Soil BON Earthworm Trait template

Within the Soil BON Earthworm initiative, a trait template was developed, building largely on the one created for the BETSI database (Pey et al, 2014a, b). Similarly, the data template is composed of several leaflets:

"readme": this leaflet contains all column names from the leaflet "template to fill with data" and provide the necessary information to properly fill the information needed.
"template to fill with data": this leaflet is a long-format table in which each line is a trait value from a specific reference, allowing multiple trait values of the same trait for the same species to account for intraspecific trait variability due to inter-population variability, geography or ontogeny
"drop down list": this leaflet is non-modifiable and contains the different lists from which trait values are taken (e.g. trait name) to avoid synonyms.
Trait expression is highly influenced by the environment and metadata associated with any trait value is necessary. For certain traits, meta-data is especially important, such as burrow system characteristics that need to be linked to soil volume, density, moisture levels, or cast characteristics that need to be compared to the bulk soil. The trait template will be updated in the future to offer a solution to link single trait data and the metadata associated.