Air and soil temperature, relative humidity, and light intensity during a common garden experiment under ambient light and temperature conditions for 230 grassland species common in the experimental grassland plots 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. However, environmental conditions like climate (light, temperature, relative humidity) and light intensity further influence this stage and are an important additional asset.<br>We measured the soil temperature (at 5 cm depth) and air temperature, relative humidity (both at 5 cm above the soil surface), and light intensity. All values resemble daily means during the time period of the microcosm common garden experiment in Bad Lauchstädt (near Halle), Germany.<br>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).