Curated bibliography of peer-reviewed papers that prominently use the
Botanical Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) database,
R package, or associated services. Every entry was verified against Crossref
(DOI, journal, volume, pages, year) on 2 July 2026. Author lists
are abbreviated with et al.; the complete author list is available at
each DOI landing page.
Primary references (cite when using BIEN data or tools)
-
Enquist BJ, Boyle B, Maitner BS, et al. (2026). BIEN: A biodiversity informatics
ecosystem advancing open and reproducible workflows for plant observation, plot
and trait data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 17(5), 1556–1584.
doi:10.1111/2041-210X.70274 -
Maitner BS, Boyle B, Casler N, Condit R, Donoghue J, Durán SM, Guaderrama D,
Hinchliff CE, Jørgensen PM, Kraft NJB, McGill B, Merow C, Morueta-Holme N,
Peet RK, Sandel B, Schildhauer M, Smith SA, Svenning J-C, Thiers B, Violle C,
Wiser S, Enquist BJ (2018). The BIEN R package: a tool to access the Botanical
Information and Ecology Network (BIEN) database. Methods in Ecology and
Evolution, 9(2), 373–379.
doi:10.1111/2041-210X.12861
Associated tools, standards, and services
-
Boyle B, Hopkins N, Lu Z, Raygoza Garay JA, Mozzherin D, Rees T, Matasci N,
Narro ML, Piel WH, McKay SJ, Lowry S, Freeland C, Peet RK, Enquist BJ (2013).
The taxonomic name resolution service: an online tool for automated
standardization of plant names. BMC Bioinformatics, 14, 16.
doi:10.1186/1471-2105-14-16 -
Goldsmith GR, Morueta-Holme N, Sandel B, et al. (2016). Plant-O-Matic: a dynamic
and mobile guide to all plants of the Americas. Methods in Ecology and
Evolution, 7(8), 960–965.
doi:10.1111/2041-210X.12548 -
Merow C, Maitner BS, Owens HL, Kass JM, Enquist BJ, Jetz W, Guralnick R (2019).
Species’ range model metadata standards: RMMS. Global Ecology and
Biogeography, 28(12), 1912–1924.
doi:10.1111/geb.12993
Selected research prominently using BIEN data
Tags indicate the BIEN data product(s) each study draws on.
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Enquist BJ, et al. (2019). The commonness of rarity: global and future
distribution of rarity across land plants. Science Advances, 5(11),
eaaz0414.
doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz0414
— occurrence, range/SDM -
Cai L, et al. (2022). Global models and predictions of plant diversity based on
advanced machine learning techniques. New Phytologist, 237(4),
1432–1445.
doi:10.1111/nph.18533
— occurrence -
Hannah L, et al. (2020). 30% land conservation and climate action reduces
tropical extinction risk by more than 50%. Ecography, 43(7),
943–953.
doi:10.1111/ecog.05166
— range/SDM, conservation -
Jardine EC, et al. (2020). The global distribution of grass functional traits
within grassy biomes. Journal of Biogeography, 47(2), 553–565.
doi:10.1111/jbi.13764
— trait -
McFadden IR, et al. (2019). Temperature shapes opposing latitudinal gradients of
plant taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity. Ecology Letters,
22(7), 1126–1135.
doi:10.1111/ele.13269
— occurrence, phylogenetic -
Feng X, et al. (2019). A checklist for maximizing reproducibility of ecological
niche models. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(10), 1382–1395.
doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0972-5
— occurrence, range/SDM -
Šímová I, et al. (2019). The relationship of woody plant size
and leaf nutrient content to large-scale productivity for forests across the
Americas. Journal of Ecology, 107(5), 2278–2290.
doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13163
— trait, plot -
Steidinger BS, et al. (2019). Climatic controls of decomposition drive the global
biogeography of forest-tree symbioses. Nature, 569(7756), 404–408.
doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1128-0
— verify BIEN centrality; primarily forest-inventory (GFBI) data -
Echeverría-Londoño S, et al. (2018). Plant functional diversity and
the biogeography of biomes in North and South America. Frontiers in Ecology
and Evolution, 6, 219.
doi:10.3389/fevo.2018.00219
— trait, occurrence -
Šímová I, et al. (2018). Spatial patterns and climate
relationships of major plant traits in the New World differ between woody and
herbaceous species. Journal of Biogeography, 45(4), 895–916.
doi:10.1111/jbi.13171
— trait -
Eiserhardt WL, et al. (2018). A roadmap for global synthesis of the plant tree of
life. American Journal of Botany, 105(3), 614–622.
doi:10.1002/ajb2.1041
— verify BIEN centrality; perspective/roadmap paper -
Serra-Diaz JM, et al. (2017). Big data of tree species distributions: how big and
how good? Forest Ecosystems, 4, 30.
doi:10.1186/s40663-017-0120-0
— occurrence, range/SDM -
Csergő AM, et al. (2017). Less favourable climates constrain demographic
strategies in plants. Ecology Letters, 20(8), 969–980.
doi:10.1111/ele.12794
— verify BIEN centrality; demographic data from COMPADRE -
Doughty CE, et al. (2016). Megafauna extinction, tree species range reduction, and
carbon storage in Amazonian forests. Ecography, 39(2), 194–203.
doi:10.1111/ecog.01587
— range/SDM -
Lamanna C, et al. (2014). Functional trait space and the latitudinal diversity
gradient. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(38),
13745–13750.
doi:10.1073/pnas.1317722111
— trait, occurrence -
Morueta-Holme N, et al. (2013). Habitat area and climate stability determine
geographical variation in plant species range sizes. Ecology Letters,
16(12), 1446–1454.
doi:10.1111/ele.12184
— occurrence, range/SDM
Borderline / predates the BIEN R package (verify before citing as BIEN use)
-
Sandel B, et al. (2011). The influence of Late Quaternary climate-change velocity
on species endemism. Science, 334(6056), 660–664.
doi:10.1126/science.1210173
— foundational BIEN-group paper; predates the BIEN R package and used
assembled range data.
Note. Candidate papers were drawn from the BIEN publications and
citation pages, then each DOI and its metadata were confirmed via the Crossref REST
API (verified 2 July 2026). DOI verification confirms the citation, not that a paper
used BIEN data centrally in its methods — entries flagged
“verify BIEN centrality” use BIEN in a supporting role. This list is a
verified, high-prominence subset and is not exhaustive. When citing BIEN-derived
outputs, record the access date, query scope, and key filters/validation rules used.