2025/06/28 by Jamie Thompson, Catherine Martinez, Jorge Avaria‐Llautureo +8 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Botanical Research and Applications #Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies #Plant Diversity and Evolution
paper · pdf · doi:10.1101/2025.06.27.661607
openalex publication_date 2025/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Abstract Integrated datasets linking traits, spatial distributions, environmental variables and phylogenies are essential for comparative research, but remain limited for many plant taxa, including those which are most threatened. Cactaceae are a morphologically and ecologically diverse succulent family that are iconic components of ecosystems across the Americas, and face high extinction risk. To support future comparative research, we present CactEcoDB (The Cactus Ecological Database), an Open Access dataset of curated spatial, ecological, trait, phylogenetic, and diversification data for over 1,000 cactus species. CactEcoDB includes species-level trait data, geographic occurrence records, environmental variables, range size estimates, speciation rates, and the largest time-calibrated phylogeny of cacti to date. By integrating these diverse data in a single platform, CactEcoDB enables analyses of trait evolution, trait–environment interactions, biogeography, climatic niche evolution, and macroevolutionary dynamics in one of the most celebrated and threatened plant families.