The Future of Trait-Based Fish Ecology and the Fishtraits Database

A trait-based approach is essential to understanding the mechanisms controlling species responses to climate change, spread of invasives, and extirpations due to land use and hydrologic alterations, among other emerging threats to aquatic biota. Classic niche and hierarchical filters concepts, for example, invoke species traits to explain and predict distributions. Whereas freshwater fishes are among the most imperiled organisms, many have not been studied well to facilitate applications of trait-based approaches, and for many of those that have been studied information remain obscure or not in formats readily accessible to researchers. Many deadline-driven researchers usually just want a ‘trait matrix’, with sources and quality of data being a secondary concern. We developed the FishTraits database to bridge the gap between research priorities and data accessibility, especially for researchers engaged in large regional or national projects involving hundreds of species. The database covers all native fishes and some non-natives of the conterminous United States. The data are accessible online or through direct request to the author. The goals of this presentation are to overview some major concepts in trait-based community and macro-ecology and discuss opportunities and limitations to using the FishTraits database and ongoing enhancements to the contents and accessibility.