New thousand-seed weight records of the Pannonian flora and their application in analysing social behaviour types

Abstract

In the present paper we report original thousand-seed weight data for the flora of the Pannonian Basin. Our goal was to demonstrate the usefulness of seed weight databases by analysing seed weight data in relation to social behaviour types and life forms. We specifically asked the following questions: (i) how the seed weights are related to social behaviour type categories; (ii) how the life form of the species influences seed weight differences between respective social behaviour types? Own weight measurements are provided for 1,405 taxa; and for 187 taxa we published seed weight data for the first time: these were mostly endemics, orchids and/or species with Pontic, Caspian or continental distribution. Several taxonomic or functional groups are underrepresented in our database, like aquatic plants, rare arable weeds and sub-Mediterranean species. Problematic taxa, some difficultto-harvest species or species with low seed production and cultivated adventives are also underrepresented. We found that the plant strategies expressed by social behaviour types were significantly different in terms of seed weights. The lowest seed weight scores were found for natural pioneers, whereas the highest ones were found for adventives and introduced cultivated plants. Short-lived herbaceous species had significantly higher seed weight scores than herbaceous perennials. No significant differences were found between specialists and generalists within the stress tolerant group. We found that short-lived graminoids possess heavier seeds than perennial graminoids, perennial and annual forbs. Naturalness scores were negatively correlated with seed weights. Our findings showed that seed collections and databases are not only for storing plant material and seed weight data, but can be effectively used for understanding ecological trends and testing plant trait-based hypotheses. Even the identified gaps underline the necessity of further seed collection and measurements.

Strong potential for endozoochory by waterfowl in a rare, ephemeral wetland plant species, Astragalus contortuplicatus (Fabaceae)

“…2a]. The mass of a thousand seeds is 0.3033 g according to Török et al [20] and 0.331 ±0.027 g based on our measurements (3 replicates). Seeds used in this study were collected near Tiszaroff (Hungary, N 47.4° E 20.4°) in September 2012.…”

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.…”

“…Seed weight is one of the most used soft traits (e.g. Csecserits et al, 2009;Török et al, 2013), while germination, due to dormancy, is a trait that is more difficult-to-measure and harder to interpret. However, both attract special interest because as "seed traits", they are essential plant traits that primarily affect the early phases of a plant's life cycle and thus the success of reproduction.…”

“…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).…”

A talaj-magbank szerepe a magyarországi növényközösségek dinamikájában és helyreállításában

“…A magoknak szerepük van a fajok hosszú-távú diszperziójában, elősegítik a fajok megtelepedését új területeken. Általánosan megállapítható egy csereviszony a magok tömege és száma között (SONKOLY et al 2014), vagyis a nagyobb tömegű és méretű magok kisebb mennyiségben termelődnek, mint kisebb tömegű és méretű társaik (TÖRÖK et al 2013), ez pedig jelentősen befolyásolja egy faj csírázási és megtelepedési képességét, fejlődését, túlélését.…”