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.

Summary 1.Competitor, stress-tolerator, ruderal (CSR) theory is a prominent plant functional strategy scheme previously applied to local floras. Globally, the wide geographic and phylogenetic coverage of available values of leaf area (LA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and specific leaf area (SLA) (representing, respectively, interspecific variation in plant size and conservative vs. acquisitive resource economics) promises the general application of CSR strategies across biomes, including the tropical forests hosting a large proportion of Earth's diversity. 2. We used trait variation for 3068 tracheophytes (representing 198 families, six continents and 14 biomes) to create a globally calibrated CSR strategy calculator tool and investigate strategy-environment relationships across biomes world-wide. 3. Due to disparity in trait availability globally, co-inertia analysis was used to check correspondence between a 'wide geographic coverage, few traits' data set and a 'restricted coverage, many traits' subset of 371 species for which 14 whole-plant, flowering, seed and leaf traits (including leaf nitrogen content) were available. CSR strategy/environment relationships within biomes were investigated using fourth-corner and RLQ analyses to determine strategy/climate specializations. 4. Strong, significant concordance (RV = 0Á597; P < 0Á0001) was evident between the 14 trait multivariate space and when only LA, LDMC and SLA were used. 5. Biomes such as tropical moist broadleaf forests exhibited strategy convergence (i.e. clustered around a CS/CSR median; C:S:R = 43:42:15%), with CS-selection associated with warm, stable situations (lesser temperature seasonality), with greater annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. Other biomes were characterized by strategy divergence: for example, deserts varied between xeromorphic perennials such as Larrea divaricata, classified as S-selected (C:S:R = 1:99:0%) and broadly R-selected annual herbs (e.g. Claytonia perfoliata; R/CR-selected; C:S:R = 21:0:79%). Strategy convergence was evident for several growth habits (e.g. trees) but not others (forbs). 6. The CSR strategies of vascular plants can now be compared quantitatively within and between biomes at the global scale. Through known linkages between underlying leaf traits and growth rates, herbivory and decomposition rates, this method and the strategy-environment relationships it elucidates will help to predict which kinds of species may assemble in response to changes in biogeochemical cycles, climate and land use.

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Old-growth tropical forests are being extensively deforested and fragmented worldwide. Yet forest recovery through succession has led to an expansion of secondary forests in human-modified tropical landscapes (HMTLs). Secondary forests thus emerge as a potential repository for tropical biodiversity, and also as a source of essential ecosystem functions and services in HMTLs. Such critical roles are controversial, however, as they depend on successional, landscape and socio-economic dynamics, which can vary widely within and across landscapes and regions. Understanding the main drivers of successional pathways of disturbed tropical forests is critically needed for improving management, conservation, and restoration strategies. Here, we combine emerging knowledge from tropical forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to identify the main driving forces shaping successional pathways at different spatial scales. We also explore causal connections between land-use dynamics and the level of predictability of successional pathways, and examine potential implications of such connections to determine the importance of secondary forests for biodiversity conservation in HMTLs. We show that secondary succession (SS) in tropical landscapes is a multifactorial phenomenon affected by a myriad of forces operating at multiple spatio-temporal scales. SS is relatively fast and more predictable in recently modified landscapes and where well-preserved biodiversity-rich native forests are still present in the landscape. Yet the increasing variation in landscape spatial configuration and matrix heterogeneity in landscapes with intermediate levels of disturbance increases the uncertainty of successional pathways. In landscapes that have suffered extensive and intensive human disturbances, however, succession can be slow or arrested, with impoverished assemblages and reduced potential to deliver ecosystem functions and services. We conclude that: (i) succession must be examined using more comprehensive explanatory models, providing information about the forces affecting not only the presence but also the persistence of species and ecological groups, particularly of those taxa expected to be extirpated from HMTLs; (ii) SS research should integrate new aspects from forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to address accurately the potential of secondary forests to serve as biodiversity repositories; and (iii) secondary forest stands, as a dynamic component of HMTLs, must be incorporated as key elements of conservation planning; i.e. secondary forest stands must be actively managed (e.g. using assisted forest restoration) according to conservation goals at broad spatial scales.

Estimates of species extinction due to human impact on tropical forests have previously been based on the relationship between species number and area. Here we use a different approach to estimate loss of tree species in the Atlantic forest of northeast Brazil. We evaluate the characteristics of plant species, their avian dispersers and the distribution of the forest remnants on the landscape to estimate that about 33.9% of tree species in this region will become extinct on a regional scale. Because northeast Brazil is the most threatened sector of South American Atlantic forest, our results highlight the need to change the current conservation paradigm for this region. Rather than focus on the creation of isolated reserves in any medium-to-large forest remnant, a bioregional planning approach is urgently required to rescue this unique biota from extinction.

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