Table 2. List of variables of functional traits and ecological preference for 99 dry grassland species considered in the study.
*Not included in the calculation of functional diversity index. Vegetative traits may reflect competition ability. Phenology traits show the adaptive potential of species to the environmental condition. Seed traits are related to species’ dispersal ability.
| Trait | Abbreviation | Scale, units or categories | Range | Data source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Functional traits* [60] | ||||
| Vegetative traits | ||||
| Clonality | CLON | Binary: presence (1)/absence (0) | 0/1 | [56, 57] |
| Perennial | PER | Binary: presence (1)/absence (0) | 0/1 | [56, 57] |
| Plant height | PHEI | Continuous [Log (m)] | -1.12–0.13 | [53], Průchová unpublished data |
| Specific leaf area | SLA | Continuous [mm2 mg-1] | 7.56–39.35 | [56], own measurements |
| Phenology traits | ||||
| Beginning of flowering | BFLOW | Ordinal (month) | 3–8 | [58] |
| Duration of flowering | MFLOW | Quantitative (month) | 1–6 | [58] |
| End of flowering | EFLOW | Ordinal (month) | 4–10 | [58] |
| Seed traits | ||||
| Rate of endozoochory | ENDO | Continuos: proportion between 0 and 1 | 0–1 | Průchová unpublished data |
| Rate of epizoochory | EPI | Continuous; proportion between 0 and 1 | 0–1 | [53], Průchová unpublished data |
| Seed bank longevity | SBL | Continuous; dimensionless index between 0 and 1 | 0–1 | [56] |
| Seed mass | SMASS | Continuous [Log (mg)] | -3.30–1.43 | [53], Průchová unpublished data |
| Terminal velocity | TV | Continuous [m s -1] | 0.26–4.30 | [53], Průchová unpublished data |
| Ecological preference* | ||||
| Ellenberg’s values | ||||
| Light | LIGHT | Ordinal: categories 1–9 | 5–9 | [50, 59] |
| Moisture | MOIST | Ordinal: categories 1–12 | 2–7 | [50, 59] |
| Nutrients | NUT | Ordinal: categories 1–9 | 1–6 | [50, 59] |
* We only included traits with complete information for the 99 species as FD indices decline in reliability with missing trait data. Data on specific leaf area (SLA), plant height and seed mass were log transformed to decrease the effect of extreme values. Only the rate of epizoochory and endozoochory included missing data (NAs in 13 species, < 13% data). We could not obtain trait measures for the SLA and seed bank longevity for 6 and 10 species, respectively and, we used the mean trait value of the genus (see S2 Table).