Crowdsourced biodiversity monitoring fills gaps in global plant trait mapping

Plant functional traits are fundamental to ecosystem dynamics and Earth system processes, but their global characterization is limited by available field surveys and trait measurements. Recent expansions in biodiversity data aggregation-including vegetation surveys, citizen science observations, and trait measurements-offer new opportunities to overcome these constraints. Here we demonstrate that combining these diverse data sources with high-resolution Earth observation data enables accurate modeling of key plant traits at up to 1 km<sup>2</sup> resolution. Our approach achieves correlations up to 0.63 (15 of 31 traits exceeding 0.50) and improved spatial transferability, effectively bridging gaps in under-sampled regions. By capturing a broad range of traits with high spatial coverage, these maps can enhance understanding of plant community properties and ecosystem functioning, while serving as tools for modeling global biogeochemical processes and informing conservation efforts. Our framework highlights the power of crowdsourced biodiversity data in addressing longstanding extrapolation challenges in global plant trait modeling, with continued advancements in data collection and remote sensing poised to further refine trait-based understanding of the biosphere.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-01-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68996-y
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Species Distribution and Climate Change
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
33.49

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article

Crowdsourced biodiversity monitoring fills gaps in global plant trait mapping

Sebastian Świerszcz, Dinesh Thakur, Manuel J. Macía, Jan Altman et al.
1 citations
Nature Communications
Species Distribution and Climate Change
33.49
article

Crowdsourced biodiversity monitoring fills gaps in global plant trait mapping

Sebastian Świerszcz, Dinesh Thakur, Manuel J. Macía, Jan Altman, James K. McCarthy, Solana Tabeni, Jiří Doležal, Anaclara Guido, Mohamed Z. Hatim, Zvjezdana Stančić, Ladislav Mucina, Jürgen Dengler, Riccardo Testolin, Behlul Guler, Gabriella Damasceno, Pravin Rawat, Marco Schmidt, Kirill Korznikov, Francesca Napoleone, Sophie Wolf, Jonathan Lenoir, Daria Svidzinska, Shyam S. Phartyal, G. Hahn, Holger Kreft, Marcia o Marques, Jacob Willie, Ashish N. Nerlekar, Daniel Lusk, A. Martínez, Teja Kattenborn, Jürgen Homeier, Kilian Gerberding, Francesco Maria Sabatini, Jens Kattge, Remigiusz Pielech, Han Chen, Flávio Rodrigues, Ciara Dwyer, Cyrille Violle, Kaoru Kakinuma, Milan Chytry, André Luís Gasper, M. A. El-Sheikh, Carsten F. Dormann, Fernando Gonçalves, Helge Bruelheide, Daniel Hending
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Plant functional traits are fundamental to ecosystem dynamics and Earth system processes, but their global characterization is limited by available field surveys and trait measurements. Recent expansions in biodiversity data aggregation-including vegetation surveys, citizen science observations, and trait measurements-offer new opportunities to overcome these constraints. Here we demonstrate that combining these diverse data sources with high-resolution Earth observation data enables accurate modeling of key plant traits at up to 1 km<sup>2</sup> resolution. Our approach achieves correlations up to 0.63 (15 of 31 traits exceeding 0.50) and improved spatial transferability, effectively bridging gaps in under-sampled regions. By capturing a broad range of traits with high spatial coverage, these maps can enhance understanding of plant community properties and ecosystem functioning, while serving as tools for modeling global biogeochemical processes and informing conservation efforts. Our framework highlights the power of crowdsourced biodiversity data in addressing longstanding extrapolation challenges in global plant trait modeling, with continued advancements in data collection and remote sensing poised to further refine trait-based understanding of the biosphere.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 17(1)
Inner Mongolia Agricultural University (CN), Jagiellonian University (PL), Forest Research Institute (IN), Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (IN), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR), École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR), University of Freiburg (DE), Murdoch University (AU), Universidad de la República de Uruguay (UY), University of Zagreb (HR), Lund University (SE), Dokuz Eylül University (TR), Mizoram University (IN), Université de Montpellier (FR), ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH), University of Zurich (CH), Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZ), Masaryk University (CZ), Stellenbosch University (ZA), University of Michigan (US), Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (PL), German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE), Parc Científic de la Universitat de València (ES), King Saud University (SA), Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso (BR), University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (CZ), University of Oxford (GB), Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (FR), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen (DE), Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (BE), Group Image (Poland) (PL), Universidade Regional de Blumenau (BR), Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés (FR), Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (DE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas, Université de Picardie Jules Verne (FR), Universidade Federal do Paraná (BR), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE), University of Göttingen (DE), Sapienza University of Rome (IT), Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (NZ), Michigan State University (US), Wageningen University & Research (NL), Leipzig University (DE), University of Bologna (IT)
National Science Foundation, European Space Agency, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Akademie Věd České Republiky, Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Species Distribution and Climate Change
33.49
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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