This dataset contains data from a systematic review carried out to understand substrate sodium's influence on plant growth and sodium accumulation strategies.  Accordingly, we carried out a systematic review of plants’ responses to variation in substrate sodium concentrations. We compared biomass and tissue-sodium accumulation among 107 cultivars or populations (67 species in 20 plant families), broadly expanding beyond the agricultural and model taxa for which several generalizations previously had been made. We hypothesized a priori response models for each population’s growth and sodium accumulation as a function of increasing substrate NaCl and used Bayesian Information Criterion to choose the best model. Additionally, using a phylogenetic signal analysis, we tested for phylogenetic patterning of responses across taxa. The influence of substrate sodium on growth differed across taxa, with most populations experiencing detrimental effects at high concentrations. Irrespective of growth responses, tissue sodium concentrations for most taxa increased as sodium concentration in the substrate increased. We found no strong associations between type of growth response and type of sodium accumulation response across taxa. Although experiments often fail to test plants across a sufficiently broad range of substrate salinities, non-crop species tended toward higher sodium tolerance than domesticated species. Moreover, some phylogenetic conservatism was apparent, in that evolutionary history helped predict the distribution of total-plant growth responses across the phylogeny, but not sodium accumulation responses. Our study reveals that saltier plants in saltier soils prove to be a broadly general pattern for sodium across plant taxa. Regardless of growth responses, sodium accumulation mostly followed an increasing trend as substrate sodium levels increased.

This dataset was collected from 48 studies and incorporated raw data dorm 107 populations, in 66 species across 20 plant families. We used a PRISMA protocol to perform a systematic search in Web of Science add rigorously selected articles that fitted our selection criteria. The dataset has 8 tables that are described as follow: 

• Supporting Information S1: Figure S1: Populations’ responses to increasing substrate NaCl concentrations. Above- (a) and belowground (b) relative biomass growth responses across NaCl treatments for each population sampled in the study. Negative and positive values represent a growth inhibition or an increase, respectively, in growth relative to control NaCl substrate concentrations.  Also, the effect of NaCl treatments on above- (c) and belowground (d) sodium accumulation across increasing NaCl substrate concentrations for each population. The main data shown cover the range from 0 to 600 mM treatments of NaCl. An inset with the complete dataset and treatments is included with each panel. Colors represent the responses that describe biomass growth and sodium accumulation responses, as in Tables 1 and 2.
• Supporting Information: Table S1: Summary of populations’ responses. Each population response was classified using a model selection approach related to a priori predictions. 
• Supporting Information: Table S2: Compiled data used for phylogenetic signal analysis.
• Supporting Information: Table S3: Biomass growth raw data extracted from each study for each population considered in the study.  
• Supporting Information: Table S4: Sodium accumulation raw data extracted from each study for each population considered in the study.  
• Supporting Information: Table S5: Model Selection results for each population response for biomass growth. AIC, AICc, and BIC results for each population are recorded here along with likelihood, delta, and weights for each model.
• Supporting information: Table S6: Model Selection results for each population response for sodium accumulation. AIC, AICc, and BIC results for each population are recorded here along with likelihood, delta, and weights for each model.
• Supporting Information: Table S7: Model selection responses for biomass growth for above- and belowground tissues. Only BIC results are included along with likelihood, delta, and weight for each model.  
• Supporting Information: Table S8: Model selection responses for sodium accumulation for above- and belowground tissues. Only BIC results are included along with likelihood, delta, and weight for each model.