DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7wm37pvtf
title: Data from: Putting vascular epiphytes on the traits map

description: Epiphyte trait data for the paper Hietz et al. 2021 Putting vascular
 epiphytes on the traits map. Journal of Ecology Plant functional traits
 impact the fitness and environmental niche of plants. Major plant
 functional types have been characterized by their trait spectrum, and the
 environmental and phylogenetic imprints on traits have advanced several
 ecological fields. Yet very few trait data on epiphytes, which represent
 almost 10% of vascular plants, are available. We collated &gt;80,000
 mostly unpublished trait observations for 2,882 species of vascular
 epiphytes that were compared with non-epiphytic herbs and trees (mainly
 using data from www.try-db.org, which are not included in the Dryad
 dataset) to test hypotheses related to how the epiphytic habit affects
 traits, and if epiphytes occupy a distinct region in the global trait
 space. We also compared variation in traits among major groups of
 epiphytes, and investigated the coordination of traits in epiphytes,
 ground-rooted herbs and trees. Data include information on trait type,
 unit of measurement, species, individuals, location and data contributor.
 Epiphytes differ from ground-rooted plants mainly in traits related to
 water relations. Unexpectedly, we did not find lower leaf nutrient
 concentrations, except for nitrogen. Mean photosynthetic rates are much
 lower than in ground-rooted plants and lower than expected from the
 nitrogen concentrations. Trait syndromes clearly distinguish epiphytes
 from trees and from most non-epiphytic herbs. Among the three largest
 epiphytic taxa, orchids differ from bromeliads and ferns mainly by having
 smaller and more numerous stomata, while ferns differ from bromeliads by
 having thinner leaves, higher nutrient concentrations, and lower water
 content and water use efficiency. Trait networks differ among epiphytes,
 herbs and trees. While all have central nodes represented by specific leaf
 area and mass-based photosynthesis, in epiphytes, traits related to plant
 water relations have stronger connections, and nutrients other than
 potassium have weaker connections to the remainder of the trait network.
 Whereas stem specific density reflects mechanical support related to plant
 size in herbs and trees, in epiphytes it mostly reflects water storage and
 scales with leaf water content. Our findings advance our understanding of
 epiphyte ecology, but we note that currently mainly leaf traits are
 available. Important gaps are root, shoot and whole plant, demographic and
 gas exchange traits. We suggest how future research might use available
 data and fill data gaps.
description: The dataset is a compilation of unpublished traits data by the
 authors plus some previously published data
description: Data files are tab-delimited text files:
 Hietz_et_al_Data_Epiphyte_traits.txt
 Contains trait data, mostly at individual level, with
 columns: Contributor: See abbreviations in project
 member list, "Lit means data were not contributed but are published
 data gleaned from the respective reference" 
 siteID: unique identifier for the site, see sheet
 "sites" Inividual: unique identifier for each
 individual sampled plant; same identifiers for several trait measurement
 taken from the same plant OrigSpeciesName: species name
 (genus + epithet); indet: family or species completely unknown
 SpeciesName: Cleaned species name (Genus & epithet or
 morphospecies name)  in some cases morphospecies names are changed if they
 are not unique identifiers for the whole dataset Genus:
 Genus of sampled plant; if possible also assigned to
 morphospecies trait: type of trait
 trait_value: measured value unit: unit of
 trait_value
 Hietz_et_al_Contributors_Epiphyte_traits.txt Contains names, affiliations and emails of data contributors with columns Name Last name Abbreviation Institution City Country Email Hietz_et_al_Sites_Epiphyte_traits.txt Contains information on locations where trait data were collected from with columns: Contributors: as in trait table siteID: unique site identifier as given in the trait data table environment: e.g. "natural environment", "green house" lat: standard decimal format lon: standard decimal format elevation: m above sea level country notes For details see the reference publication Peter Hietz, Katrin Wagner, Flavio Nunes Ramos, Juliano Sarmento Cabral, Claudia Agudelo, Ana Maria Benavides, Manuel Cach Pérez, Catherine Cardelús, Nahlleli Chilpa Galván, Lucas Costa, Rodolfo de Paula Oliveira, Helena Einzmann, Rafael Farias, Valeria Guzmán Jacob, Jens Kattge, Michael Kessler, Catherine Kirby, Holger Kreft, Thorsten Krömer, Jamie Males, Samuel Monsalve Correa, Maria Moreno, Gunnar Petter, Casandra Reyes, Alfredo Saldaña, David Schellenberger, Amanda Taylor, Noé Velázquez Rosas, Wolfgang Wanek, Carrie Woods , Gerhard Zotz. 2021 Putting vascular epiphytes on the traits map. Journal of Ecology.