traits

R package for accessing species trait data from multiple databases.
https://github.com/ropensci/traits

Category: Biosphere
Sub Category: Biodiversity Data Access and Management

Keywords

api-client r r-package rstats species traits

Keywords from Contributors

routes genome meta-analysis geocoding biodiversity biology darwincore taxonomy noaa climate

Last synced: about 1 hour ago
JSON representation

Repository metadata

R package for accessing species trait data from multiple databases

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/ropensci/traits
• Owner: ropensci
• License: other
• Created: 2014-04-09T20:21:13.000Z (over 11 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2025-04-10T19:35:29.000Z (7 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-10-21T12:44:38.979Z (13 days ago)
• Topics: api-client, r, r-package, rstats, species, traits
• Language: R
• Homepage:
• Size: 4.47 MB
• Stars: 41
• Watchers: 6
• Forks: 13
• Open Issues: 4
• Releases: 8
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.Rmd
  • Changelog: NEWS.md
  • Contributing: .github/CONTRIBUTING.md
  • License: LICENSE
  • Citation: CITATION.cff
  • Codemeta: codemeta.json

README.Rmd

          ---
title: "traits: Species Trait Data from Around the Web"
output: github_document
---

traits
=======

```{r echo=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  comment = "#>",
  collapse = TRUE,
  warning = FALSE,
  message = FALSE
)
```


[![R-CMD-check](https://github.com/ropensci/traits/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/ropensci/traits/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml)
[![rstudio mirror downloads](https://cranlogs.r-pkg.org/badges/traits)](https://github.com/r-hub/cranlogs.app)
[![cran version](https://www.r-pkg.org/badges/version/traits)](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=traits)
[![DOI](https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.11224037.svg)](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11224037)

R client for various sources of species trait data.

Docs: https://docs.ropensci.org/traits/

What is a trait? A "trait" for the purposes of this package is broadly defined as an aspect of a species that can be described or measured, such as physical traits (size, length, height, color), behavioral traits (running speed, etc.), and even variables that make up the niche of the species (e.g., habitat).

Included in `traits` with the associated function prefix or function name:











  
Souce
  
Function prefix
  
Link





  
BETYdb
  
betydb_
  
https://www.betydb.org/


  
NCBI
  
ncbi_
  
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/


  
Encylopedia of Life
  
traitbank_
  






  
Birdlife International
  
birdlife_
  
https://www.birdlife.org/


  
LEDA Traitbase
  
leda_
  



  
Zanne et al. plant dataset
  
tr_zanne
  



  
Amniote life history dataset
  
tr_ernest
  






Talk to us on the issues page (https://github.com/ropensci/traits/issues) if you know of a source of traits data with an API, and we'll see about including it.

## Installation

Stable R-Universe version

```{r eval=FALSE}
install.packages("traits", repos = c('https://ropensci.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))
```

_Note: traits has been removed from CRAN pending https://github.com/ropensci/taxize/issues/938_

Or development version from GitHub

```{r eval=FALSE}
install.packages("traits", repos = c('https://ropensci.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org')) 
remotes::install_github("ropensci/traits")
```

```{r}
library("traits")
library("dplyr")
```

## Contributors

* [Scott Chamberlain](https://github.com/sckott)
* [Zachary Foster](https://github.com/zachary-foster)
* [Ignasi Bartomeus](https://github.com/ibartomeus)
* [David LeBauer](https://github.com/dlebauer)
* [David Harris](https://github.com/davharris)
* [Chris Black](https://github.com/infotroph)
* [Rupert Collins](https://github.com/boopsboops)

## Meta

* Please [report any issues or bugs](https://github.com/ropensci/traits/issues).
* License: MIT
* Get citation information for `traits` in R doing `citation(package = 'traits')`
* Please note that this package is released with a [Contributor Code of Conduct](https://ropensci.org/code-of-conduct/). By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.

