Adaptive evolution of a dominant plant species promotes spontaneous restoration of the plant community in a Pb-Zn mining area abandoned for 70 years

This dataset supports the research article “Adaptive evolution of a dominant plant species promotes spontaneous restoration of the plant community in a Pb-Zn mining area abandoned for 70 years”, published in Journal of Applied Ecology. The dataset contains measurements of plant functional traits, community characteristics, soil properties, and heavy metal concentrations collected from a Pb-Zn mining area abandoned for approximately 70 years. These data were used to investigate the adaptive responses of the dominant plant species Artemisia lavandulifolia and its role in the spontaneous restoration of the plant community. The dataset includes the following components: • A. lavandulifolia_HMs_abg_belg: Heavy metal concentrations in the above- and below-ground tissues of A. lavandulifolia. • A. lavandulifolia community: Species diversity, functional diversity, and biomass indicators of the A. lavandulifolia community. • A. lavandulifolia: Functional traits of A. lavandulifolia. • Bulk soil (BS): Physicochemical properties, nutrient contents, enzyme activities, and total and available heavy metal concentrations in bulk soil associated with A. lavandulifolia. • Community level soil: Physicochemical properties, nutrient contents, enzyme activities, and total and available heavy metal concentrations in community-level soil. • HMs_pollution_level: Total concentrations of heavy metals across different pollution levels, together with the control (CK). • Root-zone soil (RS): Physicochemical properties, nutrient contents, enzyme activities, and total and available heavy metal concentrations in the root-zone soil of A. lavandulifolia. Together, these datasets provide comprehensive information on the functional traits of A. lavandulifolia, plant community characteristics, soil properties, and heavy metal contamination, supporting the analyses and conclusions presented in the published article.