Seed collection data encompassing half of the vascular flora of the pannonian ecoregion stored by the pannon seed bank

Seed bank collections have multiple benefits: store genetic material for conservation and research, and their data can also provide valuable scientific information. The Pannon Seed Bank was established during an EU LIFE+ project between 2010 and 2014 with the target to collect and store seeds of approx. 50% of the wild native vascular flora of the Pannonian Biogeographic Region, seed accessions of at least 800 storable species. This task was fully achieved by the end of the project, as altogether 1,853 seed accessions of 910 species are stored. The aim of the present paper is to provide access to the collection data and metadata of the Pannon Seed Bank as it was completed by the end of the project. The collection campaign involved about 40 experts and covered the whole country. Collection and storing applied standard methodology, based on the ENSCONET project. The collection data published in this paper can be used manifold. Geographical data on species occurrences are major input for nature conservation and research. Seed collection date is valuable for ecological studies of phytophagous insects, frugivorous birds and mammals, etc. The database can be partner to international databases (like GBIF) or research infrastructures (e.g. LifeWatch). Hopefully, this data paper will contribute to further motivate the development of native seed collections and their use for conservation and research in Hungary. © 2016 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest

Long-term changes of rock grassland communities in Hungary

This paper demonstrates a possible application of large historical vegetation data sets as reference to reveal natural trends. Phytosociological releves re-sampled after 3–6 decades were used to detect and interpret long-term plant compositional changes of seven rock grassland communities in Hungary. Altogether 151 re-established plots were subject of the study. Data analyses were designed to minimize the negative effects arising from the application of historical information. Principal coordinates analysis was used to discover general compositional changes. With the help of ecological indicator values and species attributes, vegetation state trends were evaluated. Principal coordinates analysis reveals a uniform displacement of plot averages in the ordination space. Ecological indicator values for nitrogen requirement of vascular plants show a significant increase in mesotrophic categories. Occurrences of species typical of rock grasslands decreased significantly. Natural pioneers, disturbance-tolerant and weed species increased in number. Nevertheless, their amount is relatively low and the natural constituents of the communities still dominate, which is a sign of only a minor disturbance. Considering the wide geographical distribution of the sample plots, general changes seem to indicate pressures operating at large scales. These include elevated nitrogen deposition, increased rates of erosion and trampling caused by overpopulated ungulates and more frequent summer drought events. Acidification only occurs in silicate grasslands as calcareous soil types have higher buffering capacities. The global tendency of biotic homogenisation with the increase of common species was also detected over time. The study showed that the use of historical vegetation data enables us to estimate long-term trends in vegetation state

Forest type interacts with milkweed invasion to affect spider communities

Abstract Non-native tree plantations constitute a large part of forestation worldwide. Plantations are prone to invasion by exotic herbaceous plant species due to habitat properties, including understory vegetation structure. We established 40 sampling sites in 10 plantation forests. Sites were selected according to tree species (native poplar forests and exotic pine plantations) and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) density (invaded and non-invaded sites) in a full factorial design. We collected spiders with pitfall traps. We found a significant effect of A. syriaca invasion on spider functional diversity (Rao's quadratic entropy), with invaded sites having a lower functional diversity than non-invaded sites. A larger effect of invasion with A. syriaca on the RaoQ of spiders was observed in pine compared to poplar plantations. Spider species were larger, and web-building spiders were more frequent in poplar forests than in pine plantations. We found no effect of A. syriaca invasion on species richness or abundance of spiders. Species composition of spider assemblages in the two forest types was clearly separated according to non-metric multidimensional scaling. We identified seven species associated with pine plantations and six species associated with poplar plantations. The similar species richness and the higher functional diversity of non-invaded sites suggested that these trait states were less similar than invaded sites and that functionally different species were present. In contrast, the invaded sites had lower functional diversities and thus more uniform trait state compositions, suggesting that environmental filtering played an important role in species sorting, making invaded plantations low-quality secondary habitats for the original spider fauna