An exciting international SETAC workshop on Trait-based Ecological Risk Assessment (TERA) was hosted by Environment Canada at the CCIW in Burlington from 7th -11th September 2009. Donald Baird, Joseph Culp, Tim Pascoe, Paul van den Brink, Steve Maund and PhD. Student Mascha Rubach organized the workshop because of our realization that taxonomy‐based descriptions of natural systems place limitations on our ability to describe ecological responses to stress. The workshop particularly identified problems associated with potential trait ontologies in order to take the first steps towards developing a collaborative platform for sharing trait information. As a first and immediate result in order to start a web-based ontology for traits in this field, we created an online community at http://new.freshwaterlife.org/web/tera.
