traitORS: A species trait database for offshore benthic and pelagic fauna of the Northeast Pacific

The traitORS database is species-level trait database for the Northeast Pacific offshore region of western Canada, encompassing diverse offshore and deep-sea habitats (e.g., seamounts, hydrothermal vents, pelagic ecosystems). Through a collaborative synthesis of unpublished and published databases, biodiversity repositories, and expert knowledge, traitORS compiled 25 traits for 1,493 species across 13 phyla, spanning meiofauna to megafauna and the full bathymetric gradient. Species traits cover morphology, life history, feeding ecology, reproductive strategy, and habitat use aspects, with per-entry trait certainty scores and literature citations. traitORS uses standardized taxonomy (WoRMS AphiaIDs) and is compatible with existing databases, enabling regional and comparative functional diversity analyses and biodiversity assessments across regional Marine Protected Areas, the NE Pacific and beyond.traitORS is provided as a single Microsoft Excel file (TraitORS_database.xlsx) containing three tabs:1) The readme tab contains a general description of the file and tabs. 2) The trait_definitions tab contains the definition of the 25 traits, and their modalities. 3) The traitORS_database tab contains 1,493 rows (one per species) and 82 columns. The first six columns contain species information fields: Scientific.name (accepted scientific name following WoRMS Aphia ID), Contributor (email address(es) of the contributor(s) who scored the traits of that species), Phylum, Class, Family, and AphiaID (the accepted WoRMS AphiaID). The remaining 76 columns encode the 25 traits, with each trait represented by three columns: the trait value, the bibliographic references used to assign that value, and a certainty score (1–3). The final column (Notes) records comments from authors that may be useful for users (e.g., clarifying scoring decisions, species occurrence notes, etc.). Empty cells indicate that a trait value was not found and/or known for that species.