Estimating seed mass and volume from linear dimensions of seeds

Abstract

Seeds from eight species common in soil banks and covering two orders of magnitude of seed size were individually weighted and measured. Adopting simple but sound assumptions on seeds geometry, seed length and width together or not with thickness were found to be highly accurate estimators of seed mass and volume at intra- and inter-specific levels. Thereby, by abstracting the vast amount of published data of seed length and width, seed volume rather than seed mass only can be used to investigate ecological and functional aspects of seed size.