Julia Joswig

University of Leipzig

Aim Globally distributed plant trait data are increasingly used to understand relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem processes. However, global trait databases are sparse because they are compiled from many, mostly small databases. This sparsity in both trait space completeness and geographical distribution limits the potential for both m...

Here we provide the ‘Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset’, containing species mean values for six vascular plant traits. 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...

Plant functional traits can predict community assembly and ecosystem functioning and are thus widely used in global models of vegetation dynamics and land–climate feedbacks. Still, we lack a global understanding of how land and climate affect plant traits. A previous global analysis of six traits observed two main axes of variation: (1) size variat...

Plant functional diversity (FD) is an important component of biodiversity that characterizes the variability of functional traits within a community, landscape, or even large spatial scales. It can influence ecosystem processes and stability. Hence, it is important to understand how and why FD varies within and between ecosystems, along resources a...

Forest dieback caused by drought‐induced tree mortality has been observed world‐wide. Forecasting which trees in which locations are vulnerable to drought‐induced mortality is important to predict the consequences of drought on forest structure, biodiversity and ecosystem function. In this paper, our central aim was to compile a synthesis of tree t...

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Earth is home to a remarkable diversity of plant forms and life histories, yet comparatively few essential trait combinations have proved evolutionarily viable in today’s terrestrial biosphere. By analysing worldwide variation in six major traits critical to growth, survival and reproduction within the largest sample of vascular plant species ever...

Aim Functional traits of organisms are key to understanding and predicting biodiversity and ecological change, which motivates continuous collection of traits and their integration into global databases. Such trait matrices are inherently sparse, severely limiting their usefulness for further analyses. On the other hand, traits are characterized by...

Background / Purpose: During the last years the TRY initiative has combined an unprecedented number of plant trait measurements and has made these data available for trait-based approaches in ecology and biodiversity science and for the improvement of vegetation models ( www.try-db.org ). Main conclusion: We presented recent progress with resp...

Background/Question/Methods During the last years the TRY initiative has combined an unprecedented number of plant trait measurements and has made these data available for trait-based approaches in ecology and biodiversity science and for the improvement of vegetation models (www.try-db.org). Results/Conclusions Here we will present recent pro...