MOSAIC - A Unified Trait Database to Complement Structured Population Models

Abstract

Despite exponential growth in ecological data availability, broader interoperability amongst datasets is needed to unlock the potential of open access. Our understanding of the interface of demography and functional traits is well-positioned to benefit from such interoperability. Here, we introduce MOSAIC, an open-access trait database that unlocks the demographic potential stored in the COMADRE, COMPADRE, and PADRINO open-access databases. MOSAIC data were digitised and curated through a combination of existing datasets and new trait records sourced from primary literature. In its first release, MOSAIC (v. 1.0.0) includes 14 trait fields for 300 animal and plant species: biomass, height, growth determination, regeneration, sexual dimorphism, mating system, hermaphrodism, sequential hermaphrodism, dispersal capacity, type of dispersal, mode of dispersal, dispersal classes, volancy, and aquatic habitat dependency. MOSAIC includes species-level phylogenies for 1,359 species and population-specific climate data. We identify how database integration can improve our understanding of traits well-quantified in existing repositories and those that are poorly quantified (e.g., growth determination, modularity). MOSAIC highlights emerging challenges associated with standardising databases and demographic measures.

More social species live longer, have higher generation times, and longer reproductive windows

“…As such, to explore the relationships between sociality and life history traits beyond the blurring effect of body mass, I first obtained adult body mass data for each species. For mammals, I used information archived in (69); for birds, AVONET (70); for fish, FishBase (71) via rFishBase (72); for mammals, birds, and reptiles and amphibians, AMNIOTE (73); and for remaining groups, MOSAIC (74), and data from (54). For 18 remaining species for which, adult body mass data were not available from these online databases (mostly insects, bivalves, and corals), I obtained body mass information from peer-review publications using the keywords "body mass" OR "weight" and the name of the species in ISI WoS.…”

A standard protocol to report discrete stage‐structured demographic information

“…The potential of this impressive and rapidly increasing amount of information is starting to be realised. Indeed, through combining these demographic models, researchers have identified functional traits that explain variation in plant life history strategies (Adler et al, 2014; also see Bernard et al, 2023), short‐term (transient) characteristics that drive the demographic dynamics of plant populations in variable environments (McDonald et al, 2016), and ways in which life history strategies allow species to persist alongside a changing climate (Jelbert et al, 2019; Paniw et al, 2019).…”