Dataset on early growth of cover crops in growth chamber

The data presented in this data paper describe the early growth of cover crop cultivated in growth chamber under non-limiting conditions. Seventeen species of four botanical groups were described after one month of growth. Traits related to plant growth and leaf area development were measured (five traits) and calculated (eight traits). This data set is made available to enable comparisons between dataset, extended analysis and meta-analysis on cover crop traits. The data presented in this article were used on the research article entitled “Leaf area development strategies of cover plants used in banana plantations identified from a set of plant traits’ [1].

calculated traits (aboveground leaf mass fraction, plant-scale specific leaf area, aboveground leaf area ratio), aboveground absolute and relative growth rates on a biomass basis and on a leaf area basis. Table  1 presents the list of the species names along with their taxonomic groups. Table 2 presents the list of traits along with their units. Fig. 1 represents the diversity of the values obtained for two traits (aboveground specific leaf at the leaf scale and aboveground relative growth rate) for the 17 species of the dataset.

Experimental design, materials, and methods
The study was conducted in a growth chamber located at the CIRAD experimental station of Neufchateau in Guadeloupe (French West Indies).
Seventeen cover crop species (Table 2) were grown for one month in pots of 2 L. Each species was grown in ten pots, and one individual per pot was maintained after cotyledons emergence. Details on pot filling materials, seed preparation before sowing and sowing are provided in Damour et al. [1]. The pots were conducted in non-limiting conditions for plant growth during the duration of the experiment: the soil was at field capacity, the air temperature was 24 C/22 C (day/night), the light intensity was maintained at 512 mmol photons m À2 s À1 of photosynthetic active radiation [see 1].
Seed mass (SM) was determined after seed oven-drying at 70 C until mass stabilization. When the first leaf was fully developed, five replicates of each species were harvested and pooled [see 1, for details on the harvest method]. The initial leaf area (LA 0 ) was measured with WinRhizo Pro analytical software (Regent Instruments) and the initial aboveground biomass (BM a,0 ) was determined after oven-drying of the whole aboveground parts (at 70 C until weight stabilization). After one month, the five remaining replicates of each species were harvested and pooled. Leaves and stems were separated. The total leaf area at one month (LA 1 ) was measured with WinRhizo Pro and the leaves and stems Specifications Table   Subject Agronomy, Plant growth and development Specific subject area Trait-based description of tropical cover crops growth. Type of data Value of the Data The data present plant and leaf traits of 17 species of cover crops and could be used by other researchers who need data on these species. The data enable other researchers to compare their own data with this dataset and to extent their analysis. These data could be used in meta-analysis on cover crop traits.
biomasses were determined after oven-drying (at 70 C until weight stabilization). The aboveground biomass at one month (BM a,1 ) was calculated as the sum of the leaf and stem biomasses. Eight functional traits associated to leaf area development were then calculated [1]. The plant-scale leaf specific area (SLA ps ) was calculated as the ratio of the total leaf area and the total leaf mass. The aboveground leaf mass fraction (LMF a ) was calculated as the ratio between the leaf mass and the total aboveground mass. The aboveground leaf area ratio (LAR a ) was calculated as the product of SLA ps and LMF a . The aboveground absolute growth rate was calculated both on a biomass basis and on a leaf area basis (AGR a , AGR as respectively), using the equations: AGR a ¼ (BM a,1 e BM a,0 )/(t 1 -t 0 ) (1) The aboveground relative growth rate was calculated both on a biomass basis and on a leaf area basis (RGR a , RGR as respectively), using the equations: RGR a ¼ [ln(BM a,1 ) e ln(BM a,0 )]/(t 1 -t 0 ) (3)