TRY

We have gained a new external member: Prof. Dr. Christian Wirth has been appointed by the Senate of the Max Planck Society as External Scientific Member.  As a former group leader and later fellow at the institute, Prof. Wirth initiated and supported the development of the TRY database, the world's largest collection on plant traits.  more

Information gaps in global maps of plant characteristics can be filled with data from nature identification apps. Users of the iNaturalist app are playing a key role in helping researchers create global maps of plant traits. Among other things, the new maps provide an improved basis for understanding plant-environment interactions and for Earth system modeling. more

An international research team has succeeded in identifying globally acting factors that cause the diversity of forms and functions of plants. Researchers compiled plant data from around the world and were able to show for the first time how strongly these are determined by climate and soil properties for characteristics such as the size, structure and life span of plants. more

The group, jointly led by Jens Kattge and Max Planck Fellow Christian Wirth, explores plant functional diversity and its role in biogeochemical cycles: how it is affected by climate variation and environmental changes and how it affects vegetation responses. For this purpose, it hosts the TRY Plant Trait Database. more