In the Palaearctic steppe zone, overgrazing was identified as one of the key drivers of declining grassland biodiversity, which underlines the necessity of the functional evaluation of increased grazing pressure on grassland vegetation. We tested the following hypotheses: (a) The effect of grazing intensity on species and functional diversity is strongly dependent on grassland type. (b) The magnitude of diet selectivity of grazers decreases with increasing grazing intensity. (c) Increasing grazing intensity increases evenness and functional evenness of the subjected grasslands. We analyzed vegetation patterns in four types of grasslands (Dry alkali short‐grass steppes, Dry loess steppes, Non‐alkali wet and Alkali wet grasslands) along an intensity gradient of beef cattle grazing at 73 sites in Hungary. Species richness, Shannon diversity, evenness, and four leaf traits were analyzed. We calculated community‐weighted means for each single trait, and multi‐trait functional richness, functional evenness, and divergence for all leaf traits. All species and functional diversity metrics were significantly affected by the grassland type, except leaf dry matter content. The effect of interaction between grazing intensity and grassland type was also significant for functional richness, functional evenness, community‐weighted means of leaf area, and for species richness and evenness. An upward trend of specific leaf area was detected in all grasslands with the highest scores for the overgrazed sites, but the change was also grassland type dependent. The detected trend suggests that with increased intensity the overall selectivity of grazing decreased. We found that evenness was affected but functional evenness was not affected by grazing intensity. Functional evenness scores were more related to the grassland type than to changes in grazing intensity, and displayed a high variability. We stress that one‐size‐fits‐all strategies cannot be recommended and actions should be fine‐tuned at least at the level of grassland type.

The maintenance of biodiversity is crucial for ecosystem processes such as plant biomass production, as higher species richness is associated with increased biomass production in plant communities. However, the effects of evenness and functional diversity on biomass production are understudied. We manipulated the composition of an experimental grassland by sowing various seed mixtures and examined the effects of diversity and evenness on biomass production after three years. We found that biomass production increased with greater species and functional richness but decreased with greater species and functional evenness. Standing biomass increased but species number and functional richness decreased with increasing proportion of perennial grasses. Our findings emphasise the importance of productive dominant species, as the proportion of perennial grasses had a positive effect on standing biomass, while species and functional evenness had a negative effect on it. Thus, our findings support the theory that, besides diversity, dominance effects and the so-called mass ratio hypothesis may also play a key role in explaining primary biomass production.

Summary 1 1. Floral deception is widespread in orchids, with more than one third of the species being 2 pollinated this way. The evolutionary success of deceptive orchids is puzzling, as species 3 employing this strategy are thought to have low reproductive success (less flowers yielding 4 fruits) because of low pollination rates. However, direct measurements of seed production in 5 orchids are scarce due to the extremely small size of their seeds. 6 2. Here, we quantified seed numbers in 1,015 fruits belonging to 48 orchid species from the 7 Pannonian ecoregion (central Europe) and obtained fruit-set and thousand-seed weight data 8 for these species from the literature. We used phylogenetic comparative methods to test the 9 hypothesis that deceptive species should compensate for their lower fruit-set by having either 10 larger seeds or more seeds in a fruit. 11 3. Similarly to previous studies, we found that deceptive orchids have substantially lower 12 fruits-set than nectar-rewarding ones. Also, we found that deceptive species have more seeds 13 in a fruit but not larger seeds compared to nectar-rewarding ones. Based on our results, 14 deceptive species compensate for their lower fruit-set by having higher seed numbers per 15 fruit, thus their seed numbers per shoot do not differ from that of nectar-rewarding ones. 16 4. Together with other benefits of deceptive pollination (e.g. lower energy expenditure due to 17 the lack of nectar production and higher genetic variability due to decreased probability of 18 geitonogamous pollination), our results can explain why deceptive strategies are so 19 widespread in the orchid family. 20 5. Synthesis. Our study provides new seed number data for 48 terrestrial orchid species. 21Using these data we have tested the hypothesis that deceptive species should compensate for 22 their lower fruit-set by having either larger seeds or more seeds in a fruit than nectar-23 rewarding ones. Our results suggest that deceptive species have more seeds in a fruit but not 24 larger seeds compared to nectar-rewarding ones. As a consequence, there are no significant 25 3 differences in seed numbers per shoot between different pollination types. 1 2

