EPIC dataset
Description
This dataset accompanies a systematic review of experimental studies measuring seedling functional traits, compiled to characterize how seedling traits have been studied across species, plant families, functional groups, and abiotic contexts. It contains 6,924 trait observations extracted from the reviewed articles, spanning 302 plant species and 296 consolidated functional traits across four categories (morphological, physiological, performance/growth, and phenological) and three plant regions (above ground, below ground, and whole plant). Each observation records the source article, species (both as originally reported and taxonomically standardized), plant family, life history, functional group, the measured trait and its classification, the abiotic factors manipulated in the study, and geographic location where available. The dataset is provided as a single Excel workbook with tabbed sheets: a README, the full dataset, the author list with affiliations and ORCID identifiers, and a trait metadata dictionary defining every consolidated trait with reference to standard plant functional-trait literature. Species names were standardized to accepted taxonomy and plant families were verified against authoritative botanical sources; consolidated trait labels were de-duplicated and defined to support reuse. These data may be useful for meta-analyses of seedling ecology, trait-based studies, restoration research, and bibliometric analyses of research effort in seedling and plant functional ecology.