MASTREE+: Time‐series of plant reproductive effort from six continents
Published in Global Change Biology, 2022
Recommended citation: Hacket-Pain, A., Foest, J. J., Pearse, I. S., LaMontagne, J. M., Koenig, W. D., Vacchiano, G., Bogdziewicz, M., Caignard, T., Celebias, P., van Dormolen, J., Fernández-Martínez, M., Moris, J. V., Palaghianu, C., Pesendorfer, M., Satake, A., Schermer, E., Tanentzap, A. J., Thomas, P. A., Vecchio, D., … Bush, E.R., … Ascoli, D. (2022). MASTREE+: Time-series of plant reproductive effort from six continents. Global Change Biology, 28, pp3066–3082 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16130
Abstract
Significant gaps remain in understanding the response of plant reproduction to environmental change. This is partly because measuring reproduction in long-lived plants requires direct observation over many years and such datasets have rarely been made publicly available. Here we introduce MASTREE+, a data set that collates reproductive time-series data from across the globe and makes these data freely available to the community. MASTREE+ includes 73,828 georeferenced observations of annual reproduction (e.g. seed and fruit counts) in perennial plant populations worldwide. These observations consist of 5971 population-level time-series from 974 species in 66 countries. The mean and median time-series length is 12.4 and 10 years respectively, and the data set includes 1122 series that extend over at least two decades (≥20 years of observations). For a subset of well-studied species, MASTREE+ includes extensive replication of time-series across geographical and climatic gradients. Here we describe the open-access data set, available as a.csv file, and we introduce an associated web-based app for data exploration. MASTREE+ will provide the basis for improved understanding of the response of long-lived plant reproduction to environmental change. Additionally, MASTREE+ will enable investigation of the ecology and evolution of reproductive strategies in perennial plants, and the role of plant reproduction as a driver of ecosystem dynamics.