We aimed to introduce and test the “seed mass–distribution range trade‐off” hypothesis, that is, that range size is negatively related to seed mass due to the generally better dispersal ability of smaller seeds. Studying the effects of environmental factors on the seed mass and range size of species, we also aimed to identify habitats where species may be at risk and need extra conservation effort to avoid local extinctions. We collected data for seed mass, global range size, and indicators for environmental factors of the habitat for 1,600 species of the Pannonian Ecoregion (Central Europe) from the literature. We tested the relationship between species’ seed mass, range size, and indicator values for soil moisture, light intensity, and nutrient supply. We found that seed mass is negatively correlated with range size; thus, a seed mass–distribution range trade‐off was validated based on the studied large species pool. We found increasing seed mass with decreasing light intensity and increasing nutrient availability, but decreasing seed mass with increasing soil moisture. Range size increased with increasing soil moisture and nutrient supply, but decreased with increasing light intensity. Our results supported the hypothesis that there is a trade‐off between seed mass and distribution range. We found that species of habitats characterized by low soil moisture and nutrient values but high light intensity values have small range size. This emphasizes that species of dry, infertile habitats, such as dry grasslands, could be more vulnerable to habitat fragmentation or degradation than species of wet and fertile habitats. The remarkably high number of species and the use of global distribution range in our study support our understanding of global biogeographic processes and patterns that are essential in defining conservation priorities.

Aims Understanding fine‐grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide benchmarks of fine‐grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the former three groups). Location Palaearctic biogeographic realm. Methods We used 126,524 plots of eight standard grain sizes from the GrassPlot database: 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 m2 and calculated the mean richness and standard deviations, as well as maximum, minimum, median, and first and third quartiles for each combination of grain size, taxonomic group, biome, region, vegetation type and phytosociological class. Results Patterns of plant diversity in vegetation types and biomes differ across grain sizes and taxonomic groups. Overall, secondary (mostly semi‐natural) grasslands and natural grasslands are the richest vegetation type. The open‐access file ”GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks” and the web tool “GrassPlot Diversity Explorer” are now available online (https://edgg.org/databases/GrasslandDiversityExplorer) and provide more insights into species richness patterns in the Palaearctic open habitats. Conclusions The GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks provide high‐quality data on species richness in open habitat types across the Palaearctic. These benchmark data can be used in vegetation ecology, macroecology, biodiversity conservation and data quality checking. While the amount of data in the underlying GrassPlot database and their spatial coverage are smaller than in other extensive vegetation‐plot databases, species recordings in GrassPlot are on average more complete, making it a valuable complementary data source in macroecology.

Linking the conservation of cultural heritage and natural values provides a unique opportunity for preserving traditional landscapes and receives an increased awareness from stakeholders and society. Ancient burial mounds are proper objects of such projects as they are iconic landscape elements of the Eurasian steppes and often act as refugia for grassland specialist species. The aim of this project was to reintroduce grassland plant species to burial mounds for representing them as cultural monuments with the associated biodiversity for the public. The effectiveness of seed sowing, transplanting greenhouse-grown plants and individuals from threatened populations on burial mounds in Hortobágy National Park, Hungary was tested. The following questions were answered: (1) which method is the most effective for species introduction? (2) which species can establish most successfully? (3) how does management affect the species establishment rates? It was found advisable to use a combination of seed sowing and transplanting greenhouse-grown plants. Sowing was found as a cost-effective method for introducing large-seeded species, whilst introduction of greenhouse-grown transplants warranted higher establishment rates for a larger set of species. Transplanting adult individuals was more reliable regardless of management regimes, however this method is labour-intensive and expensive. Intensive management, like mowing with heavy machinery and intensive grazing, should be avoided in the first few years after introduction. The authors CONSERVATION IN PRACTICE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journalOrsolya Valkó et al. / Nature Conservation 24: 65-80 (2018) 66 highlighted the fact that introducing characteristic grassland species on cultural monuments offers a great opportunity to link issues of landscape and biodiversity conservation. This project demonstrated that, by the revitalisation of cultural monuments, cultural ecosystem services can also be restored.

