New thousand-seed weight dataset for plant species of Central Europe

Viktória Törő-Szijgyártó; Nóra Balogh; Tamás Henn; Andrea McIntosh-Buday; Judit Sonkoly; Attila Takács; Gergely Kovacsics-Vári; Patricia Díaz Cando; Attila Molnár V; Gábor Matus; Balázs Teleki; Kristóf Süveges; Balázs A Lukács; Ádám Lovas-Kiss; Béla Tóthmérész; Edina Tóth; Katalin Tóth; Péter Török

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2023.109081

New thousand-seed weight dataset for plant species of Central Europe

Data Brief. 2023 Mar 22:48:109081. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2023.109081. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Viktória Törő-Szijgyártó¹, Nóra Balogh¹, Tamás Henn², Andrea McIntosh-Buday^{1

3}, Judit Sonkoly^{1

3}, Attila Takács^{4

5}, Gergely Kovacsics-Vári¹, Patricia Díaz Cando¹, Attila Molnár V^{4

5}, Gábor Matus⁴, Balázs Teleki⁶, Kristóf Süveges⁴, Balázs A Lukács⁷, Ádám Lovas-Kiss⁷, Béla Tóthmérész^{1

6}, Edina Tóth¹, Katalin Tóth¹, Péter Török^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology, University of Debrecen, 1 Egyetem sqr., 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.
² József Attila City Library and Museum Collection,1 Városház sqr., 7300 Komló, Hungary.
³ ELKH-DE Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, 1 Egyetem sqr., 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.
⁴ Department of Botany, University of Debrecen, 1 Egyetem sqr., 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.
⁵ ELKH-DE Conservation Biology Research Group, 1 Egyetem sqr., 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.
⁶ MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, 1 Egyetem sqr., 4032 Debrecen, Hungary.
⁷ Wetland Ecology Research Group, Centre for Ecological Research, 18/c Bem sqr., 4026 Debrecen, Hungary.

Abstract

One of the most important and most easily measurable physical characteristics of plant seeds is their weight, which influences and indicates crucial ecological processes. Seed weight affects spatial and temporal dispersibility, and can also influence seed predation and the germination, growth and survival of seedlings. Providing trait data for species missing from international databases is key to promote studies that advance our understanding of the functioning of plant communities and ecosystems, which is an essential issue in the face of the global climate change and biodiversity loss. Compared to species from Western and Northwestern Europe, those with an Eastern or Central European centre of distribution are underrepresented in most international trait databases. Therefore, the creation of specific trait databases is key to help regional studies. In this respect, it is important not only to collect fresh seeds for weight measurements, but also to measure and process data of seeds preserved in collections and make them available to the broader scientific community. In this data paper we provide seed weight data to fill in missing trait data of plant species of Central and Eastern Europe. Our dataset includes weight measurement for 281 taxa of the Central European flora including also some cultivated and exotic species. The seeds were collected between 1971 and 2021 mostly in Central Europe. One part of the measured seeds was collected in the last decade, the other part is from an older seed collection, but all seeds were measured recently. For each species, we collected a minimum of 3 × 100 intact seeds, if possible. The seeds were air-dried at room temperature (approximately 21 °C and 50% relative humidity) for at least two weeks and measured with an accuracy of 0.001 g using an analytical balance. The thousand-seed weights reported here were calculated based on the measured values. Our goal for the future is to incorporate the seed weight data reported here in a regional database (Pannonian Database of Plant Traits - PADAPT) that gathers plant traits and other plant characteristics for the Pannonian flora. The data presented here will facilitate trait-based analyses of the flora and vegetation of Central Europe.

Keywords: Diaspore; Dry storage; Fruits; Plant traits; Seed collection; Seed database; Seed mass; Trait data.