Area, connectivity and plant life strategy diversity and abundance in temporary ponds of Southeastern Carpathians (Romania, Europe)

We used this dataset to determine whether area and connectivity of temporary ponds can predict plant species diversity, and the diversity and abundance of different plant life histories within the ponds. The studied system is located in the Ciuc Basin of the Southeastern Carpathian Mountains, Romania.  We collected data on the macrophyte species diversity of 28 temporary ponds between 2006-2009. Plant species identified in the ponds were assigned into one of the social behaviour types proposed by Borhidi (1995), which describe plant-habitat interactions within a framework extended from Grime’s evolutionary life strategies (Grime 1988), as follows: competitors, stress tolerants (generalists or specialists) and ruderals (natural pioneers i.e., plants of habitats disturbed by natural factors, and plants of habitats disturbed by human factors, classified as either: disturbance tolerants, native weeds, naturalised crops, adventitious weeds, ruderal competitors, alien competitors). We express..., Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: 
We collected data on the macrophyte species diversity of 28 temporary ponds in the Ciuc Basin (Romania, Southeastern Carpathians, Europe) using a stratified sampling. Each plant community identified in a pond was recorded with one phytosociological relevé in a 25 m² plot placed randomly within that community. Vascular species were identified at the species level and mosses at the genus level, and assigned to six cover classes by visual estimation (Braun-Blanquet, 1964). Plant communities were identified following (Coldea 1991, Sanda et al. 2008). A short report on the plant communities identified is available in Csergő and Demeter (2011).
We recorded the geographic coordinates of each pond in the WGS84 Coordinate Reference System using a GPS device. We calculated pond area using the short and long axis of the ellipse that best approximated the pond shape. We defined pond connectivity with the Olt river as the pond present a..., The spreadsheets can be opened in versions of Excel and R.