austraits

R package for accessing the AusTraits Plant database, an open-source, harmonized database of Australian plant trait data.
https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits

Category: Biosphere
Sub Category: Plants and Vegetation

Keywords

australia database plants traits

Keywords from Contributors

ecology

Last synced: about 4 hours ago
JSON representation

Repository metadata

R package for accessing the AusTraits Plant database and working with traits.build databases

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits
• Owner: traitecoevo
• License: mit
• Created: 2021-04-27T01:17:27.000Z (over 5 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2026-07-08T03:15:33.000Z (about 1 month ago)
• Last Synced: 2026-08-04T00:05:20.389Z (7 days ago)
• Topics: australia, database, plants, traits
• Language: R
• Homepage: https://traitecoevo.github.io/austraits/
• Size: 50.6 MB
• Stars: 23
• Watchers: 7
• Forks: 5
• Open Issues: 7
• Releases: 5
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.Rmd
  • Changelog: NEWS.md
  • License: LICENSE

README.Rmd

          ---
output: github_document
editor_options: 
  chunk_output_type: console
---



```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  fig.path = "man/figures/README-",
  out.width = "100%",
  message = FALSE,
  warning = FALSE
)

library(austraits) 
library(stringr)
library(dplyr)
```


# austraits 


[![R-CMD-check](https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yml)
[![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/traitecoevo/austraits/branch/master/graph/badge.svg?token=JT1M0AMZ44)](https://codecov.io/gh/traitecoevo/austraits)
[![](https://img.shields.io/badge/doi-10.1038/s41597--021--01006--6-blue.svg)](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01006-6)
[![](https://img.shields.io/badge/lifecycle-stable-brightgreen.svg)](https://lifecycle.r-lib.org/articles/stages.html#stable)
[![Codecov test coverage](https://codecov.io/gh/traitecoevo/austraits/branch/master/graph/badge.svg)](https://app.codecov.io/gh/traitecoevo/austraits?branch=master)


`austraits` allow users to **access, explore and wrangle data** from [traits.build](https://github.com/traitecoevo/traits.build) relational databases. It is also an R interface to [AusTraits](https://austraits.org/), the Australian plant trait database. This package contains functions for joining data from various tables, filtering to specific records, combining multiple databases and visualising the distribution of the data. We expect this package will assist users in working with `traits.build` databases.

### Installation

This package is not on CRAN yet and is still under active development. For the current stable release of `austraits`, which has full capabilities of the functions used in vignettes (e.g. plotting functions), use: 

```{r setup, results = 'hide', eval = FALSE}
#install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("traitecoevo/austraits", dependencies = TRUE, upgrade = "ask")

library(austraits) 
```

For a lightweight installation where dependencies for plotting and producing the vignettes will not be installed, use:

```{r light, results = 'hide', eval = FALSE}
remotes::install_github("traitecoevo/austraits", upgrade = "ask")
```

### Details for AusTraits users

#### Retrieve AusTraits data

- **For R users**, the AusTraits database can be accessed through the `austraits` package using `load_austraits()`

- **For Python or other users**, the [Zenodo download](https://zenodo.org/record/5112001#collapseTwo) includes a `.zip` file containing all the data in plain text (`.csv` files) and associated meta-data 

#### Backwards compatibility with past AusTraits versions

From September 2024, `austraits` functions were revamped to support all [traits.build](https://github.com/traitecoevo/traits.build) compiled databases, rather than being linked to [austraits.build](https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits.build).

Versions of `austraits.build` (the AusTraits plant trait database) **< 5.0 are no longer supported** by the latest version of the package. If you are working with an older version of AusTraits, please install an older version of austraits:

For `austraits.build` versions 4.2 and older: 

```{r backwards, results = 'hide', eval = FALSE}
#install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("traitecoevo/austraits@v2.2.2", dependencies = TRUE, upgrade = "ask")

library(austraits)
```

Note, if you are unsure what version of AusTraits you are working with, run:

```{r version, results = 'hide', eval = FALSE}
austraits$build_info$version
```

### Getting started  `r emo::ji("eyes")`

We highly recommend taking a look at our [Getting Started tutorial](https://traitecoevo.github.io/austraits/articles/austraits.html) on our website before jumping into the `austraits` R package!

