Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-213
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-213
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
21 May 2025
| 21 May 2025
Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.
The Global Spectra-Trait Initiative: A database of paired leaf spectroscopy and functional traits associated with leaf photosynthetic capacity
Abstract. Accurate assessment of leaf functional traits is crucial for a diverse range of applications from crop phenotyping to parameterizing global climate models. Leaf reflectance spectroscopy offers a promising avenue to advance ecological and of robust hyperspectral models for predicting leaf photosynthetic capacity and associated traits from reflectance data has been hindered by limited data availability across species and environments. Here we introduce the Global Spectra-Trait Initiative (GSTI), a collaborative repository of paired leaf hyperspectral and gas exchange measurements from diverse ecosystems. The GSTI repository currently encompasses over 7500 observations from 397 species and 41 sites gathered from 36 published and unpublished studies, thereby offering a key resource for developing and validating hyperspectral models of leaf photosynthetic agricultural research by complementing traditional, time-consuming gas exchange measurements. However, the development capacity. The GSTI database is developed on GitHub (https://github.com/plantphys/gsti) and published to ESS-dive https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/datasets/doi:10.15485/2530733, Lamour et al., 2025). It includes gas exchange data, derived photosynthetic parameters, and key leaf traits often associated with traditional gas exchange measurements such as leaf mass per area and leaf elemental composition. By providing a standardized repository for data sharing and analysis, we present a critical step towards creating hyperspectral models for predicting photosynthetic traits and associated leaf traits for terrestrial plants.
How to cite. Lamour, J., Serbin, S. P., Rogers, A., Acebron, K. T., Ainsworth, E., Albert, L. P., Alonzo, M., Anderson, J., Atkin, O. K., Barbier, N., Barnes, M. L., Bernacchi, C. J., Besson, N., Burnett, A. C., Caplan, J. S., Chave, J., Cheesman, A. W., Clocher, I., Coast, O., Coste, S., Croft, H., Cui, B., Dauvissat, C., Davidson, K. J., Doughty, C., Ely, K. S., Féret, J.-B., Filella, I., Fortunel, C., Fu, P., Garcia, M., Gimenez, B. O., Guan, K., Guo, Z., Heckmann, D., Heuret, P., Isaac, M., Kothari, S., Kumagai, E., Kyaw, T. Y., Liu, L., Liu, L., Liu, S., Llusià, J., Magney, T., Maréchaux, I., Martin, A. R., Meacham-Hensold, K., Montes, C. M., Ogaya, R., Ojo, J., Oliveira, R., Paquette, A., Peñuelas, J., Placido, A. D., Posada, J. M., Qian, X., Renninger, H. J., Rodriguez-Caton, M., Rojas-González, A., Schlüter, U., Sellan, G., Siegert, C. M., Song, G., Southwick, C. D., Souza, D. C., Stahl, C., Su, Y., Sujeeun, L., Ting, T.-C., Vasquez, V., Vijayakumar, A., Vilas-Boas, M., Wang, D. R., Wang, S., Wang, H., Wang, J., Wang, X., Weber, A. P. M., Wong, C. Y. S., Wu, J., Wu, F., Wu, S., Yan, Z., Yang, D., and Zhao, Y.: The Global Spectra-Trait Initiative: A database of paired leaf spectroscopy and functional traits associated with leaf photosynthetic capacity, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-213, in review, 2025.
Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
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The Global Spectra-Trait Initiative: A database of paired leaf spectroscopy and functional traits associated with leaf photosynthetic capacity Julien Lamour, Shawn P. Serbin, Alistair Rogers, Kelvin T. Acebron, Elizabeth Ainsworth, Loren P. Albert, Michael Alonzo, Jeremiah Anderson, Owen K. Atkin, Nicolas Barbier, Mallory L. Barnes, Carl J. Bernacchi, Ninon Besson, Angela C. Burnett, Joshua S. Caplan, Jérome Chave, Alexander W. Cheesman, Ilona Clocher, Onoriode Coast, Sabrina Coste, Holly Croft, Clément Dauvissat, Kenneth J. Davidson, Christopher Doughty, Kim S. Ely, Jean-Baptiste Féret, Iolanda Filella, Claire Fortunel, Peng Fu, Maquelle Garcia, Bruno O. Gimenez, Kaiyu Guan, Zhengfei Guo, David Heckmann, Patrick Heuret, Marney Isaac, Shan Kothari, Etsushi Kumagai, Thu Ya Kyaw, Liangyun Liu, Lingli Liu, Shuwen Liu, Joan Llusià, Troy Magney, Isabelle Maréchaux, Adam R. Martin, Katherine Meacham-Hensold, Christopher M. Montes, Romà Ogaya, Joy Ojo, Regison Oliveira, Alain Paquette, Josep Peñuelas, Antonia Debora Placido, Juan M. Posada, Xiaojin Qian, Heidi J. Renninger, Milagros Rodriguez-Caton, Andrés Rojas-González, Urte Schlüter, Giacomo Sellan, Courtney M. Siegert, Guangqin Song, Charles D. Southwick, Daisy C. Souza, Clément Stahl, Yanjun Su, Leeladarshini Sujeeun, To-Chia Ting, Vicente Vasquez, Amrutha Vijayakumar, Marcelo Vilas-Boas, Diane R. Wang, Sheng Wang, Han Wang, Jing Wang, Xin Wang, Andreas P. M. Weber, Christopher Y. S. Wong, Jin Wu, Fengqi Wu, Shengbiao Wu, Zhengbing Yan, Dedi Yang, and Yingyi Zhao https://github.com/plantphys/gsti
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Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 – Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France
Shawn P. Serbin
Biospheric Sciences Laboratory (BSL), Code 618 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 8800 Greenbelt Road Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
Alistair Rogers
Climate and Ecosystems Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA 94720, USA
Kelvin T. Acebron
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater MD 21403
Elizabeth Ainsworth
University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
Loren P. Albert
Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Corvallis, OR 97333
Michael Alonzo
Department of Environmental Science, American University, Washington, DC 20016
Jeremiah Anderson
Biospheric Sciences Laboratory (BSL), Code 618 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 8800 Greenbelt Road Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
Owen K. Atkin
ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Nicolas Barbier
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
Mallory L. Barnes
O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Carl J. Bernacchi
USDA-ARS Photosynthesis Research Unit, Urbana, IL, USA 61801
University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
Ninon Besson
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, Cirad, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de la Guyane, Kourou, France
Angela C. Burnett
Advanced Research + Invention Agency, London, UK
Joshua S. Caplan
Department of Architecture & Environmental Design, Temple University, Ambler PA 19010
Jérôme Chave
Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 – Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France
Alexander W. Cheesman
College of Science & Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4878, Australia
Ilona Clocher
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, Cirad, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de la Guyane, Kourou, France
Onoriode Coast
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Sabrina Coste
UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, Cirad, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de la Guyane, Kourou, France
Holly Croft
Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
School of Biosciences, Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
Boya Cui
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, M1C 1A4
Clément Dauvissat
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
Kenneth J. Davidson
American Forests, Washington, DC 20005, USA
Christopher Doughty
School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
Kim S. Ely
Climate and Ecosystems Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA 94720, USA
Jean-Baptiste Féret
TETIS, INRAE, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, Université Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Iolanda Filella
Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) - National Research Council (CSIC), Edifici C, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona
Claire Fortunel
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
Peng Fu
School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, Louisiana State University and Louisiana State University AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Maquelle Garcia
Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Corvallis, OR 97333
Bruno O. Gimenez
Department of Geography, University of California - Berkeley (UCB), 507 McCone Hall #4740, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Forest Management Laboratory, National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Av. Andre Araújo, 69060-082, Manaus-AM, Brazil
Kaiyu Guan
Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Department of Nature Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Zhengfei Guo
School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
David Heckmann
Bayer Crop Science, 40789 Monheim am Rhein, Germany
Patrick Heuret
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
Marney Isaac
