DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ps7jt5b
title: Data from: Colonial history impacts urban tree species distribution in a tropical city

description: Urban forests associated with green infrastructure for sustainable
 outcomes are particularly critical in the Global South, where some of the
 world’s fastest-growing cities are located. However, compared to temperate
 cities, the drivers of urban tree species distribution in tropical cities
 remain understudied. In this study, we quantify the spatial distribution
 and abundance of urban forests in the tropical city of Georgetown, Guyana.
 British colonialism has shaped this city, including forced movement of
 peoples under slavery from Africa and indentured servants from the Indian
 Subcontinent. We studied how this multicultural context has influenced
 tree species distributions in the capital city of the only Anglophone
 country in South America. We quantified the abundance of tree species
 using a stratified sampling design to distribute transects across fifteen
 neighborhoods that vary in distance to the colonial center of the city and
 ethnic composition. We recorded a total of 57 unique species, the majority
 of which (73%) were cultivated for their edible fruits. We identify tree
 species that likely represent Guyana’s unique multicultural heritage by
 comparing our species list to flora in nine cities in neighboring
 countries (Venezuela and Brazil) with different colonial histories. This
 international comparison identified a set of tree species that occurred
 only in Guyana. Relationships between ethnic composition and colonial
 history and tree species distribution were weak at the neighborhood scale,
 where proportion of East Indian residents had little explanatory power and
 distance to colonial center was correlated with abundance of only some
 species groups. This apparent discrepancy between neighborhood and
 national scales may relate to the establishment of Guyanese food as a
 unifying national identifier across ethnicities. The prominence of edible
 fruit trees in our study suggests a set of species that could be
 incorporated into urban planning to strengthen biocultural linkages,
 foster cultural integration, and promote food security.
description: Tree species abundance
 in Georgetown GuyanaThese data represent the
 abundance of tree species in Georgetown Guyana. Individual trees with
 diameter at breast height (1.3 m) greater than 7 cm were counted in 45
 transects with dimensions of 200 m in length and 60 m in width (30 m on
 each side). The Species column represents species identification,
 Abundance represents counts of each species wihtin each transect,
 Transect.No. represents a unique identifier for each transect,
 Transect.Type represents whether transects were commercial or residential,
 No.of.Buildings represents number of buildings within a transect,
 total.BA.m2 represents total basal area of all trees in a transect in
 square meters, total.crownArea.m2 represents the crown area of all tree
 species in a transect in square meters, Proportion.East.Indian represents
 proportion of residents of East Indian ancestry in neighborhoods
 containing transects, Origin.code represents the origin of tree species,
 Use.Acronym represents use of trees (C=cultivated for edible products,
 WP=wild plant, OR=ornamental), and Unique.to.Guyana represents whether the
 species was present in floristic inventories of Brazilian and Venezuelan
 cities (present in other cities=0, absent from other
 cities=1).Georgetown_tree_species_abundance.csv