New measurements of thousand-seed weights of species in the Pannonian flora

Abstract

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...

Do large-seeded herbs have a small range size? The seed mass-distribution range trade-off hypothesis

“…Note that in these databases—and also in the Török et al. (, ) database from where most of the records used in our analyses originate—usually the mass of the diaspore is given, but we use the term “seed mass” instead of “diaspore mass” for the sake of simplicity.…”

“…At first, we obtained available thousand-seed mass data (hereafter abbreviated as TSM; usually mentioned in the literature as TSW, i.e., thousand-seed weight) using the checklist of plant species of the Pannonian Ecoregion (Central Europe). TSM values were mostly measured on seeds collected in the Pannonian Ecoregion (data obtained from the database of Török et al, 2013Török et al, , 2016, data for some species of the Pannonian flora were obtained from databases or the literature (Csontos, Tamás, & Balogh, 2003Schermann, 1967;LEDA Traitbase-Kleyer et al, 2008;SID-Liu, Eastwood, Flynn, Turner, & Stuppy, 2008). Note that in these databases-and also in the Török et al (2013Török et al ( , 2016 database from where most of the records used in our analyses originate-usually the mass of the diaspore is given, but we use the term "seed mass" instead of "diaspore mass" for the sake of simplicity.…”

Presentation of the Huseedwild – A Seed Weight and Germination Database of the Pannonian Flora – Through Analysing Life Forms and Social Behaviour Types

“…The taxon set of our database was compared on presence-absence level to taxon sets of national paper format databases of Török, P. et al (2013Török, P. et al ( , 2016, Csontos et al (2003Csontos et al ( , 2007 and Schermann (1967), and to taxon sets of international online databases, namely LEDA (Kleyer et al, 2008) and SID (RBGK, 2016 from accessions belonging to it). We took taxa with germination result of 0% into consideration, since the lack of germination can be a species-specific strategy.…”

“…This information has particular importance, even by species respectively, for example during restoration works (Török, P. et al, 2016): in view of seed weight and germination capacity of species, necessary amount of seeds in case of sowing can be designed in order to achieve the expected number of individuals. Knowledge of optimal germination conditions of species is also necessary for ex situ propagations during restoration works.…”

“…Seed weight data of the Pannonian flora based on direct, original measurements are in the database of Török, P. et al (2013Török, P. et al ( , 2016. With former relevant data collections (Schermann, 1967;Csontos et al, 2003Csontos et al, , 2007, it publishes records of approximately 70% of the Pannonian flora (Török, P. et al, 2016).…”