Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports 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. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects.We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives. Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) and DIVERSITAS, the TRY database (TRY-not an acronym, rather a statement of sentiment; https ://www.try-db.org; Kattge et al., 2011) was proposed with the explicit assignment to improve the availability and accessibility of plant trait data for ecology and earth system sciences. The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) offered to host the database and the different groups joined forces for this community-driven program. Two factors were key to the success of TRY: the support and trust of leaders in the field of functional plant ecology submitting large databases and the long-term funding by the Max Planck Society, the MPI-BGC and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, which has enabled the continuous development of the TRY database.

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This study reconstructs and interprets the changing range of Atlas cedar in northern Morocco over the last 9,000 years. A synthesis of fossil pollen records indicated that Atlas cedars occupied a wider range at lower elevations during the mid-Holocene than today. The mid-Holocene geographical expansion reflected low winter temperatures and higher water availability over the whole range of the Rif Mountains relative to modern conditions. A trend of increasing aridity observed after 6,000 years BP progressively reduced the range of Atlas cedar and prompted its migration toward elevations above 1,400 masl. To assess the impact of climate change on cedar populations over the last decades, we performed a transient model simulation for the period between 1960 and 2010. Our simulation showed that the range of Atlas cedar decreased by about 75% over the last 50 years and that the eastern populations of the range in the Rif Mountains were even more threatened by the overall lack of water availability than the western ones. Today, Atlas cedar populations in the Rif Mountains are persisting in restricted and isolated areas (Jbel Kelti, Talassemtane, Jbel Tiziren, Oursane, Tidighine) that we consider to be modern microrefugia. Conservation of these isolated populations is essential for the future survival of the species, preserving polymorphisms and the potential for population recovery under different climatic conditions.

Habitat loss is the main driver of the current high rate of species extinction, particularly in tropical forests. Understanding the factors associated with biodiversity loss, such as the extinction of species interactions and ecological functions, is an urgent priority. Here, our aim was to evaluate how landscape‐scale forest cover influences fruit biomass comparing different tree functional groups. We sampled 20 forest fragments located within landscapes with forest cover ranging from 2 to 93 percent in the Atlantic forest of southern Bahia, Brazil. In each fragment, we established five plots of 25 × 4 m and carried out phenological observations on fleshy fruit throughout 1 year on all trees ≥5 cm dbh. We estimated fruit availability by direct counting of all fruits and derived fruit biomass from this count. We used spatial mixed linear models to evaluate the effects of forest cover on species richness, abundance, and fruit biomass. Our results indicated that forest cover was the main explanatory variable and negatively influenced the total richness and abundance of zoochoric and shade‐tolerant but not shade‐intolerant species. A linear model best explained variations in richness and abundance of total and shade‐tolerant species. We also found that forest cover was positively correlated with the fruit biomass produced by all species and by the shade‐tolerant assemblages, with linear models best explaining both relationships. The loss of shade‐tolerant species and the lower fruit production in fragments with lower landscape‐scale forest cover may have implications for the maintenance of frugivore, seed dispersal service, and plant recruitment.

A topic of major interest in socio-ecology is the comparison of chimpanzees and bonobos' grouping patterns. Numerous studies have highlighted the impact of social and environmental factors on the different evolution in group cohesion seen in these sister species. We are still lacking, however, key information about bonobo social traits across their habitat range, in order to make accurate inter-species comparisons. In this study we investigated bonobo social cohesiveness at nesting sites depending on fruit availability in the forest-savannah mosaic of western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a bonobo habitat which has received little attention from researchers and is characterized by high food resource variation within years. We collected data on two bonobo communities. Nest counts at nesting sites were used as a proxy for night grouping patterns and were analysed with regard to fruit availability. We also modelled bonobo population density at the site in order to investigate yearly variation. We found that one community density varied across the three years of surveys, suggesting that this bonobo community has significant variability in use of its home range. This finding highlights the importance of forest connectivity, a likely prerequisite for the ability of bonobos to adapt their ranging patterns to fruit availability changes. We found no influence of overall fruit availability on bonobo cohesiveness. Only fruit availability at the nesting sites showed a positive influence, indicating that bonobos favour food ‘hot spots’ as sleeping sites. Our findings have confirmed the results obtained from previous studies carried out in the dense tropical forests of DRC. Nevertheless, in order to clarify the impact of environmental variability on bonobo social cohesiveness, we will need to make direct observations of the apes in the forest-savannah mosaic as well as make comparisons across the entirety of the bonobos' range using systematic methodology.

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Space-use and foraging strategies are important facets to consider in regard to the ecology and conservation of primates. For this study, we documented movement, ranging, and foraging patterns of northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) for 14 months in a degraded habitat with old growth Acacia and Eucalyptus plantations at the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve in northeastern Thailand. We used hidden Markov models and characteristic hull polygons to analyze these patterns in regard to fruit availability. Macaques' home range (HR) was 599 ha and spanned through a natural dry-evergreen forest (DEF), and plantation forest. Our results showed that active foraging increased with higher fruit availability in DEF. Macaques changed to a less continuous behavioral state during periods of lower fruit availability in DEF, repeatedly moving from foraging to transiting behavior, while extending their HR further into plantation forest and surrounding edge areas. Concomitantly, macaques shifted their diet from fleshy to dry fruit such as the introduced Acacia species. Our results showed that the diet and movement ecology adaptations of northern pigtailed macaques were largely dependent on availability of native fruits, and reflected a "high-cost, high-yield" foraging strategy when fresh food was scarce and dry fruit was available in plantation forest. Conversely, wild-feeding northern pigtailed macaque populations inhabiting pristine habitat approached a "low-cost, low-yield" foraging strategy. Our results outline the effects of habitat degradation on foraging strategies and show how a flexible species can cope with its nutritional requirements. K E Y W O R D Sforaging strategies, fruit availability, habitat degradation, hidden Markov models, ranging patterns