde-Barrantes, {Oscar J.} and Isabelle Aubin and Catford, {Jane A.} and Peter Manning and Adam Martin and Rub{\'e}n Milla and Vanessa Minden and Pausas, {Juli G.} and Smith, {Stuart W.} and Soudzilovskaia, {Nadejda A.} and Christian Ammer and Bradley Butterfield and Joseph Craine and Cornelissen, {Johannes H.C.} and {de Vries}, {Franciska T.} and Isaac, {Marney E.} and Koen Kramer and Christian K{\"o}nig and Lamb, {Eric G.} and Onipchenko, {Vladimir G.} and Josep Pe{\~n}uelas and Reich, {Peter B.} and Rillig, {Matthias C.} and Lawren Sack and Bill Shipley and Leho Tedersoo and Fernando Valladares and {van Bodegom}, Peter and Patrick Weigelt and Wright, {Justin P.} and Alexandra Weigelt",

note = "Funding Information: This initiative was possible owing to the support of the Synthesis Centre (sDiv) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG FZT 118) in the framework of the sRoot working group. We are grateful to all data contributors and to numerous assistants, technicians and students, who made it possible to have these hard-earned, valuable data in the first place. We thank Owen Atkin, F. Stuart Chapin?III, Brian Enquist, Thomas Hickler, Belinda Medlyn, Quentin Read, Michael White and Christian Wirth for contributing data, Jitka Klimesov? for contributing data and providing comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and A. Shafer Powell for assistance with FRED user guidance and data. We acknowledge the ECOCRAFT data contributors: Ana Rey, Craig Barton, Gail Jackson, Bernard Saugier, Franz Badeck, Eric Dufr?ne, Rodolphe Liozon, Dieter Overdieck, Manfred Forstreuter, Joern Strassemeyer, Andrew Friend, Maureen Murray, Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza, Giorgio Matteuci, Paolo de Angelis, Mark Broadmeadow, Tim Randle, Eric Laitat, Bruno Portier, Bruno Chermanne, Reinhart Ceulemans, David de Pury, Ewa Jach, Ivan Janssens, Sune Linder, Johan Bergh, Sabine Philippot, Peter Roberntz, Jan Stockfors, Seppo Kellomaki, Kaisa Laitinen, Kaiyun Wang, Michal Marek and Breta Regner. Colleen M. Iversen and the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED) are supported by the Biological and Environmental Research program in the Department of Energy?s Office of Science, and Joana Bergmann was supported by DFG grants RU-1815/20-1 and RI 1815/22-1. Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ram?rez thanks the Dorothea Schl?zer Postdoctoral Programme of the Georg-August-Universit?t Goettingen for their support; Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia thanks vidi grant 016.161.318 issued by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research; and Vladimir G. Onipchenko thanks RSF for financial support (#16-14-10208). The study has been supported by the TRY initiative on plant traits (http://www.try-db.org). The TRY initiative and database are hosted, developed and maintained at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. TRY is currently supported by DIVERSITAS/Future Earth and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd",

year = "2020",

month = sep,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1111/geb.13179",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "30",

pages = "25--37",

journal = "Global Ecology and Biogeography",

issn = "1466-822X",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Global root traits (GRooT) database

AU - Guerrero-Ramírez, Nathaly R.

AU - Mommer, Liesje

AU - Freschet, Grégoire T.

AU - Iversen, Colleen M.

AU - McCormack, M. Luke

AU - Kattge, Jens

AU - Poorter, Hendrik

AU - van der Plas, Fons

AU - Bergmann, Joana

AU - Kuyper, Thom W.

AU - York, Larry M.

AU - Bruelheide, Helge

AU - Laughlin, Daniel C.

AU - Meier, Ina C.

AU - Roumet, Catherine

AU - Semchenko, Marina

AU - Sweeney, Christopher J.

AU - van Ruijven, Jasper

AU - Valverde-Barrantes, Oscar J.

AU - Aubin, Isabelle

AU - Catford, Jane A.

AU - Manning, Peter

AU - Martin, Adam

AU - Milla, Rubén

AU - Minden, Vanessa

AU - Pausas, Juli G.

AU - Smith, Stuart W.

AU - Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A.

AU - Ammer, Christian

AU - Butterfield, Bradley

AU - Craine, Joseph

AU - Cornelissen, Johannes H.C.

AU - de Vries, Franciska T.

AU - Isaac, Marney E.

AU - Kramer, Koen

AU - König, Christian

AU - Lamb, Eric G.

AU - Onipchenko, Vladimir G.

AU - Peñuelas, Josep

AU - Reich, Peter B.

AU - Rillig, Matthias C.

AU - Sack, Lawren

AU - Shipley, Bill

AU - Tedersoo, Leho

AU - Valladares, Fernando

AU - van Bodegom, Peter

AU - Weigelt, Patrick

AU - Wright, Justin P.

