Measurement of plant fluxes of carbon and water inform the mechanistic understanding and model representation of photosynthesis, respiration and stomatal conductance. The previous lack of conventions for reporting these data posed significant challenges to data interoperability. With input from over 80 experts, development of this reporting format aimed to facilitate efficient data synthesis and add value to individual datasets. Data interoperability will be enhanced in multiple ways. Required metadata variables and vocabulary terms results in a detailed description of the experiment, allowing for selection of comparable data. Then, use of common variable names and definitions will enable easier data harmonization.
