DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9633
title: Biodiversity dataset of vascular plants and birds in Chinese urban greenspace

description: Urban greenspace plays an important role in buffering the threat of
 urbanization to biodiversity. Biodiversity research in urban green spaces
 is essential for understanding the impacts of human activities on
 biodiversity and the associated ecosystem functioning and services in
 urban ecosystems. However, we lack large-scale biodiversity datasets in
 urban green spaces for macroecological studies. In this paper, we provided
 a comprehensive biodiversity dataset of vascular plant and bird species in
 286 university campuses and 118 urban parks in 143 cities in China,
 covering a wide range with different levels of urbanization (20–50°N in
 latitude and 81–130°E in longitude). Plant species were classified into
 different growth forms, and bird species were identified as resident or
 migrant. In total, the dataset contains 46,558 occurrence records for
 5,915 plant species (about 18% of all Chinese vascular plant species) and
 6,423 records for 546 bird species (around 40% of all recorded bird
 species in China). This dataset provides an important data source for
 evaluating the anthropogenic effects of biodiversity changes and advancing
 urban ecology.
description: For biodiversity data, we conducted a literature search to
 collect the plant and bird list data in university campuses and urban
 parks. For the environmental variables of campus and
 urban parks, we extracted geographic coordinates, area, established years,
 and elevations from the relevant primary data sources.
 To standardize the taxonomic names of plants, we followed The
 Plant List v1.1, and to validate the taxonomic names of birds, we referred
 to the data from a checklist on the classification and distribution of the
 birds of China.
description: # Biodiversity dataset of vascular plants and birds in Chinese urban
 greenspace Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9633](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9633) ##
 Description of the data and file structure We classified the species into
 different groups based on their life history characteristics. For plants,
 the growth forms of plant species were classified into trees, shrubs, and
 herbs. We also classified the plant species into native and non-native
 species. For birds, migrant statuses were grouped into “resident” or
 “migrant”. Bird survey times of university campuses and urban parks were
 recorded from the relevant primary data sources. ### Files and variables
 #### File: Bird_List.xlsx **Description:** The table ‘Bird_List’ includes
 the scientific names of each campus or park's birds and bird migrant
 status (‘resident’ or ‘migrant’). #### File: Plant_List.xlsx
 **Description:** The table ‘Plant_List’ contains the scientific names of
 each university campus, plant growth forms (‘tree’, ‘shrub’, and ‘herb’),
 and plant species status (indicating whether the plant species is native
 or non-native to the area). #### File: Locality_Infor.xlsx
 **Description:** The table ‘Locality_Infor’ provides the geographic
 coordinates, area (size of the locality or study area, measured in
 hectares (ha)), established year (year in which the site or campus was
 established), and elevations (height above sea level of the locality). And
 survey time of birds for all campuses and parks.