AU - Weigelt, Alexandra

N1 - Funding Information: This initiative was possible owing to the support of the Synthesis Centre (sDiv) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG FZT 118) in the framework of the sRoot working group. We are grateful to all data contributors and to numerous assistants, technicians and students, who made it possible to have these hard-earned, valuable data in the first place. We thank Owen Atkin, F. Stuart Chapin?III, Brian Enquist, Thomas Hickler, Belinda Medlyn, Quentin Read, Michael White and Christian Wirth for contributing data, Jitka Klimesov? for contributing data and providing comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and A. Shafer Powell for assistance with FRED user guidance and data. We acknowledge the ECOCRAFT data contributors: Ana Rey, Craig Barton, Gail Jackson, Bernard Saugier, Franz Badeck, Eric Dufr?ne, Rodolphe Liozon, Dieter Overdieck, Manfred Forstreuter, Joern Strassemeyer, Andrew Friend, Maureen Murray, Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza, Giorgio Matteuci, Paolo de Angelis, Mark Broadmeadow, Tim Randle, Eric Laitat, Bruno Portier, Bruno Chermanne, Reinhart Ceulemans, David de Pury, Ewa Jach, Ivan Janssens, Sune Linder, Johan Bergh, Sabine Philippot, Peter Roberntz, Jan Stockfors, Seppo Kellomaki, Kaisa Laitinen, Kaiyun Wang, Michal Marek and Breta Regner. Colleen M. Iversen and the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED) are supported by the Biological and Environmental Research program in the Department of Energy?s Office of Science, and Joana Bergmann was supported by DFG grants RU-1815/20-1 and RI 1815/22-1. Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ram?rez thanks the Dorothea Schl?zer Postdoctoral Programme of the Georg-August-Universit?t Goettingen for their support; Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia thanks vidi grant 016.161.318 issued by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research; and Vladimir G. Onipchenko thanks RSF for financial support (#16-14-10208). The study has been supported by the TRY initiative on plant traits (http://www.try-db.org). The TRY initiative and database are hosted, developed and maintained at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. TRY is currently supported by DIVERSITAS/Future Earth and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

PY - 2020/9/9

Y1 - 2020/9/9

N2 - Motivation: Trait data are fundamental to the quantitative description of plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processes, they have rarely been included in large-scale comparative studies and global models. For instance, root traits remain absent from nearly all studies that define the global spectrum of plant form and function. Thus, to overcome conceptual and methodological roadblocks preventing a widespread integration of root trait data into large-scale analyses we created the Global Root Trait (GRooT) Database. GRooT provides ready-to-use data by combining the expertise of root ecologists with data mobilization and curation. Specifically, we (a) determined a set of core root traits relevant to the description of plant form and function based on an assessment by experts, (b) maximized species coverage through data standardization within and among traits, and (c) implemented data quality checks. Main types of variables contained: GRooT contains 114,222 trait records on 38 continuous root traits. Spatial location and grain: Global coverage with data from arid, continental, polar, temperate and tropical biomes. Data on root traits were derived from experimental studies and field studies. Time period and grain: Data were recorded between 1911 and 2019. Major taxa and level of measurement: GRooT includes root trait data for which taxonomic information is available. Trait records vary in their taxonomic resolution, with subspecies or varieties being the highest and genera the lowest taxonomic resolution available. It contains information for 184 subspecies or varieties, 6,214 species, 1,967 genera and 254 families. Owing to variation in data sources, trait records in the database include both individual observations and mean values. Software format: GRooT includes two csv files. A GitHub repository contains the csv files and a script in R to query the database.

AB - Motivation: Trait data are fundamental to the quantitative description of plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processes, they have rarely been included in large-scale comparative studies and global models. For instance, root traits remain absent from nearly all studies that define the global spectrum of plant form and function. Thus, to overcome conceptual and methodological roadblocks preventing a widespread integration of root trait data into large-scale analyses we created the Global Root Trait (GRooT) Database. GRooT provides ready-to-use data by combining the expertise of root ecologists with data mobilization and curation. Specifically, we (a) determined a set of core root traits relevant to the description of plant form and function based on an assessment by experts, (b) maximized species coverage through data standardization within and among traits, and (c) implemented data quality checks. Main types of variables contained: GRooT contains 114,222 trait records on 38 continuous root traits. Spatial location and grain: Global coverage with data from arid, continental, polar, temperate and tropical biomes. Data on root traits were derived from experimental studies and field studies. Time period and grain: Data were recorded between 1911 and 2019. Major taxa and level of measurement: GRooT includes root trait data for which taxonomic information is available. Trait records vary in their taxonomic resolution, with subspecies or varieties being the highest and genera the lowest taxonomic resolution available. It contains information for 184 subspecies or varieties, 6,214 species, 1,967 genera and 254 families. Owing to variation in data sources, trait records in the database include both individual observations and mean values. Software format: GRooT includes two csv files. A GitHub repository contains the csv files and a script in R to query the database.

KW - Belowground ecology

KW - functional biogeography

KW - macroecological studies

KW - plant form and function

KW - publicly-available database

KW - root traits

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U2 - 10.1111/geb.13179

DO - 10.1111/geb.13179

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85090452690

SN - 1466-822X

VL - 30

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EP - 37

JO - Global Ecology and Biogeography

JF - Global Ecology and Biogeography

IS - 1

ER -

Global root traits (GRooT) database

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