Data from: Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity

Human land-use legacies have long-term effects on plant community composition andecosystem function. While ancient and historical land-use is known to affect biodiversitypatterns, it is unknown whether such legacies affect other plant community propertiessuch as the diversity of functional traits. Functional traits are a critical tool forunderstanding ecological communities because they give insights into communityassembly processes as well as potential species interactions and other ecosystemfunctions. Here, we present the first systematic study evaluating how plant functional traitdistributions and functional diversity are affected by ancient and historical Indigenousforest management in the Pacific Northwest. We compare forest garden ecosystems —managed perennial fruit and nut communities associated exclusively with archaeologicalvillage sites — with surrounding periphery conifer forests. We find that forest gardenshave substantially greater plant and functional trait diversity than periphery forests evenmore than 150 years after management ceased. Forests managed by Indigenous peoplesin the past now provide diverse resources and habitat for animals and pollinators and aremore productive than naturally forested ecosystems. Although ecological studies rarelyincorporate Indigenous land-use legacies, the positive effects of Indigenous land-use oncontemporary functional and taxonomic diversity that we observe provide some of thestrongest evidence yet that Indigenous management practices are tied to ecosystem healthand resilience.