Data for: Ancient sedimentary DNA shows more than 5000 years of continuous beaver occupancy in Grand Teton National Park

Beaver-based restoration is emerging as a cost-effective conservation and climate adaptation strategy, but efforts are constrained by limited knowledge of pre-colonial beaver distribution and their long-term ecosystem impacts. Here, we apply sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) techniques to investigate the history of beaver occupancy at three lakes in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, over the last ~10 ka, as well as interactions with the local plant community. To investigate change in the vascular plant community, extracts were PCR amplified using barcode primers targeting the trnL P6 loop of the plant chloroplast genome with five replicates per DNA extract. A barcode targeting the 16S region of the mammalian mitochondrial genome (16SmammP007) was also amplified and sequenced from a subset of samples to validate beaver presence results from the species-species qPCR assay. trnL metabarcoding showed differing plant communities in the two lower-elevation lakes as compared to the higher elevation lakes, with mid-Holocene shifts in the plant community coinciding with both local beaver establishment (as indicated by species-specific qPCR results) and regional climatic changes trending towards wetter conditions. 16S metabarcoding yielded sporadic detections of a limited number of mammalian taxa, but confirmed beaver detection from the species-species qPCR assay.