# FAIRTraits: an enriched, FAIR-compliant database of plant traits from Mediterranean populations of 240 species

Éric Garnier, Léo Delalandre, Jules Segrestin, Karim Barkaoui, Elena

Kazakou, Marie-laure Navas, Denis Vile, Cyrille Violle, Maud

Bernard-verdier, Marine Birouste, et al.

► To cite this version:

Éric Garnier, Léo Delalandre, Jules Segrestin, Karim Barkaoui, Elena Kazakou, et al. FAIRTraits: an enriched, FAIR-compliant database of plant traits from Mediterranean populations of 240 species. Ecology, 2025, 106 (9), pp.e70219. 10.1002/ecy.70219. hal-05291317

HAL Id: hal-05291317

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05291317v1

Submitted on 1 Oct 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# FAIRTraits: An enriched, FAIR-compliant database of plant traits from Mediterranean populations of 240 species

Éric Garnier¹ ID

Léo Delalandre¹ ID

Jules Segrestin¹,² ID

Karim Barkaoui¹,³,⁴ ID

Elena Kazakou¹,⁵ ID

Marie-Laure Navas¹,⁵ ID

Denis Vile¹,⁶ ID

Cyrille Violle¹ ID

Maud Bernard-Verdier¹,⁷ ID

Marine Birouste¹

Alain Blanchard¹

Iris Bumb¹

Pablo Cruz⁸

Sandrine Debain¹

Adeline Fayolle¹,⁹,¹⁰ ID

Claire Fortunel¹,⁴ ID

Karl Grigulis¹,¹¹ ID

Gérard Laurent¹†

Sandra Lavorel¹,¹¹ ID

Francisco Lloret¹²,¹³ ID

Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos¹,¹⁴ ID

Iván Prieto¹,¹⁵ ID

Catherine Roumet¹ ID

¹CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

²Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

³CIRAD, UMR AMAP, Montpellier, France

⁴AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France

⁵CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Institut Agro, Montpellier, France

⁶LEPSE, Univ Montpellier, INRAE, Institut Agro, Montpellier, France

⁷Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Sorbonne Université-MNHN-CNRS, Paris, France

⁸INRA-AGIR, UMR1248, Castanet Tolosan, France

⁹Forêts et Sociétés, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD Montpellier, Montpellier, France

¹⁰CIRAD Forêts et Sociétés, Libreville, Gabon

¹¹Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Savoie Mont-Blanc, CNRS, Grenoble, France

¹²CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

¹³Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

¹⁴Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS-CSIC), Sevilla, Spain

¹⁵Área de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Gestión Ambiental, Universidad de León, León, Spain

## Correspondence

Éric Garnier

Email: eric.garnier@cefe.cnrs.fr

## Abstract

Trait-based ecology relies on high-quality, well-documented data to explore how plant traits relate to environmental conditions, community assembly, and ecosystem functioning. However, the reuse and synthesis of trait data across studies remain limited by several constraints: a lack of detailed metadata, heterogeneous protocols, absence of individual-level measurements, and

<footnote>† Deceased.</footnote>

<footnote>This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</footnote>

<footnote>© 2025 The Author(s). Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.</footnote>
**Funding information**

Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et
de la Recherche (FNSO Project),
Grant/Award Number:
AAPFNSO2019OpenMetaPaper-14026

**Handling Editor:** Kathryn
L. Cottingham

underrepresentation of certain trait types—particularly below-ground traits. Many existing datasets also lack the environmental details necessary to investigate trait-environment relationships at local scales. Here, we present FAIRTraits, a comprehensive dataset that addresses these limitations by compiling 189,452 records of quantitative trait measurements collected between 1997 and 2023 from 1955 populations of 240 vascular plant species in the Northern Mediterranean Basin, a region known both for its exceptional biodiversity and as a climate change hotspot. All data were collected by a single research group using consistent and well-documented field and laboratory protocols, ensuring internal consistency across traits, species, sites, and years. FAIRTraits includes 180 traits measured at the individual or replicate level, with no aggregation. It features an unprecedented diversity of traits spanning all major plant organs—leaves, stems, roots, and reproductive parts. These include widely used traits such as specific leaf area and plant height, but also traits that are rarely reported, especially below-ground traits related to root morphology, as well as mechanical properties, phenology, and microbial associations. In addition to raw measurements, species are annotated with categorical descriptors (e.g., life form, photosynthetic pathway, and successional status), and species-level values taken from a Mediterranean flora, for key traits such as reproductive phenology and maximum height. To support analyses that account for environmental variability, each observation is linked to detailed descriptors of the plot where the individual was sampled, including climate data, soil physicochemical properties, and disturbance regime. Full metadata on sampling protocols and measurement methods are provided for every trait and environmental variable. FAIRTraits was built in compliance with the FAIR principles of data management (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Metadata are described using the Ecological Metadata Language (EML); trait definitions are standardized using community-endorsed semantic resources. The data are archived across two interoperable repositories: GBIF (via Darwin Core and trait-specific extensions) for taxon-trait associations and InDoRES for environmental and contextual data. These efforts ensure long-term preservation, data traceability, and seamless integration with plant trait databases such as BROT or TRY, and cross-organism initiatives such as the Open Traits Network or the Encyclopedia of Life. FAIRTraits offers a robust, richly documented, and reusable resource for investigating plant functional strategies, trait-environment relationships, and scaling from individuals to communities and ecosystems. It also provides a concrete example of how trait datasets can meet the highest standards of data quality and interoperability—serving as a model for future community-led initiatives in functional ecology. The FAIRTraits database is released under the CC-BY Attribution 4.0 International license.

**KEYWORDS**

biodiversity standards; ecosystem properties; environmental conditions; FAIR principles; gas exchange; leaf, stem, root and reproductive traits; litter mass loss; Mediterranean Biogeographic Region; phenology; plant functional traits; terminological resources; trait-based ecology
## CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

## DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Metadata and data are available in Data S1 as Supporting Information for this paper. In addition, metadata and data are archived in the GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/fr/) and InDoRES (https://www.indores.fr/) repositories as described in section Class V.D.1. of Metadata S1. Code is available in Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17073323.

## ORCID

Éric Garnier https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9392-5154

Léo Delalandre https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2875-4587

Jules Segrestin https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7661-6061

Karim Barkaoui https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5787-3748

Elena Kazakou https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7188-8367

Marie-Laure Navas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8489-355X

Denis Vile https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7948-1462

Cyrille Violle https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2471-9226

Maud Bernard-Verdier https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4240-9560

Adeline Fayolle https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6770-0031

Claire Fortunel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8367-1605

Karl Grigulis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2937-0692

Sandra Lavorel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7300-2811

Francisco Lloret https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9836-4069

Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2332-7818

Iván Prieto https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5549-1132

Catherine Roumet https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1320-9770

## SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Additional supporting information can be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of this article.

**How to cite this article:** Garnier, Éric, Léo Delalandre, Jules Segrestin, Karim Barkaoui, Elena Kazakou, Marie-Laure Navas, Denis Vile, et al. 2025. "FAIRTraits: An Enriched, FAIR-Compliant Database of Plant Traits from Mediterranean Populations of 240 Species." *Ecology* 106(9): e70219. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70219