DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmsrn
title: Moss functional trait ecology: Trends, gaps, and biases in the current literature

description: Functional traits are critical tools in plant ecology for capturing
 organism-environment interactions based on trade-offs as well as making
 links between organismal and ecosystem processes. While broad frameworks
 for functional traits have been developed for vascular plants, we lack the
 same for bryophytes, despite an escalation in the number of bryophyte
 functional trait studies conducted in the last 45 years and an increased
 recognition of the ecological roles bryophytes play across ecosystems. In
 this review, we compiled data from 282 published articles (10005 records)
 focusing on functional traits measured in mosses, and sought to (a)
 examine trends in types of traits measured, (b) capture taxonomic and
 geographic breadth of trait coverage, (c) reveal biases in coverage in the
 current literature, and (d) develop a bryophyte-function index (BFI) to
 describe completeness of current trait coverage and identify global gaps
 to focus research efforts. The most commonly measured response traits
 (those related to growth/reproduction in individual organisms) and effect
 traits (those that directly affect community/ecosystem scale processes)
 fell into the categories of morphology (e.g. leaf area, shoot height) and
 nutrient storage/cycling, and our BFI revealed that these data were most
 commonly collected from temperate and boreal regions of Europe, North
 America and east Asia. However, fewer than 10% of known moss species have
 available functional trait information. Our synthesis revealed that there
 is a need for research on traits related to ontogeny, sex, and
 intraspecific plasticity, and on co-measurement of traits related to
 water-relations and bryophyte-mediated soil processes. 
description: We performed two searches in the Web of Science Core Collection
 on March 13, 2023 to compile a list of all published research on
 terrestrial moss functional traits. Search terms were selected based on
 our preliminary literature review and general expertise on mosses and
 functional trait ecology. We did not use an a priori list of moss
 functional traits, and, rather, allowed the literature to inform the
 diversity of traits analyzed in this review. Our first search identified
 articles with the terms moss or bryophyte and trait or morphology ((moss*
 OR bryophyte*) AND (trait* OR morpholog*)) and the second search
 identified articles with the terms moss or bryophyte AND function AND
 ecosystem ((moss* OR bryophyte*) AND function* AND ecosystem*). Combined,
 these searches identified 9989 research articles that met our criteria.
 Article titles and abstracts were subsequently scanned in two stages to
 exclude duplicates and articles without trait data connected to a specific
 moss genus (versus moss or biocrust community for example; Appendix S3).
 Non-English language articles were included when an English-language
 abstract was available or the article aligned with one of our language
 proficiencies (Spanish, French, Portuguese, German). This narrowed the
 number of relevant articles on moss functional traits to 282 with the
 earliest articles dating back to 1979. Functional trait concepts predate
 1979, and so our lack of earlier records likely reflects our choice of
 search terms, however, our database covers the current rapid expansion of
 functional trait ecology.  We acknowledge that our strategy may have
 missed some articles from smaller journals outside of the Web of Science
 Core Collection but are certain that we captured the majority of research
 published on this topic with our chosen methods.
description: # Moss functional trait ecology: Trends, gaps, and biases in the current
 literature  This README file was generated on 2024-01-12 by Kirsten K. Coe
 GENERAL INFORMATION 1\. Title of Dataset: Moss functional trait ecology:
 Trends, gaps, and biases in the current literature 2\. Author Information
             Principal Investigator Contact Information              Name:
 Kirsten K. Coe              Institution: Middlebury College            
  Address: Middlebury, VT, 05753              Email:
 3\. Date of data collection (single date,
 range, approximate date): March 13, 2023 (search performed); 1979-2023
 (publication dates of compiled manuscripts in review) 4\. Geographic
 locations of data collection: Middlebury, VT, USA; Portland, OR, USA. 5\.
 Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the
 data: NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity Award #1840931, NSF Postdoctoral
 Fellowship Award #1907214 SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION 1\.
 Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CCO 1.0 Public Domain 2\. Links
 to publications that cite or use the data: Coe, K. K., Carter, B., Slate,
 M., & Stanton, D. (2024). Moss functional trait ecology: trends, gaps,
 and biases in the current literature. American Journal of Botany. 3\.
 Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: None 4\.
 Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: None 5\. Was data derived from
 another source? No             A. If yes, list source(s): NA 6\.
 Recommended citation for this dataset: Coe, K. K., Carter, B., Slate, M.,
 & Stanton, D. (2024). Moss functional trait ecology: trends, gaps, and
 biases in the current literature. American Journal of Botany. Dryad
 Digital Repository. 
 DATASET AND CODE OVERVIEW 1\. File List: A)
 Coe.et.al.trait.review.data.2.csv B) Coe.et.al.BFI.code.R 2\. Relationship
 between files, if important: File B (R code) can be used to create the BFI
 from select columns in File A 3\. Additional related data collected that
 was not included in the current data package: None 4\. Are there multiple
 versions of the dataset? No             A. If yes, name of file(s) that
 was updated: NA                         i. Why was the file updated? NA
                         ii. When was the file updated? NA DATA-SPECIFIC
 INFORMATION FOR: Coe.et.al.trait.review.data.2.csv 1\. Number of
 variables: 33 2\. Number of cases/rows: 10005 3\. Variable List:
 Initials…us.: Team member initials who entered manuscript/trait data into
 spreadsheet First.author: First author of manuscript Year: Publication
 year of manuscript Title: Title of manuscript Climate: Climate where
 research was conducted Climate_2: Streamlined version of Climate column
 for analyses (removes case discrepancies, spaces, synonymizes) Ecosystem:
 Ecosystem where research was conducted Ecosystem_2: Streamlined version of
 Ecosystem column for analyses (removes case discrepancies, spaces,
 synonymizes) Location: Political location where study was conducted
 Location_Subcontinent: Subcontinent level location where study was
 conducted Study.Type: Type of study (e.g. Field, lab, modeling…)
 StudyType_2: Streamlined version of Study.Type column for analyses
 (removes case discrepancies, spaces, synonymizes) Species: Moss species
 for which trait data were collected Original.species..if.changed.: If
 species name has changed, previous name Species.handling: Community
 indicated if study was conducted on a community dominated by the species.
 Otherwise, NA. Family: Moss family of species. Trait: Trait measured on
 species in study. Response.Trait: If a response trait, the category of
 response trait measured. Effect.Trait: If an effect trait, the category of
 effect trait measured. Sex.specific..Y.N.: If the study included
 sex-specific trait measurements, Y, otherwise, N
 Observational.gradient..Y.N: If the study included trait measurements over
 an observational gradient, Y, otherwise, N Temporal..Y.N.: If the study
 included trait measurements over a temporal scale (e.g. annual
 measurements), Y, otherwise, N Manipulation..Y.N.: If the study included
 trait measurements in a manipulation experiment, Y, otherwise, N Paper:
 Streamlined unique identifier for each paper Genus: Genus of species for
 which trait data were collected Order: Order of species for which trait
 data were collected SubClass: Subclass of species for which trait data
 were collected SuperOrder: SubOrder of species for which trait data were
 collected Class: Class of species for which trait data were collected
 Group: Moss morphological group for species for which trait data were
 collected Geo3: Geographical location including climate and compass
 directions Group2: Version of Group column for subsequent analyses Clim:
 Version of Climate column for subsequent analyses 4\. Missing data codes:
 Trait column cells with NA indicate trait was not classified into a
 particular category (e.g. NA for Effect.trait column if the trait was
 classified as a type of response trait). Ecosystem and other column cells
 with NA indicate our review of the manuscript did not place it in any of
 the specified analytical categories. 5\. Specialized formats or other
 abbreviations used: None CODE INFORMATION FOR: Coe.et.al.BFI.code.R
 Additional packages required beyond base R: None Input dataset:
 Coe.et.al.trait.review.data.2.csv Variables that go into calculating BFI:
 spe = number of species in region/total species in dataset ord = number of
 orders in region/orders in dataset etr = number of effect traits in
 region/effect traits in dataset rtr = number of response traits in
 region/response traits in dataset pap = number of papers in region/papers
 in dataset