Patterns and drivers of spontaneous plant diversity in urban wastelands across 17 cities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is ecologically significant due to its unique biodiversity and vulnerability to climate change and rapid urbanization. Among its emerging urban habitats, wastelands with relatively low anthropogenic disturbances offer key refuges and stepping-stones for spontaneous plants. However, the patterns and drivers of spontaneous plant diversity in these habitats remain poorly understood. To address this, we surveyed spontaneous plant communities across 17 cities on the QTP. We found that native species dominated urban wasteland flora (85.8%), whereas invasive species constituted over half (65.8%) of the non-native species. The results showed that land-use legacy effects and environmental filtering to shape community assembly. GLMM analyses further reveal that the climatic background constitutes a key factor shaping community diversity variations across the QTP, exerting the most significant influence on species richness, particularly through precipitation and win..., Environmental variables So, environmental variables, including climatic factors, urbanization metrics, and habitat quality, were collected to assess the drivers of spontaneous plant species diversity in urban wastelands. We consider two primary factors from classic climate characteristics: temperature and moisture. Additionally, we account for the unique conditions of high altitudes. Therefore, our climatic indices include: Mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT), total annual solar radiation (TAR), and mean annual wind speed (MAW). Urbanization intensity was represented by seven metrics, including gross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capital (RGDP), and population density (PD), human activity intensity (HAI), urban population (UP), impervious surface ratio within a 500 m buffer surrounding each wasteland (Sealed.wl, it reflects the land-use patterns surrounding the wasteland and the impact of edge effects, thereby providing an indication of the availability of g..., # Data from: Patterns and drivers of spontaneous plant diversity in urban wastelands across 17 cities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9sst](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9sst) ## Description of the data and file structure This dataset was developed to support a comprehensive analysis of the composition, alpha diversity, and beta diversity of spontaneous plant communities in urban wastelands, as well as their environmental drivers, with a particular emphasis on disentangling the effects of environmental gradients on species of different origins (invasive, native, non-native and total). The dataset integrates field survey data, species traits and taxonomic information, along with a range of environmental variables derived from remote sensing, statistical yearbooks, and geospatial analyses. It can be used to examine community composition, multi-scale biodiversity patterns (alpha and beta diversity), and the influences of climate, urbanization, and hab..., ,