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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2025-754</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chauvier-Mendes</surname>
<given-names>Yohann</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9399-3192</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Adde</surname>
<given-names>Antoine</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bergamini</surname>
<given-names>Ariel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8816-1420</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rambold</surname>
<given-names>Gerhard</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Stofer</surname>
<given-names>Silvia</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Graf</surname>
<given-names>Ninetta</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gross</surname>
<given-names>Andrin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Blaser</surname>
<given-names>Stefan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Roberts</surname>
<given-names>Stuart P. M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Potts</surname>
<given-names>Simon G.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Casanelles-Abella</surname>
<given-names>Joan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Moretti</surname>
<given-names>Marco</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Nobis</surname>
<given-names>Michael P.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Theurillat</surname>
<given-names>Jean-Paul</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hofmann</surname>
<given-names>Heike</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hartwig</surname>
<given-names>Ann-Michelle</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Claude</surname>
<given-names>Francois</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Saucy</surname>
<given-names>Gauvain</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Altermatt</surname>
<given-names>Florian</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG); 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL); 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Department of Mycology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth 95440, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, RG6 6UR  Reading, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Urban Productive Ecosystems, TUM School of Life Sciences, Hans Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Feising 85354, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Centre Alpien de Phytogéographie, Fondation du Jardin botanique Flore-Alpe, 1938 Champex-Lac, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Department of Botany and Plant Biology, University of Geneva, 1292 Chambésy, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>Swissbryophytes, Institut für Systematische und Evolutionäre Botanik, Universität Zürich, Zollikerstrasse, 107, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>info fauna, Avenue Bellevaux 51, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>Dos la Velle 72, 2718 Lajoux, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff12">
<label>12</label>
<addr-line>Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>03</day>
<month>02</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>22</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Yohann Chauvier-Mendes et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-754/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-754/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-754/essd-2025-754.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2025-754/essd-2025-754.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Functional traits of species are becoming increasingly used in ecological research, providing key insights into organisms-environment interactions, ecosystem functions, and responses to environmental changes. In recent years, substantial initiatives have generated major open-access datasets of species&apos; functional traits. However, these resources typically concentrate on a handful of well-studied biological groups&amp;mdash;such as plants, birds, and fishes&amp;mdash;and less on specific biogeographic regions limiting their applicability in regional biodiversity assessments and conservation planning. Here, we present TraitCH, a comprehensive dataset of functional traits spanning over 71,874 species (&amp;ge; 1 functional trait) across 17 major taxonomic groups: Apocrita (2,278), Arachnida (3,728), Coleoptera (8,565), Ephemeroptera/Plecoptera/Trichoptera (1,349), Lepidoptera (3,757), Odonata (234), Orthoptera (1,283), Bryobiotina (2,285), Fungi (12,469), Lichen (2,435), Mollusca (7,493), Pisces (838), Amphibia (151), Aves (1,356), Mammalia (522), Reptilia (298), and Tracheophyta (22,833). Compiled from 43 published and unpublished sources, TraitCH provides a robust representation of total species richness and composition for Switzerland and Europe. For each species, we compiled their taxonomic hierarchy, existing synonymy, geographic origin, conservation status, micro- and macro-habitat types, global range size and available ecological trait values. TraitCH consists of 17 trait tables (one per major taxonomic group), each available in two formats: (1) original and (2) completed versions with missing trait values imputed using a tree-based modelling method. TraitCH was also embedded within a comprehensive checklist of European species from the same groups (~210,000 taxa), encompassing authoritative Swiss and European checklists, with the exception of Fungi and Lichen, for which only Swiss checklists were available. TraitCH is available on Zenodo: &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot;&gt;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844&lt;/a&gt; (Chauvier et al., 2025).</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="22"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich</funding-source>
<award-id>SPEED2ZERO</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung</funding-source>
<award-id>310030_197410</award-id>
<award-id>P500PB_225432</award-id>
<award-id>P500PN_217754</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
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</article>