The computing principle GIGO states that if the data you put into a model is garbage, then the output will be too. Jie Yang and colleagues have been tackling the problem of modeling of tropical tree growth. What data is the best data for these models?

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One approach that you could expect is to take an average of traits as data. “While collecting trait data from a small number of individuals may be a pragmatic approach, particularly in diverse systems, the analysis of population- or species-mean trait data is conceptually misaligned with the vast evolutionary ecology literature relating traits to individual performance and it may lead to weak or misleading models and inferences,” write Yang and colleagues.