A database of functional traits for spiders from native forests of the Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia

Nuria Macías-Hernández; Cândida Ramos; Marc Domènech; Sara Febles; Irene Santos; Miquel A Arnedo; Paulo A V Borges; Brent C Emerson; Pedro Cardoso

doi:10.3897/BDJ.8.e49159

A database of functional traits for spiders from native forests of the Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia

Biodivers Data J. 2020 Apr 30:8:e49159. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.8.e49159. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Nuria Macías-Hernández^{1

2}, Cândida Ramos^{2

3}, Marc Domènech^{4

5}, Sara Febles⁶, Irene Santos⁶, Miquel A Arnedo^{4

5}, Paulo A V Borges³, Brent C Emerson¹, Pedro Cardoso²

Affiliations

¹ Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, IPNA-CSIC, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, IPNA-CSIC, Tenerife Canary Islands Spain.
² Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland.
³ cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores - Departamento de Ciências Agrárias e do Ambiente, Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Açores, Portugal cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores - Departamento de Ciências Agrárias e do Ambiente Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Açores Portugal.
⁴ Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology & Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology & Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona Barcelona Spain.
⁵ CRBA: Animal Biodiversity Resource Center, UB, Barcelona, Spain CRBA: Animal Biodiversity Resource Center, UB Barcelona Spain.
⁶ Department of Animal Biology and Edaphology and Geology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain Department of Animal Biology and Edaphology and Geology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife Canary Islands Spain.

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing demand for databases including species trait information for biodiversity and community ecology studies. The existence of trait databases is useful for comparative studies within taxa or geographical regions, but there is low availability of databases for certain organisms. Here we present an open access functional trait database for spiders from Macaronesia and the Iberian Peninsula, recording several morphological and ecological traits related to the species life histories, microhabitat and trophic preferences.

New information: We present a database that includes 12 biological traits for 506 spider species present in natural forests of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) and three Macaronesian archipelagoes (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). The functional trait database consists of two sections:individual-level data for six morphological traits (total body size, prosoma length, prosoma width, prosoma height, tibia I length and fang length), based on direct measurements of 2844 specimens of all spider species; andspecies-level aggregate data for 12 traits (same 6 morphological traits as in the previous section plus dispersal ability, vertical stratification, circadian activity, foraging strategy, trophic specialization and colonization status), based on either the average of the direct measurements or bibliographic searches.This functional trait database will serve as a data standard for currently ongoing analyses that require trait and functional diversity statistics.

Keywords: Araneae; Portugal; Spain; ecology; forest; morphology.

Nuria Macías-Hernández, Cândida Ramos, Marc Domènech, Sara Febles, Irene Santos, Miquel A. Arnedo, Paulo A.V. Borges, Brent C. Emerson, Pedro Cardoso.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.8320004.v3

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the project BIODIV ISLAND-CONT (Biodiversity drivers on islands and continents – 706482) funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015) to the first author NMH. The research was additionally funded by three other projects that provided the material collected for the database: 1) the ERA-Net Net-Biome research framework, financed through Portuguese FCT-NETBIOME grant 0003/2011 (PB); 2) FCT MACDIV – FCT-PTDC/BIABIC/0054/2014 (PB, BE, PC); 3) the Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales Spain (OAPN #485/2012). PC is supported by a grant from Koneen Säätiö: “Trait-Based Prediction of Extinction Risk”.