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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Water Management and Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #369206
Research Project: Improving the Sustainability of Irrigated Farming Systems in Semi-Arid Regions

Location: Water Management and Systems Research

Title: AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

Author
item FLASTER, DANIEL - University Of New South Wales
item GALLAGHER, RACHAEL - Macquarie University
item WENK, ELIZABETH - University Of New South Wales
item WRIGHT, IAN - Macquarie University
item INDIARTO, DONY - University Of New South Wales
item LAWSON, JAMES - Macquarie University
item ALLEN, STUART - Macquarie University
item Gleason, Sean
item BLACKMAN, CHRISTOPHER - Inland Northwest Research Alliance, Inra

Submitted to: Scientific Data
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/5/2021
Publication Date: 9/30/2021
Citation: Flaster, D., Gallagher, R., Wenk, E., Wright, I., Indiarto, D., Lawson, J., Allen, S., Gleason, S.M., Blackman, C.J. 2021. AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora. Scientific Data. 8. Article e254. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01006-6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01006-6

Interpretive Summary: We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of measurements of plant traits for species in the Australian Flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 86 traits across 20,321 species from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual species descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological parameters (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species- level observations coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties. This data descriptor provides information on Version 0.9.0 of AusTraits which contains data for 325,819 trait-by-species combinations across 20,321 species. We envision AusTraits as an on-going collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data to increase our collective understanding of the Australian flora.

Technical Abstract: We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of measurements of plant traits for species in the Australian Flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 86 traits across 20,321 species from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual species descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological parameters (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species- level observations coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties. This data descriptor provides information on Version 0.9.0 of AusTraits which contains data for 325,819 trait-by-species combinations across 20,321 species. We envision AusTraits as an on-going collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data to increase our collective understanding of the Australian flora.