Hungarian plant trait database - structure

Csecserits A.1, Botta-Dukát Z.1, Bölöni J.1, Csontos P.2, , Kalapos T.2, Kenderes K.2, Kun A.1, Morschhauser T.3, Papp L.4, Rédei D.5, Rédei T.6, Varróné Darók J.3

1. Institute of Ecology and Botany, HAS Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163, Vácrátót, Hungary
2. Dept. of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. St 1/c, H-1118, Budapest, Hungary
3. Dept. of Botany, University of Pécs, Ifjúság str. 6., H-7624, Pécs, Hungary
4. Botanical Garden, University of Debrecen, Zsindely str. 1. H-4225, Debrecen, Hungary
5. Dept. of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, Eötvös str. 6. H-6720, Szeged, Hungary
6. Hungarian Natural History Museum, Baross srt 13. H-1083, Budapest, Hungary
Email: aniko@botanika.hu

The description of vegetation  is usually based on the occurrence or abundance of plant species. However, comparison of species composition data from areas far from each other is difficult because of the low number of common species. Generalisation of such local results is also problematic, partly due to the restricted occurrence of species and partly due to variation in species' behaviour. One solution of these problems is the so-called 'non-floristic' description of the vegetation, i.e. the use of the plant traits to describe the vegetation.

There are many available databases for West-European floras, but their applicability in East- Europe is restricted, i.e. the same species may have different plant trait when exposed to different climates and there are East-European species that do not occur in West-Europe.

We have started to compose a database for the Hungarian vascular flora, which consists of app. 2200 plant species. For some species and plant traits there are already published data, but others exist only in manuscripts. Our database contains a compilation of data for the following plant traits:

• life-form, life-span,
• flowering time, age at first flowering,
• structure of stem, height of stems,
• clonality, horizontal length of vegetative shoot,
• root depth,
• leaf longevity, specific leaf area, photosynthetic pathway,
• nutrition,
• seed mass, seed form, seed bank type, dispersal type, time of seed dispersal,
• size, continuity and centre of area,

The main objective of this database is to collect difficult to obtain data and publish it in one database in electronic format. We present the structure of database, i.e. the name and meaning collected traits, and the categories/measurement within traits.

Previously published data-bases for the Hungarian flora:

• Seedbank, seed mass: Csontos P. 2001: A természetes magbank kutatásának módszerei (Methods of studiing the natural seedbank) Scientia kiadó, Budapest in Hungarian,
• Seedsize, dispersal method. Csontos P. 2002: A magökológiai adatbázis és alkalmazhatósága a botanikai kutatásban (Tha seed ecological database and applicability in the botanical research) in: Papp L. & Borhidi A. (szerk.): Szupraindividuális biológiai kutatások, Vácrátót in Hungarian,
• Indicator numbers, lifeform, geographical area, natural conservation stae of Hungarian populations: Horváth F., Dobolyi K., Morschauer T., Lőkös L, Karas L.,Szerdahelyi T. 1995: Flóra adatbázis Vácrátót,
• Photosynthetic type: Kalapos T.1991: C3 and C4 grasses of Hungary: environmental requirements, phenology and role in the vegetation Abstracta Botanica 15: 83-88, Kalapos, T. , Baloghné-Nyakas, A. és Csontos, P., 1997: Occurence and ecological characteristics of C4 dicot and Cyperaceae species in the Hungarian flora  Photosynthetica 33(2): 227-240,
• Mycorrhizae: Kovács, G.M. & Szigetvári, Cs. 2002: Mycorrhizae and other root-associated fungal structures of the plants of a sandy grassland on the Great Hungarian Plain Phyton 42 (2): 211-223,
• Ripening time: Papp L. 1994: Védett harasztok és virágos növények spóra- és termésérési időszakai (fenofázisai) hazánkban (Spore and fruit ripening time of protected ferns and flowering plants) – Calandrella VIII 1-2: 26-53in Hungarian,
• Geographical distribution, ploidity, cromosome number, pollination type, dispersal type: Soó R. 1964-1980: A magyar flóra és vegetáció rendszertani-növényföldrajzi kézikönyve, I-VI.( Systematic and pland geographyic handbook of the Hungarian flora and vegetation) Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest in Hungarian,
• Indicator numbers. Zólyomi, B. Baráth Z. Fekete G., Jakucs P., Kárpáti I., Kovács M.& Máthé I. 1967: Einreihung von 1400 Arten der ungarischen Flora in ökologische Gruppen nach TWR-Zahlen Fragm. Bot. 4: 101-142,
• Indicator numbers: Borhidi A. 1995: Social behaviour types, the naturalness and relative ecological indicator values of the higher plants in the Hungarian Flora Act. Bot. Hung. 39 (1-2): 97-181,
• Flowering time, habitat type, distribution in Hungary: Farkas S. (ed.) 1999: Magyarország védett növényei (Protected species of Hungary) Mezőgazda kiadó, Budapest in Hungarian

Plant traits are widely used characters for describing and analysing patterns and processes of vegetation. Some plant traits are easily measurable and some plant traits need to be measured many times (years), so it appears to be a good solution to use databases from other countries. There are many available databases for West-European floras, but their applicability in East- Europe is restricted, i.e. the same species may have different plant trait on different climates and there are East-European species that do not occur in West-Europe.

We have started to compose a database for Hungarian vascular flora, which consists of app. 2500 plant species. Now we present the first three steps of this project

1. Study of the applicability of 3 West-European databases for the Hungarian flora.

2. Identification of published plant trait databases for Hungarian species.

3. Development of a database structure for a new Hungarian database.

For our study of the applicability of 3 West-European databases for the Hungarian flora we compared the plant species list of the Biopop (Kleyer, M 1995: Biological traits of vascular plants. A database), Elecol (Hodgson J.G., J.P.Grieme., R.Hunt és K.Thompson 1995: The electronic comparative plant ecology) and Seedbank (layout-grid-mode:line'>Thompson K., J.P.Bakker, R.M.Bekker 1997: The soil seed banks of North West Europe) with the Hungarian species list (Horváth F., Dobolyi K., Morschauer T., Lőkös L, Karas L.,Szerdahelyi T. 1995: Flóra adatbázis Vácrátót).  We then looked to see whether the common species are representative for the total Hungarian species list on the basis of two, already know plant trait: area type and water indicator number? Finally we used the data of the Hungarian Flora databasis to test the three other databases using a Chi2-test for area type and water indicator numbers.