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, M1C 1A4
Shan Kothari
Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canada
Etsushi Kumagai
Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8604, Japan
Thu Ya Kyaw
School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
Liangyun Liu
Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Lingli Liu
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
Shuwen Liu
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
Joan Llusià
Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) - National Research Council (CSIC), Edifici C, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona
Troy Magney
Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis, USA
Isabelle Maréchaux
AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France
Adam R. Martin
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, M1C 1A4
Katherine Meacham-Hensold
Carl R Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
Christopher M. Montes
USDA-ARS Photosynthesis Research Unit, Urbana, IL, USA 61801
University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
Romà Ogaya
Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) - National Research Council (CSIC), Edifici C, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona
Joy Ojo
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Regison Oliveira
Forest Management Laboratory, National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Av. Andre Araújo, 69060-082, Manaus-AM, Brazil
Alain Paquette
Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Josep Peñuelas
Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) - National Research Council (CSIC), Edifici C, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona
Antonia Debora Placido
Forest Management Laboratory, National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Av. Andre Araújo, 69060-082, Manaus-AM, Brazil
Juan M. Posada
Biology Department, Carrera 24 # 63C - 69, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia
Xiaojin Qian
School of Internet of Things, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, China
Heidi J. Renninger
Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762
Milagros Rodriguez-Caton
Institute for Snow, Glaciers and Environmental Research, IANIGLA-CONICET, Argentina
Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis, USA
Andrés Rojas-González
Laboratorio de Ecología Funcional y Ecosistemas Tropicales (LEFET), Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica
Urte Schlüter
Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Giacomo Sellan
UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, Cirad, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de la Guyane, Kourou, France
Courtney M. Siegert
Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762
Guangqin Song
School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
Charles D. Southwick
Oregon State University Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society, Corvallis, OR 97333
Daisy C. Souza
Forest Management Laboratory, National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Av. Andre Araújo, 69060-082, Manaus-AM, Brazil
Clément Stahl
UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, Cirad, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de la Guyane, Kourou, France
Yanjun Su
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
Leeladarshini Sujeeun
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, M1C 1A4
To-Chia Ting
Agronomy Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
Vicente Vasquez
University of Florida. School of Forestry, Fisheries and Geomatics
Amrutha Vijayakumar
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Marcelo Vilas-Boas
Forest Management Laboratory, National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Av. Andre Araújo, 69060-082, Manaus-AM, Brazil
Diane R. Wang
Agronomy Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
Sheng Wang
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, 8000
Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Han Wang
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modelling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Jing Wang
School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518107, China
Xin Wang
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
Andreas P. M. Weber
Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), Düsseldorf, Germany
Christopher Y. S. Wong
Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB E3B 5A3, Canada
Jin Wu
School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
Institute for Climate and Carbon Neutrality, University of Hong Kong Kong, Pofulam Road, Hong Kong, China
State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China
Fengqi Wu
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
Shengbiao Wu
Future Urbanity and Sustainable Environment (FUSE) Lab, Division of Landscape Architecture, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Zhengbing Yan
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
China National Botanical Garden, Beijing 100093, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquanlu, Beijing 100049, China
Dedi Yang
Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
Yingyi Zhao
School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
Short summary
We present the Global Spectra-Trait Initiative (GSTI), a collaborative repository of paired leaf hyperspectral and gas exchange measurements from diverse ecosystems. This repository provides a unique source of information for creating hyperspectral models for predicting photosynthetic traits and associated leaf traits in terrestrial plants.
We present the Global Spectra-Trait Initiative (GSTI), a collaborative repository of paired leaf...
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