MotivationThe BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community‐led open‐source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.Main types of variables includedThe database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record.Spatial location and grainBioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km2 (158 cm2) to 100 km2 (1,000,000,000,000 cm2).Time period and grainBioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year.Major taxa and level of measurementBioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates.Software format.csv and .SQL.

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Coral reefs are being subjected to an increase in the frequency and intensity of disturbance, such as bleaching and cyclones, and it is important to document the effects of such disturbance on reef coral assemblages. Between March 2014 and May 2017, the reefs of Lizard Island in the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef were affected by 4 consecutive disturbances: severe tropical cyclones Ita and Nathan in 2014 and 2015, and mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017. Loss of coral cover following the cyclones was patchy and dependent on the direction of the waves generated. In contrast, loss of cover following bleaching was much more uniform. Overall, coral cover declined 5-fold from 36% pre-cyclone Ita to 7% post-bleaching in 2017, while mean species richness dropped from 10 to 4 species per transect. The spatial scale and magnitude of the loss of coral cover in the region suggests that it will be many years before these reefs recover.

Susceptibility to human‐driven environmental changes is mediated by species traits. Therefore, identifying traits that predict organism performance, ecosystem function and response to changes in environmental conditions can help forecast how ecosystems are responding to the Anthropocene. Morphology dictates how organisms interact with their environment and other organisms, partially determining the environmental and biological contexts in which they are successful. Morphology is important for autogenic ecosystem engineering organisms, such as reef‐building corals, because it determines the shape of the structures they create and by extension the communities they support. Here, we present six morphological traits that capture variation in volume compactness, surface complexity and top‐heaviness. With support from the literature, we propose causal links between morphology and a performance–function–response framework. To illustrate these concepts, we combine 3D scanning and coral survey data to predict morphological traits from in situ colonies. We present a case study that examines how assemblage‐scale morphological traits have responded to two cyclones and the 2016 mass bleaching event—two phenomena predicted to increase in severity in the Anthropocene—and discuss how these changes may impact ecosystem function. The morphological traits outlined here offer a generalised and hypothesis‐driven approach to tracking how reefs respond to the Anthropocene. The ability to predict these traits from field data and the increasing use of photogrammetry makes them readily applicable across broad spatiotemporal scales. A plain language summary is available for this article.