Table 4.

List of fields returned by the Polytraits database, either when downloading information from the Polytraits download page (export format "default CSV file") or when accessing the database through the REST API.

Column label	Column description
Taxon	The taxon for which the information was recorded.
Author	The author and year of the Taxon for which the information was recorded.
Valid taxon	Currently accepted name of the Taxon (as stored in the Polytraits database – information might not be up to date with the latest taxonomic literature in some cases). If Taxon is currently accepted, this field contains the same value as Taxon).
Valid author	Currently accepted name of the Author (as stored in the Polytraits database – information might not be up to date with the latest taxonomic literature in some cases). If Taxon is currently accepted, this field contains the same value as Author.
Taxonomic status	Information on why Taxon is not currently valid (e.g. objective synonym). If Taxon and Author are currently accepted, this field is empty.
Source of synonymy	Literature reference for the Taxonomic status (if present).
Parent taxon	The Taxon's direct parent in the taxonomic classification (as stored in the Polytraits database).
Trait	The biological trait for which information is available (e.g. "Feeding type").
Modality	The sub-category of the Trait for which information is available (e.g. "Carnivore").
Modality abbreviation	An abbreviated version of the often verbose Modality – useful as a label in further analyses of the data (e.g. "FEED_C").
Traitvalue	Describes the affinity of the Taxon to the above Modality – can be either "0" (for "absent") or "1" (for "present").
Reference	Literature reference leading to the assignment of the Traitvalue to the Modality for the Taxon.
DOI	Digital Object Identifier (where available) of the Reference.
Value creator	Person who assigned the Traitvalue to the Modality for the Taxon, supported by a Reference.
Value creation date	Date and time when the above information was entered into the database.
Text Excerpt	A quotation of the original text passage from the literature source that led to the assignment of assignment of the Modality / Traitvalue to the Taxon. Empty if information has not been recorded yet.
Text Excerpt creator	Person who entered the Text Excerpt. Only present if Text Excerpt is present.
Text Excerpt creation date	Date and time when the Text Excerpt was entered into the database. Only present if Text Excerpt is present.