Data from: Effects of disturbance frequency and severity on plant traits: an assessment across a temperate flora

(1) Recent analyses of plant traits across large sets of species have
revolutionized our understanding of plant functional differentiation.
However, understanding of ecological relevance of this differentiation is
contingent upon knowledge of environmental preferences of species, namely
along gradients of disturbance and productivity for which no quantitative
data were available until recently. (2) We examined the relationships of
key functional traits (life-history categories, leaf-height-seed traits,
clonal growth and bud bank traits) in the herb-dominated flora of Central
Europe to species niche positions along the gradients of disturbance
frequency, disturbance severity and productivity. (3) Life-history
categories and bud bank size showed the strongest response to disturbance
and productivity, whereas relationship of leaf-height-seed traits were
much weaker. A number of traits, including clonal growth form and bud bank
size, showed significantly unimodal response to disturbance frequency.
Responses of many traits to disturbance frequency were different from
their responses to disturbance severity. (4) Our findings support the
notions that disturbance and productivity are key gradients of species
functional differentiation and that disturbance severity and frequency
select for different trait suites. Further the data indicate that in a
predominantly herbaceous flora the traits of lifespan, clonal growth and
resprouting show stronger relationship to the environment than the
leaf-height-seed traits, which are more important in floras with high
proportions of woody species. Since most previous trait analyses are based
on woody-plant-dominated floras, patterns revealed in a herb-dominated
flora deepen our understanding of the full range of variation within the
plant kingdom.