Abstract
This paper presents a dataset of seed volumes calculated from length, width, and when available, thickness, abstracted from printed literature—essentially scientific journals and books including Floras and illustrated manuals, from online inventories, and from data obtained directly by the authors or provided by colleagues. Seed volumes were determined from the linear dimensions of seeds using published equations and decision trees. Ways of characterizing species by seed volume were compared and the minimum volume of the seed was found to be preferable. The adequacy of seed volume as a surrogate for seed size was examined and validated using published data on the relationship between light requirements for seed germination and seed size expressed as mass.
Highlights
This paper presents a dataset of seed volumes calculated from length, width, and when available, thickness, abstracted from printed literature—essentially scientific journals and books including Floras and illustrated manuals, from online inventories, and from data obtained directly by the authors or provided by colleagues
Apart from some exceptions, that plants and plant communities can only be understood if the importance of seeds in soil is acknowledged, because at any moment, soil seed banks represent the potential population of plants through time [3]
Mostly evolving in a parallel track, research on seed-functional ecology and seed-trait correlates is heavily dependent upon seed volume, which is overwhelmingly represented by the mean seed mass
Summary
Seeds have been credited with being the main reason for the overall dominance of seed plants [1], which are recognized as the most successful group of plants in the widest range of environments [2]. We found that the geometric mean of length, width, and thickness was the most adequate one-dimensional seed size estimator, providing shape-independent measures of seed volume which were directly mirrored by the sieves mesh side. This meant that seeds with a given volume would be retained by a sieve provided that the mesh side of the sieve was equal or less than the geometric mean of the three linear dimensions of the seed. We intend to continue updating the dataset and links to future updates are presented in this paper
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