DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14646321
title: Global plant trait maps based on crowdsourced biodiversity monitoring and Earth observation - 1 km - All PFTs

description: This dataset consists of 31 plant functional trait maps at 1 km resolution with global extent. Plant functional traits are predicted as community-weighted means based on a synthesis of crowdsourced biodiversity data (GBIF species observations, sPlot vegetation surveys, and in situ trait measurements from the TRY trait database) modeled as a function of Earth observation data, including surface reflectance, climatic variables, soil properties, canopy height, and vegetation optical depth.

This version of the maps includes traits sourced from all available plant functional types (PFT). PFT-specific maps are in progress and will be available in the future.

Note: In addition to using the coefficient of variation and area of applicability layers of the maps, we encourage all who wish to use these maps to take particular note of the model performance for the traits of interest, which can be found both in the raster metadata as well as in Table S1 of the manuscript. The model performance varies significantly across the traits, and so care should be used.

 

Primary manuscript:



Lusk, D., Wolf, S., Svidzinska, D. et al. Crowdsourced biodiversity monitoring fills gaps in global plant trait mapping. Nat Commun 17, 1203 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68996-y


 

GeoTIFF multilayer raster description

Each GeoTIFF is in Equal Area Scalable Earth projection (EPSG:6933). In addition to the trait predictions, two quality bands are provided. Model performance metrics are also included in the raster metadata.




Band number
Band name
Description


1
<trait name>
The predicted CWM trait values.


2
Coefficient of variation
An indicator of model uncertainty derived by comparing the predictions made during model cross-validation.


3
Area of applicability
An indicator of model reliability. The area of applicability indicates regions where predictor data used for prediction differs significantly from predictor values seen during model training (see Meyer and Pebesma, 2021).




Trait table




Trait
TRY trait name
TRY ID
Unit


Pearson's r



Conduit element length*
Wood vessel element length; stem conduit (vessel and tracheids) element length
282
µm
0.45


Dispersal unit length*
Dispersal unit length
237
mm
0.36


LDMC*
Leaf dry mass per leaf fresh mass (leaf dry matter content, LDMC)
47
g g-1
0.47


Leaf area
Leaf area (in case of compound leaves: leaflet, undefined if petiole is in- or excluded)
3113
mm2
0.59


Leaf C
Leaf carbon (C) content per leaf dry mass
13
mg g-1
0.55


Leaf C/N ratio
Leaf carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio
146
g g-1
0.57


Leaf delta 15N
Leaf nitrogen (N) isotope signature (delta 15N)
78
ppm
0.56


Leaf dry mass
Leaf dry mass (single leaf)
55
g
0.50


Leaf fresh mass*
Leaf fresh mass
163
g
0.49


Leaf length*
Leaf length
144
mm
0.49


Leaf N (area)
Leaf nitrogen (N) content per leaf area
50
g m-2
0.63


Leaf N (mass)
Leaf nitrogen (N) content per leaf dry mass
14
mg g-1
0.56


Leaf P
Leaf phosphorus (P) content per leaf dry mass
15
mg g-1
0.54


Leaf thickness
Leaf thickness
46
mm
0.52


Leaf water content*
Leaf water content per leaf dry mass (not saturated)
3120
g g-1
0.48


Leaf width
Leaf width
145
mm
0.51


Plant height*
Plant height (vegetative)
3106
m
0.45


Rooting depth
Root rooting depth
6
m
0.60


Seed germination rate*
Seed germination rate (germination efficiency)
95
days
0.47


Seed length*
Seed length
27
mm
0.39


Seed mass*
Seed dry mass
26
mg
0.47


Seed number*
Seed number per reproduction unit
138
-
0.43


SLA
Leaf area per leaf dry mass (specific leaf area, SLA or 1/LMA): undefined if petiole is in- or excluded)
3117
m2 kg-1
0.63


SRL
Root length per root dry mass (specific root length, SRL)
1080
cm g-1
0.46


SRL (fine)*
Fine root length per fine root dry mass (specific fine root length, SRL)
614
cm g-1
0.43


SSD
Stem specific density (SSD) or wood density (stem dry mass per stem fresh volume)
4
g cm-3
0.59


Stem conduit density
Stem conduit density (vessels and tracheids)
169
mm-2
0.56


Stem conduit diameter
Stem conduit diameter (vessels, tracheids)
281
µm
0.60


Stem diameter*
Stem diameter
21
m
0.48


Wood fiber lengths*
Wood fiber lengths
289
µm
0.39


Wood ray density*
Wood rays per millimetre (wood ray density)
297
mm-1
0.22




Plant functional traits used for modeling and trait map generation. "Trait" refers to a shortened version of the "TRY trait name", "TRY trait name" refers to the name used in the TRY trait database, and "TRY ID" is the identifier for the trait in the TRY trait database. "Pearson's r" is the cross-validated Pearson's correlation coefficient between the trait map and spatially independent sPlot community-weighted mean trait values.

* Experimental traits—model performance below the heuristic threshold of r=0.5. Please consider your use case before incorporating these trait maps into your analysis.

 

Crowsourced biodiversity data:



TRY Trait database 

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

sPlot


These maps have been created in the framework of the PANOPS project. More information on this project is available at:



https://uni-freiburg.de/enr-geosense/research/panops/

https://gepris-extern.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/504978936?language=en