New data of plant leaf traits from Central Europe

• Published in: Data in brief Vol. 42; p. 108286
• Main Authors: McIntosh-Buday, Andrea, Sonkoly, Judit, Takács, Attila, Balogh, Nóra, Kovacsics-Vári, Gergely, Teleki, Balázs, Süveges, Kristóf, Tóth, Katalin, Hábenczyus, Alida Anna, Lukács, Balázs A., Lovas-Kiss, Ádám, Löki, Viktor, Tomasovszky, Alexandra, Tóthmérész, Béla, Török, Péter, Tóth, Edina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.06.2022; Elsevier
• Subjects: Central European region; Data; flora; Functional traits; labor; Leaf area; Leaf dry matter content; Leaf dry weight; Leaf fresh weight; leaves; loess; sand; species diversity; Specific leaf area; Vascular plants; Central European region; Leaf dry weight; Functional traits; Leaf fresh weight; Vascular plants; Leaf area; Specific leaf area; Leaf dry matter content
• ISSN: 2352-3409; 2352-3409
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.108286

Trait-based ecology is gaining ground nowadays on species-based ecology: the number of research and publication focusing on the ecological role of taxa instead of the species themselves increased significantly in the last two decades. One great advantage of this approach is that communities with different species composition due to great geographical distances (e.g., different continents) or different environmental conditions (e.g., loess, sand, and alkaline grasslands) become comparable. Obtaining trait values is, however, labour and time consuming even in the case of so-called soft traits. It is therefore reasonable and desirable for scientists to share their data as widely as possible. Demand for such data induced the publication of data papers and the establishment of databases, which support both theoretical ecological research and practical restoration ecological projects. Although several international databases (e.g., TRY, LEDA, CLO-PLA, BiolFLOR) are available nowadays, Central and Eastern European species are either missing or underrepresented in them. Consequently, measurement and publication of the traits of species typical in the above region is necessary. This paper presents leaf trait (leaf fresh and dry weight, leaf area, specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content) data for more than 1100 species of the Central European flora.