Flowering, seed production, predation and recruitment of Posidonia australis

The drivers and bottlenecks of sexual reproduction in seagrasses are a crucial element in their conservation and restoration, determining resilience over ecological and evolutionary timescales. We collected flowering, seed production, and seedling establishment data for the seagrass Posidonia australis annually between 2013-2018 in meadows at six locations around Rottnest Island, Western Australia. We present data on inflorescence and vegetative shoot density, reproductive effort, flower and seed density, seed to ovule ratio, seed predation, and seedling survival. We found variable annual rates of flowering and seed production among meadows and between years. Some meadows, however, flowered more intensely and produced more seeds across the years of the survey. Inter-site and inter-annual variation in seed production, the stochastic nature of weather during seed release, and the large, but variable, impact of seed predation are likely the principle drivers of successful recruitment into ..., Shoot density, inflorescence density, and seed production
Investment in sexual reproduction, vegetative shoot, inflorescences, flower and fruit (seed) densities were determined within P. australis meadows among the six locations before fruit release in November between 2013 and 2018. Vegetative shoot density in seagrass meadows was assessed using 10 x 0.04 m2 randomly sampled quadrats. Inflorescence density was assessed from five replicate 10 m x 1 m (10 m2) belt transects. Flower and fruit (seed) production per inflorescence were determined from the random collection of 12 inflorescences from transects at each site. Inflorescences consisted of a stem (petiole) bearing several spikes (3 - 12) with 3 - 5 hermaphrodite flowers on each spike, which ripen and release pollen in late Austral winter, July to August. Following successful pollination, fruits develop for approximately 12 weeks. For each inflorescence, the number of fully developed fruit, undeveloped fruit and remains of flowers t..., , # Flowering, seed production, predation and recruitment of Posidonia australis

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqnwz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqnwz)

Give a brief summary of dataset contents, contextualized in experimental procedures and results.

## Description of the data and file structure

TThe columns in the datasets are described below

File = Inflor_shoot_ReprodEffort 2013-2018
Column 1 = locations(text): Catherine Pt, Crayfish Rock, Nancy Cove, Parker Pt, Stark Bay, Thomson Bay
Column 2 = year (text): 2013,2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Column 3 = date (day/month/year)
Column 4 = Trans or Transect number (integer) from 1-5
Column 5 = Total inflorescences m-2 (integer)
Column 6 = shoot density m-2 (integer)
Column 7 = reproductive effort (floating point) is Total inflorescence /shoot density as a percentage

File = Flower_fruit_and ratio_2013-2018
Column 1 = Observation number, a counter for the data rows
Column 2 = locations(text): Catherine Pt, Crayfish Rock, Nancy ...