TOPIC CoVitas - Aboveground and belowground plant traits

Co-Vitas project traits data. The Co-VITAS project is investigating understory species (6 ubiquitous boreal species) response and adaptive capacity to environmental change, by measuring a set of leaf and root traits throughout the species range. We enlisted and coordinated the efforts of 23 research teams across Canada for field sampling of 79 sites in July 2014 (from Newfoundland to Yukon).

Traits include root calcium content, root potassium content, root magnesium content, root nitrogen content, root phosphorus content, leaf calcium content, leaf potassium content, leaf magnesium content, leaf nitrogen content, leaf phosphorus content, specific leaf area, specific root length.

Please cite as: Kumordzi, B. B., Aubin, I., Cardou, F., Shipley, B., Violle, C., Johnstone, J., Anand, M., Arsenault, A., Bell, F. W., Bergeron, Y., Boulangeat, I., Brousseau, M., De Grandpré, L., Delagrange, S., Fenton, N. J., Gravel, D., Macdonald, S. E., Hamel, B., Higelin, M., Higelin, M., Hébert, F., Isabel, N., Mallik, A., McIntosh, A. C. S., McLaren, J. R., Messier, C., Morris, D., Thiffault, N., Tremblay, J.-P., Munson, A.D. (2019). Geographic scale and disturbance influence intraspecific trait variability in leaves and roots of North American understorey plants. Functional Ecology, 33, 1771–1784.https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13402

Datasets available for download

• Data traitsCSV
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• Data dictionaryCSV
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• Traits descriptionCSV
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• Community ecology
• Cumulative effects
• Ecological data
• Ecosystem reclamation
• Ecosystem restoration
• Forest management
• Forestry
• Forests
• Functional traits
• Nature and Environment
• Plants
• Science and Technology
• Vegetation

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (46%)
• Maturity Level 2 (31%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 02:52 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 02:52 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	TOPIC CoVitas - Aboveground and belowground plant traits
Description A description of the dataset.	Co-Vitas project traits data. The Co-VITAS project is investigating understory species (6 ubiquitous boreal species) response and adaptive capacity to environmental change, by measuring a set of leaf and root traits throughout the species range. We enlisted and coordinated the efforts of 23 research teams across Canada for field sampling of 79 sites in July 2014 (from Newfoundland to Yukon). Traits include root calcium content, root potassium content, root magnesium content, root nitrogen content, root phosphorus content, leaf calcium content, leaf potassium content, leaf magnesium content, leaf nitrogen content, leaf phosphorus content, specific leaf area, specific root length. Please cite as: Kumordzi, B. B., Aubin, I., Cardou, F., Shipley, B., Violle, C., Johnstone, J., Anand, M., Arsenault, A., Bell, F. W., Bergeron, Y., Boulangeat, I., Brousseau, M., De Grandpré, L., Delagrange, S., Fenton, N. J., Gravel, D., Macdonald, S. E., Hamel, B., Higelin, M., Higelin, M., Hébert, F., Isabel, N., Mallik, A., McIntosh, A. C. S., McLaren, J. R., Messier, C., Morris, D., Thiffault, N., Tremblay, J.-P., Munson, A.D. (2019). Geographic scale and disturbance influence intraspecific trait variability in leaves and roots of North American understorey plants. Functional Ecology, 33, 1771–1784.https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13402
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Community ecology Cumulative effects Ecological data Ecosystem reclamation Ecosystem restoration Forest management Forestry Forests Functional traits Nature and Environment Plants Science and Technology Vegetation
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2024-02-08
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/6c1f77a5-117b-49bf-82d7-c2c0fc020819
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Natural Resources Canada | Ressources naturelles Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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