[![ropensci_footer](https://ropensci.org/public_images/github_footer.png)](https://ropensci.org)

        

Citation (CITATION.cff)

# --------------------------------------------
# CITATION file created with {cffr} R package
# See also: https://docs.ropensci.org/cffr/
# --------------------------------------------
 
cff-version: 1.2.0
message: 'To cite package "traits" in publications use:'
type: software
license: MIT
title: 'traits: Species Trait Data from Around the Web'
version: 0.5.2
abstract: Species trait data from many sources, including sequence data from 'NCBI'
  (<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/>), plant traits from 'BETYdb', and data from 'EOL
  Traitbank' and 'Birdlife International'.
authors:
- family-names: LeBauer
  given-names: David
  email: dlebauer@gmail.com
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7228-053X
- family-names: Chamberlain
  given-names: Scott
  email: myrmecocystus@gmail.com
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1444-9135
- family-names: Foster
  given-names: Zachary
- family-names: Bartomeus
  given-names: Ignasi
- family-names: Black
  given-names: Chris
- family-names: Harris
  given-names: David
preferred-citation:
  type: manual
  title: 'traits: Species Trait Data from Around the Web'
  authors:
  - family-names: LeBauer
    given-names: David
    email: dlebauer@gmail.com
    orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7228-053X
  - family-names: Chamberlain
    given-names: Scott
    email: myrmecocystus@gmail.com
    orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1444-9135
  - family-names: Foster
    given-names: Zachary
  - family-names: Bartomeus
    given-names: Ignasi
  - family-names: Black
    given-names: Chris
  - family-names: Harris
    given-names: David
  year: '2025'
  notes: R package version 0.5.2, https://github.com/ropensci/traits, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11224037
  url: https://docs.ropensci.org/traits/
repository-code: https://github.com/ropensci/traits
url: https://docs.ropensci.org/traits/
date-released: '2025-04-10'
contact:
- family-names: LeBauer
  given-names: David
  email: dlebauer@gmail.com
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7228-053X
keywords:
- traits
- API
- web-services
- species
- taxonomy
- biodiversity
- ecology
- environmental-data
- species-traits
- api-client
- r
- r-package
- rstats

---

Owner metadata

• Name: rOpenSci
• Login: ropensci
• Email: info@ropensci.org
• Kind: organization
• Description:
• Website: https://ropensci.org/
• Location: Berkeley, CA
• Twitter: rOpenSci
• Company:
• Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1200269?v=4
• Repositories: 307
• Last ynced at: 2023-03-10T20:30:59.242Z
• Profile URL: https://github.com/ropensci

---

GitHub Events

Total

• Issues event: 7
• Watch event: 1
• Delete event: 3
• Issue comment event: 3
• Push event: 9
• Pull request event: 5
• Create event: 2

Last Year

• Issues event: 7
• Delete event: 3
• Issue comment event: 3
• Push event: 9
• Pull request event: 5
• Create event: 2

---

Committers metadata

Last synced: 6 days ago

Name	Email	Commits
Scott Chamberlain	m****s@g****m	224
David LeBauer	d****r@g****m	52
Chris Black	c****s@c****g	24
davharris	h****1@g****m	15
Nacho	n****o@a****r	12
fosterz	z****9@g****m	3
rupert@sorubim	r****s@g****m	3
github-actions[bot]	4****]	2
Nick Heyek	n****k@p****m	2
Maëlle Salmon	m****n@y****e	2
rOpenSci Bot	m****t@g****m	1
dschlaep	d****r@u****h	1

Committer domains:

• unibas.ch: 1
• ckblack.org: 1

---

Issue and Pull Request metadata

Last synced: about 1 month ago

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

---

---

---

Package metadata

• Total packages: 3
• Total downloads:
  • cran: 1,111 last-month
• Total docker downloads: 172,057
• Total dependent packages: 2 (may contain duplicates)
• Total dependent repositories: 18 (may contain duplicates)
• Total versions: 18
• Total maintainers: 1

---

Dependencies

Score: 18.353742545891816