betydb: a yield, trait, and ecosystem service database applied to second-generation bioenergy feedstock production
Increasing demand for sustainable energy has led to research and development on the cultivation of diverse plant species for biomass production. To support the research and development required to domesticate and cultivate crops for bioenergy, we developed the Biofuel Ecophysiological Traits and Yields database (BETYdb). BETYdb is a centralized open-access repository that facilitates organization, discovery, and exchange of information about plant traits, crop yields, and ecosystem functions. BETYdb provides user interfaces to simplify storage and discovery as well as programming interfaces that support automated and reproducible scientific workflows. Presently, BETYdb contains over forty thousand observations of plant traits, biomass yields, and ecosystem dynamics collected from the published articles and ongoing field studies.