A soil seed bank is the collective name for viable seeds that are stored naturally in the soil. At the species or population level, the ability to form a seed bank represents a strategy for (re)colonization following a disturbance or other change in the local environmental conditions. At the community level, seed banks are thought to buffer local diversity during periods of environmental change and are often studied in relation to the potential for passive habitat restoration. The role that seed banks play in plant population and community dynamics, as well as their importance in the agricultural sector, means that they have been widely studied in ecological research. This database is the result of a comprehensive literature search, including all seed bank studies from the Web of Science from which data could be extracted, as well as an additional search of the Russian language literature. The database contains information on the species richness, seed density, and/or seed abundance in 3096 records from at least 1929 locations across the world's seven continents, extracted from 1442 studies published between 1940 and 2020. Records are grouped into five broad habitat categories (aquatic, arable, forest, grassland—including shrubland—and wetland), including information relating to habitat degradation from, or restoration to other habitats (total 14 combinations). Sampling protocols were also extracted for each record, and the database was extensively checked for errors. The location of each record was then used to extract summary climate data and biome classification from external published databases. The database has several potential uses. The large geographical spread relative to many other global biodiversity datasets is relevant for investigating patterns of diversity in biogeographical or macroecological contexts. Habitat type and status (intact, degraded, and restored) can be used to provide insights for biodiversity conservation, while the potential effects of sampling method and effort can be used to inform optimized data collection for future seed bank studies. This database is released under the CC‐BY license.

中文翻译：

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土壤种子库丰富度、密度和丰度的全球数据库


土壤种子库是自然储存在土壤中的有活力种子的统称。在物种或种群水平上，形成种子库的能力代表了当地环境条件受到干扰或其他变化后（重新）定殖的策略。在群落层面，种子库被认为可以在环境变化期间缓冲当地的多样性，并且经常与被动栖息地恢复的潜力进行研究。种子库在植物种群和群落动态中的作用，以及它们在农业领域的重要性，意味着它们在生态学研究中得到了广泛的研究。该数据库是全面文献检索的结果，包括来自 Web of Science 的所有种子库研究，可以从中提取数据，以及对俄语文献的额外搜索。该数据库包含来自世界七大洲至少 1929 个地点的 3096 条记录中的物种丰富度、种子密度和/或种子丰度的信息，这些记录摘自 1940 年至 2020 年间发表的 1442 项研究。记录分为五大生境类别（水生、耕地、森林、草原（包括灌木丛）和湿地），包括与其他生境的生境退化或恢复相关的信息（共 14 种组合）。还提取了每条记录的抽样方案，并广泛检查了数据库是否存在错误。然后使用每条记录的位置从外部发布的数据库中提取摘要气候数据和生物群落分类。该数据库有几个潜在的用途。 相对于许多其他全球生物多样性数据集，地理分布较大，这与研究生物地理学或宏观生态背景下的多样性模式有关。栖息地类型和状态（完整、退化和恢复）可用于为生物多样性保护提供见解，而采样方法和努力的潜在影响可用于为未来种子库研究的优化数据收集提供信息。该数据库在 CC‐BY 许可下发布。