Spontaneous succession is increasingly involved in grassland restoration, because it offers a cost‐effective solution compared to technical reclamation methods. This topic is especially important nowadays, as large areas of marginal croplands are being abandoned on poor soils of Central and Eastern Europe, which offers a possibility for the spontaneous recovery of typical target grasslands. Studying the vegetation composition, aboveground biomass, and seed bank in old fields of different age and target calcareous sand grasslands using the chronosequence method, we aimed to answer the following questions: (1) Which species contribute to the seed banks of old fields and reference grasslands? (2) Does the direction of vegetation and seed bank succession trend toward the reference grasslands? (3) How are the vegetation changes in spontaneous succession reflected by the soil seed banks of old fields? In reference grasslands on the dune tops only sporadic seed banks were detected, while several hygrophytes had dense seed banks in reference grasslands in dune slacks. Similarity between the species composition of vegetation and seed banks was low. The development of vegetation and seed banks in old fields progressed toward that of target grasslands and the proportion of weedy species (e.g. indigenous weeds and invasive species) also decreased with time. The cryptogam biomass correlated significantly negatively, while the soil phosphorus significantly positively with the weedy species seed bank density. Our results indicated that the role of persistent seed banks in the regeneration of calcareous sand grasslands from old fields is rather limited and promising vegetation changes are mostly driven by spatial dispersal.

For understanding local and regional seed dispersal and plant establishment processes and for considering the ecotypes and other forms of specific variability, hard data of locally or regionally measured traits are necessary. We provided newly measured seed weight data of 193 taxa, out of which 24 taxa had not been represented in the SID, LEDA or BiolFlor databases. Our new measurements and formerly published data of locally collected seed weight records together covers over 70% of the Pannonian flora. However, there is still a considerable lack in seed weight data of taxonomically problematic genera, even though they are represented in the Pannonian flora with a relatively high number of species and/ or subspecies (e.g. Sorbus, Rosa, Rubus, Crataegus and Hieracium). Our regional database contains very sporadic data on aquatic plants (including also numerous invasive species reported from Hungary and neighbouring countries) and some rare weeds distributed in the southwestern part of the country. These facts indicate the necessity of further seed collection and measurements.Key words: dry storage, hard trait, herbarium, plant trait, restoration, seed database, seed mass INTRODUCTIONOne of the most easily measurable physical trait of a plant is the weight of its seeds. Seed weight (or referred to also as seed mass) affects the regeneration strategy and the dispersal of plant species both in space (spatial dispersal) and time (development of a seed bank). Seed weight is also strongly related Acta Bot. Hung. 58, 2016 188 TÖRÖK, P., TÓTH, E., TÓTH, K., VALKÓ, O., DEÁK, B., KELBERT, B., BÁLINT, P. et al. to seed predation events (larger seeds are more likely predated), germination processes, seedling establishment and survival (Eriksson 2000). Thus, in the last few decades seed traits (incl. seed weight) became frequently used for explaining crucial dynamical processes in plant communities (Leishman et al. 2001, Moles et al. 2007) and for analysing life trait scenarios (Beaulieu et al. 2007, Moles and Westoby 2003). There is also an increasing trend to collect hard and soft traits into searchable and electronically available databases. This also holds for seed traits, which can be found for the European flora in comprehensive databases, such as BiolFlor (Klotz et al. 2002), BIOPOP (Kleyer 1995), LEDA (Kleyer et al. 2008), TRY (Kattge et al. 2011a, b) the Seed information database SID 7.1 (Kew Botanical Garden, Liu et al. 2008), the Dispersal and diaspore database (Hintze et al. 2013), and the Digital seed atlas of the Netherlands (Cappers et al. 2012). These databases contain data for most of the common European species, especially species with a northwestern or Central European distribution. Species distributed mostly in southern or eastern Europe are generally underrepresented in these databases; thus, providing new, locally collected data on seed weights is a vital task in these regions (see also Csontos et al. 2003, Török et al. 2013. Furthermore, for understanding local and regional seed dispersal and pla...