Received: 15 August 2019 | Accepted: 12 September 2019 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14904 INVITED PRIMARY RESEARCH ARTICLE TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access Correspondence Jens Kattge, Max Planck Institute for Abstract Biogeochemistry, Hans Knöll Str. 10, 07745 Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and Jena, Germany. Email:
[email protected] phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environ- mental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and Funding information Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry; their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a Max Planck Society; German Centre for vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig; International Programme ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, resto- of Biodiversity Science (DIVERSITAS); ration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP); Future Earth; French TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB); data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database GIS ‘Climat, Environnement et Société' France; UK Natural Environment Research used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also sup- Council (NERC); AXA Research Fund ports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness.