Nitrogen and carbon concentrations in aboveground biomass of seedlings as obtained in a microcosm experiment under ambient light and temperature conditions for 227 species occurring on the grassland EPs of the Biodiversity Exploratories

During the last two decades, the research on plant functional traits has advanced rapidly. However, so far, research has focused on traits of adult plants, while research on seedling traits is scarce. Seedling traits, however, could play an important role during plant establishment from seeds and they are essential to understand the full plant life cycle. We analyzed the nitrogen and carbon concentrations of the aboveground biomass of seedling in the stage when they had developed the first two true leaves. For this, we examined 227 temperate grassland species in a microcosm experiment under ambient light and temperature conditions in an open greenhouse at the Experimental Field Station Bad Lauchstädt (UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research) between 2020 and 2022. The microcosm experiment was part of the project SeedDiv within the framework of the DFG-funded joint project Biodiversity Exploratories (https://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de).