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The existing plant trait databases' applicability is limited for studies dealing with the flora and vegetation of the eastern and central part of Europe and for large-scale comparisons across regions, mostly because their geographical data coverage is limited and they incorporate records from several different sources, often from regions with markedly different climatic conditions. These problems motivated the compilation of a regional dataset for the flora of the Pannonian region (Eastern Central Europe). PADAPT, the Pannonian Dataset of Plant Traits relies on regional data sources and collates data on 54 traits and attributes of the plant species of the Pannonian region. The current version covers approximately 90% of the species of the region and consists of 126,337 records on 2745 taxa. By including species of the eastern part of Europe not covered by other databases, PADAPT can facilitate studying the flora and vegetation of the eastern part of the continent. Although data coverage is far from complete, PADAPT meets the longstanding need for a regional database of the Pannonian flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community assembly theory is suggested as a guiding principle for ecological restoration to help understand the mechanisms that structure biological communities and identify where restoration interventions are needed. We studied three hypotheses related to propagule limitation, stress‐dominance, and limiting similarity concepts in community assembly in a restoration field experiment with a trait‐based null model approach. The experiment aimed to assist the recovery of sand grassland on former arable land in the Kiskunság, Pannonian biogeographic region, Europe. Treatments included initial seeding of five grassland species, carbon amendment, low‐intensity mowing, and combinations in 1 m by 1 m plots in three old fields from 2003 to 2008. The distribution of 10 individual plant traits was compared to the null model and the effect of time and treatments were tested with linear mixed effect models. Initial seeding had the most visible impact on species and trait composition confirming propagule limitation in grassland recovery. Reducing nutrient availability through carbon amendment strengthened trait convergence for length of flowering as expected based on the stress‐dominance hypothesis. Mowing changed trait divergence to convergence for plant height with a strengthening impact with time, supporting our hypothesis of increasing dominance of limiting similarity with time. Our results support the idea that community assembly is simultaneously influenced by propagule limitation and multiple trait‐based processes that act through different traits. The limited impact of manipulating environmental filtering and limiting similarity compared to seeding, however, supports the view that only targeting the dispersal and environmental filters in parallel would improve restoration outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Biophysicochemical factors explained most variability in C and N stocks. • Succession age and plant litter production of minor importance. • MAOM exclusively associated with abiotic factors... • ...while POM and aggregate fractions were related to both biotic and abiotic factors. • Crucial to know the form in which C and N exist in soil to inform proper management. A better understanding of factors controlling the distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) in differently stabilized pools in soils during ecosystem development is essential to more efficiently manage soil as a C sink and aid global warming mitigation. We, thus, investigated C and N stocks in bulk soil and differently stabilized soil fractions (free particulate organic matter (fPOM), micro- and macroaggregates, and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM)), in seven chronosequences comprising primary and secondary successions at various locations in Europe and tested the influence of multiple environmental parameters on these C and N stocks. Best-subset multiple regression indicated that plant litter production and succession age were of minor importance. Above a certain threshold of organic matter inputs to the soil, changes in the quantity of such inputs may have little direct effect on the partitioning of organic matter to various soil fractions. Instead, biophysicochemical soil properties (such as pH and PLFA and clay contents) were the best predictors for both C and N stocks. We also found a shift in the relevance of biotic and abiotic factors from fPOM and the various aggregate fractions to MAOM, the latter being exclusively associated with pH and the clay content. This indicates that sites dominated by MAOM likely more slowly react to management interventions, such as increasing or diversifying organic matter inputs, than sites dominated by fractions more responsive to biotic factors, such as fPOM. Finally, as compared to primary successions, secondary successions were associated with higher C and N stocks in aggregate fractions, pointing towards better conditions for soil structure formation in the latter. Our results highlight the need to elucidate the form in which C and N exist in the soil for selection of proper management strategies and that soil biophysicochemical parameters may have a disparately larger impact on the partitioning of C and N to variously stabilized soil fractions than the rate of organic matter inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]