The aim of this web site is to provide a tool to identify seeds based on reference collections of pictures of
seed species.
The site should help both animal ecologists who work on diet of granivorous species and botanists, particularly those
quantifying seed banks. It offers the possibility to a novice engaged in stomach content analysis (of ducks
for example, see also Campredon et al. 1981) to find easily the family of the researched seed. Better
identification
(to species) could also be done using this tool or specialised books(Berggren 1969,1981 ; Anderberg 1994 for
example).
The reference collections were extracted from plants and stomach contents from coastal sites(Baie du Mont Saint-Michel,
Baie de Seine, Marais de Rochefort) and continental sites (Brenne, Dombes, Champagne humide). These collections
were made as part of
research programs into waterfowl diet led by the l'Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS) and the Centre d'Études
Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC / CNRS).
The study sites are in France but can be considered representative of NW European marshes and wet meadows (Santamaria, 2002).
While not exhaustive, the seed species list shows the most common seeds of European wet meadows.
The photographs presented here are stored in a database where the following information is available
:
-
Scientific name and English name
-
Magnification
-
Seed size
-
Origin
-
State of preservation
-
Picture quality
Authors of the reference collections :
-
Laurence Curtet (Dombes)
-
Jean-Baptiste Mouronval (Marne/Haute-Marne)
-
Muriel Daudon (Brenne)
-
Vincent Schricke (Baie du Mont-Saint Michel)
-
Martine Duhart & Pierre Legagneux (Baie de Seine, Marais de Rochefort & Brenne)
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