If you prefer to view this vignette in R, we recommend installing the package with `build_vignettes = TRUE`. 

```{r, eval = FALSE}
remotes::install_github("traitecoevo/austraits", 
                        dependencies = TRUE, upgrade = "ask", 
                        build_vignettes = TRUE)

vignette("austraits")
```

### Cheat sheet



### Learn more about AusTraits

AusTraits is a relational database, you can learn more about it's structure from the [traits.build book](https://traitecoevo.github.io/traits.build-book/AusTraits_tutorial.html).  

You can also learn about the definitions of each plant trait with the [AusTraits Plant Dictionary!](https://w3id.org/APD)

### Show us some support `r emo::ji("green heart")`

Please consider citing `austraits`, we would super appreciate it! 

```{r}
citation("austraits")
```

### Behind the scenes `r emo::ji("spanner")`

Check out [austraits.build](https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits.build?tab=readme-ov-file), if you are interested in how AusTraits the database is managed and created

### Find a bug? `r emo::ji("bug")`

Thank you for finding it! Head over to the GitHub Issues tab and let us know about it! We will try to get to it as soon as we can!

## AusTraits family

`austraits` is part of the **AusTraits family** of packages maintained by the
[AusTraits](https://austraits.org) team. See **[austraits.org](https://austraits.org)** for the
project, the data, and the people behind it.

Contributing? Issues across the family are tracked on one board,
[AusTraits #9](https://github.com/orgs/traitecoevo/projects/9), and new issues are auto-added. Please
read the [issue & labelling guide](https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits-meta/blob/main/governance/issue-guide.md)
in [`austraits-meta`](https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits-meta) — the family's cross-package
knowledge and governance hub — before filing.

## Acknowledgements

AusTraits is made possible by contributions from our partner organisations — the
[University of New South Wales](https://www.unsw.edu.au/),
[Western Sydney University](https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/),
[Botanic Gardens of Sydney](https://www.botanicgardens.org.au/),
[the University of Melbourne](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/),
the [Atlas of Living Australia](https://www.ala.org.au/), and the Australian Government
[Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water](https://www.dcceew.gov.au) — and
from our [advisory board, data contributors, and past partners](https://austraits.org/team/team-partners.html).

AusTraits is a co-investment partnership with the
[Australian Research Data Commons](https://ardc.edu.au/) (ARDC) through the Planet Research Data
Commons ([DOI: 10.3565/nyk4-4r91](https://doi.org/10.3565/nyk4-4r91)). The ARDC is enabled by the
Australian Government's [National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy](https://www.education.gov.au/ncris)
(NCRIS).



        

---

Owner metadata

• Name: Trait Ecology and Evolution
• Login: traitecoevo
• Email:
• Kind: organization
• Description:
• Website:
• Location: Australia
• Twitter:
• Company:
• Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11747619?v=4
• Repositories: 64
• Last ynced at: 2023-06-03T21:10:14.705Z
• Profile URL: https://github.com/traitecoevo

---

GitHub Events

Total

• Release event: 1
• Delete event: 33
• Pull request event: 68
• Fork event: 3
• Issues event: 55
• Watch event: 4
• Issue comment event: 39
• Push event: 162
• Pull request review event: 50
• Pull request review comment event: 27
• Create event: 33

Last Year

• Delete event: 1
• Fork event: 1
• Issues event: 2
• Push event: 7
• Create event: 2

---

Committers metadata

Last synced: 7 days ago

Name	Email	Commits
Fonti Kar	f****r@u****u	385
Daniel Falster	d****r@u****u	28
Elizabeth Wenk	e****k@g****m	22
Matthias Grenié	m****e@u****r	1
Dony Indiarto	d****o@s****u	1
runner	r****r@M****l	1
runner	r****r@M****l	1
runner	r****r@M****l	1
runner	r****r@M****l	1

Committer domains:

• unsw.edu.au: 2
• student.unsw.edu.au: 1
• univ-grenoble-alpes.fr: 1

---

Issue and Pull Request metadata

Last synced: about 6 hours ago

More stats: https://issues.ecosyste.ms/repositories/lookup?url=https://github.com/traitecoevo/austraits

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Dependencies

Score: 5.598421958998375