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.

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – http://www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.

Functional traits offer a rich quantitative framework for developing and testing theories in evolutionary biology, ecology and ecosystem science. However, the potential of functional traits to drive theoretical advances and refine models of global change can only be fully realised when species-level information is complete. Here we present the AVONET dataset containing comprehensive functional trait data for all birds, including six ecological variables, 11 continuous morphological traits, and information on range size and location. Raw morphological measurements are presented from 90,020 individuals of 11,009 extant bird species sampled from 181 countries. These data are also summarised as species averages in three taxonomic formats, allowing integration with a global phylogeny, geographical range maps, IUCN Red List data and the eBird citizen science database. The AVONET dataset provides the most detailed picture of continuous trait variation for any major radiation of organisms, offering a global template for testing hypotheses and exploring the evolutionary origins, structure and functioning of biodiversity.

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

Interactions between resource and consumer species are organized in ecological networks. Species interactions in these networks are influenced by the functional traits of the interacting partners, but the generality of trait-based interaction rules and the relationship between functional traits and a species' specialization on specific interaction partners are not yet understood. Here we combine data on eight interaction networks between fleshy-fruited plants and frugivorous birds sampled across the tropical and subtropical Andean range. We test which combinations of morphological plant and animal traits determine trait matching between resource and consumer species in these networks. In addition, we test which of the morphological traits influence functional specialization of plant and bird species. In a meta-analysis across network-specific fourth-corner analyses, we found that plant-animal trait pairs related to size matching (fruit size-beak size) and avian foraging behavior (plant height-wing shape and crop mass-body mass) were positively related in these networks. The degree of functional specialization on specific interaction partners was positively related to crop mass in plants and to the pointedness of the wing in birds. Our findings show that morphological trait matching between fleshy-fruited plants and frugivorous birds is a general phenomenon in plant-frugivore networks across the Andes and that specific plant and bird traits can be used to approximate the degree of functional specialization. These insights into the generality of interaction rules are the base for predictions of species interactions in ecological networks, for instance in novel communities in the future, and can be applied to identify plant and animal species that fulfill specialized functional roles in ecological communities.

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Previous studies that tracked the movements of single bird species within human‐modified landscapes have shown that the ability of forest birds to move across matrix habitat differs among species. Functional guild specificity as well as landscape characteristics have been shown to influence bird movements, entailing different movement behaviour of birds within a community. Studies investigating how both these factors influence the movements of entire bird assemblages across fragmented landscapes are essential but have rarely been conducted. In this study, we determined how species’ traits and different forest matrices influence bird movements among nine forest patches in a highly fragmented South African landscape. We combined 90 h of bird observations with capture–mark–recaptures (104 754 mist‐net hours) to distinguish between movements among patches (all birds that conduct long‐distance movements across the landscape) and movements within patches (all resident birds that conduct only short‐distance movements within a fragment). Overall, we detected a high bird movement activity across the fragmented landscape. Dietary specialization, habitat affinity and body mass strongly shaped the relative distribution of bird species across the nine fragments with frugivorous birds, forest specialists and large‐bodied species showing the highest movement abilities. In contrast, resident insectivores and forest generalists tended to move only within particular forest fragments. Our results suggest that remnant forest fragments may represent valuable stepping stones as well as permanent habitat for local bird assemblages. We emphasize that beside the conservation of natural forests, the maintenance of nearby, structurally rich forest fragments is pivotal in maintaining regional forest bird assemblages in human‐modified landscapes.

Aim It is not yet clear whether similar mechanisms influence the assembly of ecological communities across different continents. Here, we investigated the functional and phylogenetic diversity of bird assemblages along elevational gradients in two biogeographic regions in order to identify how these are driven by biotic factors, such as food resources and vegetation structure, and abiotic factors, such as ambient temperature and precipitation. Location Two 2,000‐m elevational gradients in the Ecuadorian Andes and on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Taxon Forest‐dwelling bird species. Methods We recorded bird species abundances on 18 and 30 plots in the Ecuadorian Andes and on Mount Kilimanjaro respectively. We measured 10 functional morphological traits, related to bird feeding and movement, and utilized bird phylogenies to compare observed values and null‐model corrected effect sizes of functional and phylogenetic diversity along elevational gradients and between biogeographic regions. Furthermore, we assessed how observed values and effect sizes of functional and phylogenetic diversity were associated with the underlying gradients in available food resources, vegetation structure, temperature and precipitation. Results Functional and phylogenetic diversity were generally higher in species assemblages in the Ecuadorian Andes than on Mount Kilimanjaro. Both observed values and effect sizes of functional and phylogenetic diversity decreased significantly with increasing elevation in both biogeographic regions. Functional diversity consistently increased with increasing resource availability, whereas phylogenetic diversity increased with increasing vegetation heterogeneity and canopy closure in both biogeographic regions. Temperature and precipitation were not significantly associated with functional and phylogenetic diversity. Main conclusions Our results suggest that in both mountain systems the diversity of functional traits in bird species assemblages is the result of environmental filtering by available food resources, whereas phylogenetic diversity is primarily limited by vegetation structure. These findings suggest important differences in the main drivers of functional and phylogenetic diversity. We conclude that biotic factors might be more important for driving bird diversity patterns than abiotic factors and that a loss of resource availability and vegetation structure, e.g., through human impacts, is likely to trigger changes in community assembly on tropical mountains.